MONROE — At their regular School District of Monroe Board of Education meeting on Aug. 26, board members approved three bids in Bid Package 4 for the new MHS project, watched a video on its progress, and received reports from the director of pupil services and the district nurse.

The board approved a bid package for waterproofing at $64,000 over budget but also approved the doors, frames and hardware job for $125,000 under budget.

“Don’t get too emotionally tied up to a number on a line item because the next one you may be really excited about,” said Ryan Burton of Huffman Keel, the owner’s representative for the project. “There’s going to be some of those adjustments ... that will ebb and flow ... above or below that schematic design.”

The board also approved Otis for its elevator bid at $29,000 under budget. 

Later in the meeting, the board members watched a fly-over drone video made by CG Schmidt of the progress made so far this summer on the new school site, as well as a short 10-second clip of hundreds of small dynamite exploding the rock under the foundation site. Both videos are available to view on the district’s website and Facebook page.

According to district nurse Dana Kundert, the 2023-24 school year saw a drop in office visits for health reasons at every school compared to the year before. There were also a lower number of total encounters last school year than the year before across all buildings, with 2022-23 seeing just over 24,000 compared to under 21,000 for 2023-24.

There were 1,167 days  where students were sent home for illness last year — down from 1,310 the year before — with every school down from the year before except for the high school, which saw an increase from 212 to 365. Kundert was unsure on the specifics of the anomaly, but did remind the board there had been a stomach bug that hit MHS, and those students were sent home when they showed symptoms.

Vaccination compliance, which Kundert said isn’t about the COVID-19 vaccine, but rather regular vaccines for diseases like hepatitis to tetanus, had a rate of 97.08% compliance — higher than then 95% from 2022-23. There were 68 waivers and 64 non-compliant cases out of the 2,191 students in the district.

She added that there will be health assistants at Parkside and Northside this year, and training was held for all secretaries and other staff that will step in to assist with medical needs of students in the health office at all buildings. The health department was one of those worst hit by cuts earlier this year, as the district faced a shortfall of more than $1 million. Kundert also said she will be making regular rounds to all the buildings during the school year and will be available to each school as needed.

In his pupil services report, Joe Monroe discussed how the district fared in its 80-50 goals, as well as how the district scored a 25 out of 30 with its 2023-24 IDEA Determinations report, which tracks those with special needs in areas like math and English Language proficiency, participation, educational environment at various levels, compliance and drop-out rates. A district can score a 0, 1 or 2. Essentially, a 0 is a failing score, 1 means needing improvement and 2 is passing. Monroe scored eleven 2s, three 1s and a single 0 from its preschool transitions.

Monroe also has a high population percentage (more than 15%) of students with special education disabilities than the state average, in part because it is the largest school in an otherwise rural area of the state. Oftentimes, students with special needs will come from other districts to Monroe for services.