The regular board meeting of the Langford Area School District was held last Wednesday. During the public comment section, Activities Director Brett Gibbs and football coaches Michael Alberts and Pat Sayler were present to discuss the Junior High Football season. They are struggling with numbers to sustain a team. Superintendent Shad Storley noted that they are currently practicing and have games scheduled but will have to take it week to week.
Later in the meeting, the board also approved a formal request to be made to the South Dakota High School Activities Association for six-man football. The possibility of establishing six-man football in the state had been explored by the Activities Association a few years ago, but it was ultimately determined to not be a viable option at that time due to that distance and logistics.
Regarding their current request, Storley explained that LA feels like it would be a good option if other schools would be interested in it, especially given the fact that a nine-man division was recently dissolved. “We want to see if there are other schools out there interested in six-man,” Storley said. “This would allow some small schools to stand on their own without co-oping and help with costs savings of traveling to neighboring districts to practice and play. Until you ask the question, you don’t know the answer.”
A budget hearing was held, and the next school year’s budget was approved. The board also approved the comprehensive plan, the Head Start Memorandum of Understanding and their membership in the Emergency Bus Pact.
District 1 Senator Mike Rohl was at the meeting. He engaged in a conversation with the board asking what issues they’d like to see addressed in the legislature. Storley and the board stressed their concerns with the current funding formula that they feel favors large size schools with large enrollment and penalizes schools like LA in the amount of state aid they get. Storley also voiced concerns about teacher shortages and the Praxis test weeding out too many potential teachers who have adequately completed course work.
In his report, Storley discussed the district’s planned activity bus purchase. The purchase was approved last year, but Storley noted that such busses no longer come with overhead storage. The board still wanted to move forward with the bus.
Updates were given on the playground. Turf will be installed in the next couple of weeks. Equipment is supposed to be shipped in early October. Storley noted that they are hoping to get the equipment installed this fall yet.
In other board business, they approved open enrollment applications for a kindergartener and a sophomore. There was a short executive session during the meeting for contract issues.
The next board meeting will be held September 11 at 7 a.m.
