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HARTINGTON — A new school board member was sworn into office and a veteran board member was re-elected President at Monday's Hartington-Newcastle School Board meeting.
Brett Wiedenfeld was sworn into office to begin his four-year term on the board. Wiedenfeld replaces Dana Rosener who decided not to seek another term in office after over 20 years on the Newcastle and then the Hartington-Newcastle School Board.
Jason Dendinger was also re-elected as board president. Dendinger has served on the local school board since 2002, serving as board president for most of his tenure.
The officer election was just part of the annual re-organizational meeting.
Ian Lange was elected vice president of the board. Rosener had served in that role her entire term on the board. Candace Climer was then re-elected as board secretary.
Also as part of the annual reorganization meeting, Supt. A.J. Johnson was reappointed as the official attendance officer and as the federal programs director for District 8. Business manager Tina Opfer was re-appointed as school district treasurer.
Perry, Guthery, Haase and Gessford, KSB Law Firm was appointed as the school district's attorney, while the Cedar County News and Omaha World Herald were appointed as official legal newspapers and Bank of Hartington, Security Bank, Cedar Security Bank and Farmer's and Merchants State Bank were all appointed as the official depository.
Dendinger told board members he would like to wait until the next meeting before finalizing committee assignments. This will give board members a chance to determine if they would like to stay on their current committees and gives the new board member a chance to see on which committees he might want to serve.
Also Monday, the board learned a new, smaller van arrived Friday and is now being used. The van was needed to stay in compliance with federal regulations mandating vans used to transport students must have a maximum capacity of 10 passengers. The school currently has three vans - all three will need to be replaced as the regulations also make it very difficult to retrofit current 12-passenger vans down to a 10-passenger van, Johnson said.
Johnson also told the board the ceiling baffles for increased sound proofing in the new elementary school gym should be installed in February.
Gemini Accoustical of Sioux Falls, S.D., will install 1,200 square feet of material to be used as ceiling baffles. They hope to do the work Feb. 17, which is President's Day, a day students will be out of school.
Johnson also said the Board's Transportation Committee will have to meet this month to discuss the possibility of selling three vehicles, a 2006 Chevy Malibu that is no longer needed, the school van, which was just replaced and a school bus that will be replaced next month or in March.
The Board also decided Monday to sell old school uniforms for $1 each. They hope to set up a table before a basketball game and sell the uniforms to students, Whatever is not sold will be discarded.
'They are old, and will never be used again. A lot of them just aren't in good shape,' Johnson said.
The Board then went into executie session to discuss the superintendent's contract.
The next Hartington-Newcastle School Board meeting will be Feb. 10 at 5:30 p.m.
