PRESCOTT – New Supt. Jim Reif began the Aug. 20 Prescott School Board meeting by introducing the district’s theme for the year: “Every Cardinal Now:” Everyone working together to meet the needs of all students, no matter where they’re at.

One way to do that is to make sure quality staff is in place to meet students' needs.

“The board and the district has done a lot of work in the last year to improve staff salaries across the board,” Reif said.

To that note, the board will next address co-curricular and extracurricular stipends, which hasn’t been looked at in three to four years, Reif said. The topic will come back to the board in January.

“We were committed when the referendum passed to study all different aspects of how we pay staff and personnel within our district,” Board Vice President Tanya Holub said. “We’ve really focused on our day-to-day staff, our licensed staff, the staff that are in our buildings throughout the days working with our kids and this is one of the next steps for us.”

Related to that mission, the board voted to raise substitute teacher rates from $150 to $170 per day, and for long-term and veteran certified staff from $160 to $180 per day. While not up to the $200 per day rate of River Falls, it keeps Prescott ahead of Spring Valley and Ellsworth, Reif said.

“The biggest thing is we hope that the people who are retired from here and are lifelong Cardinals will stay here if we get them a little bit more appropriate compensation,” Reif said.

The board agreed it’s important to keep the people who taught in Prescott here, offering continuity to students and rewarding loyalty. The increase is expected to cost the district about $20,000 this year, which Reif said fits into the forecasted budget.

The board moved onto a first reading of updates to several district policies, which will come back to the board for a final vote on Sept. 10.

Reif said several simple language adjustments are being made, such as “he/she” becoming “they” and staying current with state statute changes. Any actual policy changes that need to be adopted are still considered “minor” or “commonsense,” Reif said. Examples include the definition of a school district, naming a Smartwatch as a communication device, or making sure someone has actually read a book if they want to appeal the book.

“That is one I fully support,” Reif said. “If you’re going to complain about a book, you should have read it.”

Significant policy changes include:

• Policy 5411 – Third grade promotion and retention – at-risk students. Defines what information must be turned over to parents.
• Policy 5464 – Early graduation. Gives high school principal the authority to grant early graduation if the student meets district requirements.

“The other option is to give that to the district administrator or the school board, but the high school principal is going to know that kid’s situation the best, so we want to give him that opportunity,” Reif said.

• Policy 5505 – Academic honesty. Addresses restrictions on AI use among students and at the administration team’s request, the ability of the principal to give an exemption due to the constantly changing nature of AI. Teachers will be given specific guidelines on AI use, and if a project or assignment uses AI and that use is not outlined in the guidelines, the teacher can then seek approval from the principal.
• Policy 8390 – Animals on district property. Adds section on therapy dogs (which doesn’t currently exist) which will allow the district to monitor and enforce the policy making sure therapy dogs are being used for the right reasons; authority will reside with the principal.

“To be 100% transparent, I do have a therapy dog named Hank, that with principal approval and board approval, I would like to like to bring to campus every once in a while, to frankly, promote the benefits of having a therapy dog in school,” Reif said. “

• Policy 8500 – Food services. Changes at state and federal levels on negative account balances, can now move to a charity account. Also, if a student expresses a food allergy, staff meets it until it has documentation, which has been the district’s practice.
• Policy 9151 – Use of cameras and other recording devices in locker rooms. Currently, the district bans reporters from locker rooms; however, that doesn’t extend to events held offsite. This policy extends that rule to any locker room a district team is renting/using.

The board next went over changes made to the 2025-26 employee handbook.

Significant changes to the employee handbook include:

• Banning staff from wearing clothing promoting alcohol and drugs, which has not been a problem, Reif said. No one can wear their Leinie’s T-shirt for casual Friday. Holub would like to see guns added to this.
• Put per diem meal rates in line with the state, including $10 for breakfast, $14 for lunch and $23 for dinner. Makes it so staff doesn’t have to chase down receipts and wrangle over prices.
• Certified staff salary schedule and extracurricular pay schedule.
• Increasing life insurance from $10,000 to $25,000 and offering optional vision insurance.
• Clarifies requirements of all extended contracts to be approved annually by the district administrator. This includes school counselors who work into the summer, etc.
• New support staff wage scale.
• Bus drivers will receive a $13.50 meal per diem at events, an increase of $2.

Other business

• PSD collaborated with Prescott Police Department to feed about 500 people at National Night Out; about 160 people participated in the inaugural Color Run.
• PHS student Cadyn Hillebrand will join the school board next month as the new student representative.
• A new Cardinal Champion Award will be given out each school board meeting to staff, students, parents or community members (recommended by administration) to acknowledge people who go above and beyond for students each month.
• School Resource Officer Beau Jacobson said a goal for this year is more parent engagement, especially in learning about what their children are exposed to online.
• The board approved the following hires: Emilia Krueger (fourth grade teacher), Amy Nadeau (PHS special education teacher), Margaret Raihla (speech language pathologist), Amy Marquardt (PMS cross categorial teacher), Ronald Porter Jr. (second grade teacher)
• The board approved the resignation of second grade teacher Dina Anderson.
• The next school board meeting will be held at 6 p.m. Sept. 10 in the PHS Library. The annual meeting will take place at 6 p.m. Sept. 24 in the same location.

Public comment

District employee and parent Katy Hillebrand spoke during public comment time, thanking the board for their support of the annual Lac du Flambeau trip and supporting staff in reaching their goals.

“I said to somebody today, this is my 10^th year in the district and where we have come in 10 years,” she said. “If you remember where we were and where our numbers are now and the hard work that it’s taken to get there and the fact that you people are sitting here in August. You’ve been here all through the summer, our administrators have been here all through the summer … The fact that over these years you have trusted and empowered the administrators in the district to reach your goals and have lifted them up to do it…both as an employee, because I know you guys are working for me, and as a parent, because I know I have a kid that wants to go to some big schools, and we’re proud of her, and she’s getting there because of all of everybody that’s getting her to that point. It means a lot.”