MONROE — The School District of Monroe Board of Education met Oct. 9 at the Bauer Center and opened proceedings by honoring the first group of Excellence in Education award winners for this school year. 

Almost immediately afterward, the board rescinded Dr. Tracy Pierner’s status as library trustee, which had been approved by the board at the previous meeting two weeks prior. Library director Suzanne Holland took ownership of the snafu. When she was emailing the application documents to administration approve the two newest library trustees, one of the documents was a separate piece about Pierner, who was not one of the two recommended for the post.

“It was just a clerical error of dragging the wrong file. And Dr. Pierner thinks it’s funny and is teasing me about it,” Holland explained to the school board. In his place, Gary Neuenschwander was approved. Neuenschwander has been on the board before and played a vital role with the library’s renovation project.

The board also approved an early graduation request, multiple “Start College Now” requests, and the library’s tax exemption status.

“It’s an annual thing we do,” Business Administrator Ron Olson said of the tax exemption.

Olson also identified the need to go into further short-term bonding of the new high school project to help stave off rising inflation numbers. The money used to invest is from already matured bonds from this past year, meaning it is a reinvestment and not new money.

“We have maturities that have already come due, and we haven’t really spent any money. We have a pool of money available to re-invest and latter out to the back end,” Olson said. 

The board approved the plan. The plan could bring the revenue up to about $6.9 million, an improvement of about 3.5%, and would mature in September 2025, when about than 90% of the project should be completed.

“The bottom line is we will get more (money) than if we do nothing,” Olson said.

Mike Huffman and Carl Kraemer of Huffman Keel were introduced at the board meeting the owner’s representatives approved by the board last month to oversee the new MHS building project. Ryan Burton, development manager, will also work closely with the board.

The School District of Monroe’s annual meeting is scheduled for 5 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 16. The meeting will include a budget hearing for the 2023-24 school year, and seek authorization of the 2023-24 tax levy, among a variety of other authorizations. The full agenda can be accessed on the school’s website, monroeschools.com.