Litchfield School Board Meeting

The Litchfield School Board has approved of increases in the rates for driver’s education. Litchfield Community Education Director Grant Solem spoke to the Board last night about the need for increasing the rates.

Driver’s Education instructor pay will increase from $25 per hour to $27.50. The driver’s training classroom fee will increase from $100 to $150. Behind-the-wheel training will increase from $150 to $225; and non-classroom behind-the-wheel will increase from $150 to $275.

Business Manager Jesse Johnson gave the Board a Legislative update last night saying that there’s a proposal to provide a $1,700 tax credit for donations to scholarship-granting organizations for K-12 students; and there’s a proposal to increase to $979 per pupil and indexing future growth to the basic formula starting in fiscal year 2028 – and the bill includes a geographic cost index to account for regional economic differences.

Superintendent Susan Burris spoke to the Board about on-going efforts to address bullying. She says the staff is trained annually on the issue and students are reminded of behavioral expectations and there are policies in place to address bullying so that corrective action can be taken. She says, despite preventive measures, it still happens and it needs to be reported in a timely manner, and matters that have been brought up are being investigated.

The Litchfield School Board approved of a resolution accepting several donations including: $100 from Barb Piepenburg to Litchfield Athletics for Girls Basketball; $1,650 from the Hockey Boosters for Girls Hockey Charter Bus Transportation; $1,300 from ACE Hardware for the LHS Garden Program for 670 packets of flower and vegetable seeds; $3,000 from First District Assn. for the Litchfield Middle School Science Museum Trip; and $5,319.07 from the Track Boosters for the Litchfield Track Team Track team tent, training hurdles and miscellaneous supplies. A plaque (which will hang at Lake Ripley School) was also accepted from the Carol Huhner Estate to honor Carol and all school secretaries who have given their love, care and compassion to the children at the Litchfield Schools.