School board changes 2026 graduation date
- Tea Weekly Staff
- 46 minutes ago
- 2 min read
The Tea Area School Board met March 31 for the second time in March.
At this meeting, they discussed moving the graduation date in the 2025-26 school year from Saturday to Sunday. Superintendent Jennifer Lowery said the ESD Conference track meet will be May 16, 2026, which was the same day the district had scheduled graduation. She noted that the ESD Conference track meet this year will be the same day as graduation, but the district did not realize that until it was too late. The good news is the track meet is close by this year, but it will be in Watertown next year. The board approved the graduation date change to May 17, 2026.
The board approved the resignations of Peter Boeve for transportation, Ashlynn Olson for Frontier second grade, Stephanie Russett for middle school track and Allison Trapp for Frontier kindergarten effective at the end of the year and the resignations of Rosalie Evans for custodian/transportation and Erica Boterman as TASK aide.
They approve the new hires of Ericka Ackmann for head football sideline cheer, competitive cheer, split contract, Kami Cornemann for elementary special education TLR counselor, Todd Gannon as welding/manufacturing instructor, Skills USA, assistant middle school wrestling, Polly Gill for assistant volleyball junior varsity, Taryn Helgeson for middle school oral interp, Kaitlin Kuhnert for ninth grade girls soccer, Kylie Lottman for head football sideline cheer, competitive cheer, split contract, Brooke Palleschi as PAC coordinator, Michelle Zolnowsky for transportation and Bailey Zwahr as special education teacher.
They also had one transfer of Nicole Hyronimus from TLR behavior Pprogram counselor to Frontier school counselor.
The board held the first reading for Policy GCDB. According the CDI audit, the district is not authorized to take fingerprints and run background checks on volunteers since they are not employed by the district. Lowery said they are working on how to make sure level 3 volunteers are safe to be around youth. Most volunteers in level 3 would be volunteer coaches and chaperones on the music trip. They will look at the policy again at the April board meeting.
They went into executive session at 5:36 p.m. for employee contract negotiations and personnel.