New scoreboards, bleachers discussed by PdC School Board
By Ted Pennekamp
The Prairie du Chien School Board discussed the scoreboards and bleachers for the new fieldhouse at the high school at its regular meeting Monday night.
The district will be hiring an electrician to do the wiring, and is hoping to get the scoreboards installed by August, but most likely, the scoreboards will be installed in September.
The district has been working with Daktronics for the scoreboards, but all contracts for the lease agreement with the financial company have not been signed yet, said District Administrator Robert Smudde. The contracts are in the works and should be completed by the end of the week.
Daktronics is based in Brookings, S.D., and designs, manufactures, sells and services video displays, scoreboards, digital billboards, dynamic message signs, sound systems, and related products. The company is known for its electronic LED displays.
Smudde said the district is not to the point where it has all the information yet.
“Essentially we have been able to fundraise the amount needed to make payments on the scoreboards and bleachers for the new gymnasium,” said Smudde. “However, nothing is scheduled yet, so we won’t have any details until the contract gets finalized with our legal counsel.”
The district needs bleachers for at least 2,000 people in order to host some regional and sectional athletic events in the new fieldhouse.
In other business, the board elected the school board officials. Lonnie Achenbach was unanimously selected to remain as president of the board. Nick Gilberts will be the vice president. Cassie Hubanks will be the clerk and Lynn O’Kane will be the treasurer.
The formation of a new substance abuse prevention program was discussed by the board and will be implemented in the future. It was noted that the Sources of Strength program deals in part with the mental health aspect of substance abuse, but the new preventative program will be its own entity.
“We would like to reach students before the age of 10,” said Smudde, in noting that that is the reality in today’s world. “We want to catch it on the front end rather than after the fact.”
In further business, it was noted that the Prairie du Chien School District has been successful regarding open enrollment for next school year. The board approved of the current figures of 32 students open enrolling in and 10 out. Smudde said if the figures hold, there will be a total of 125 students open enrolled in for 2019-2020 and 41 out. He said state aid is projected to be approximately $8,000 per student for 2019-2020. Board President Lonnie Achenbach said the open enrollment net gain is good news for the school district, which had the opposite kind of numbers just a few years ago.
