HURON — The Huron School Board held its first meeting of the new fiscal year, with David Wheeler selected as the Board Chairperson and Garret Bischoff chosen to serve as the Vice-Chairperson for the 2018-19 school year.
Three student board members, Jasmine Snow, Frank Hines and Sophia Ledeneva, all senior representatives, were welcomed to serve on the board this year.
“I want to take a moment to recognize the student board members. Thank you, all three of you, for agreeing to serve on the School Board,” Wheeler said.
“Welcome, and we are glad you are here,” Superintendent Terry Nebelsick added.
As the first meeting in July, the board reviewed several disclosures to ensure contracts are fair to all and lawful, all of which were approved.
“This being the annual organizational meeting, we have several annual disclosures,” Wheeler explained.
Yearly policies and housekeeping tasks were also reviewed in the consent agenda, which was passed in one motion.
Designations include:
• Kelly Christopherson to remain as Business Manager,
• School Board meeting dates will be the second and fourth Mondays of the month with some holiday exceptions,

• set salary for board members at $70 per meeting excluding the Chairman/Vice-Chairman who will receive $75, and
• the Huron Daily Plainsman will remain the official newspaper for the school district among other designations.
The board aso approved the annual publication of school policies, travel expense rates, early release days, plus much more which is available to view in the meeting agenda on the Huron School District website.
The Superintendents report visited the subject of openings for employees in the district, which can be found on the school’s website also. CPR training/recertification for specific staff members and the new graduation credit requirements.
“I will be traveling to Pierre to testify on behalf of the governor on the new graduation credit requirements,”  Nebelsick said. “I am a strong supporter of what the governor is trying to do in order to address the workforce initiative.
“These graduation requirements will specify, that if you think you’re going to college, this is the track that you must take in order to reach those proficiencies.”
Nebelsick extended congratulations to members of the district, including new Vice-Chairperson Garret Bischoff for being named to the ASBSD Board of Directors.  
“Special congratulations to our board member Garret Bischoff,” Nebelsick said. “He has been named a Director of the Associated School Boards of South Dakota, which is the governing board for your association of school boards across the state.”
Christopherson explained the general fund in the budget report, and the funds that were saved from the capital outlay fund to assist in reaching the budget goals.
“We turn our attention this time of year to the general fund balance, it’s too early to know exactly where we are, but it looks like we will be approximately $8-9,000 over budget,” Chrisopherson explained.
“As we remember back to count day in September, we realized that our enrollment fell below the projected number. Then we committed to saving some money out of the capital outlay budget so we could cover the general fund at the end of the year, and I feel that we will accomplish this.”
The annual school budget for the 2018-19 year, which was previously approved, is a total of $31,385,000, including all budgets, compared to last year’s budget, which was a total of $30,436,000, while the general fund was $19,405,000.
“All the tax levies went down by 0.33 percent this year,” said Manager Kelly Christopherson. “There were no major changes this year.”
The majority of the total budget comes from the general fund, which is a total of $20,300,000 this year, and includes salaries, social security, retirement, travel, repairs/maintenance, life insurance, workers compensation plus more expenditures.
Other funds this year that make up the total budget are the capital outlay fund at $3,484,000. Of this, $4,360,000 goes to the special education fund, the building fund at $5,000, the elementary bond redemption fund is $1,423,000, food service totals $1,630,000 of the budget and $183,000 makes up the enterprise fund.
The schools vision statement was approved by the board to be changed to “RESPECT — PRIDE — EXCELLENCE FOR ALL.” As discussed at previous board meetings, the new statement will match the words on the district logo in the branding initiative.
Also highlighted at the meeting was the annual surplus auction, which will be held at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday at the Transportation building. The first day of school for grades one through 12 is set for Tuesday, Sep. 4, while Monday, Sept. 10 marks the first day of school for kindergarten. Homecoming will take place on Friday, Sept. 21.
The next School Board meeting will be held at 5:30 p.m. on Monday, Aug. 13, in the Instructional Planning Center at Huron Arena.

PHOTO BY ANGELINA DELLA ROCCO/PLAINSMAN
The Huron District School Board members, the Superintendent and Business Manager, gathered in front of the new gold “Huron School District,” letters in the Instructional Planning Center on Monday evening to hold the first meeting of the fiscal year. From left, in back are, Terry Nebelsick, Garret Bischoff, David Wheeler, Tim Van Berkum, Shelly Siemonsma and Kelly Christopherson; and in front, Frank Hines, Craig Lee, Jasmine Snow and Sophia Ledeneva.