The Columbia School Board gathered for a brief and varied meeting last week, approving a tentative tax levy for the year and discussing a range of district concerns including the Illinois Report Card, an agreement concerning vocational education and the continuing work to renovate Columbia High School.

The tentative tax levy was among a handful of action items addressed and approved by the board, with Columbia Superintendent of Schools Chris Grode noting the district would be seeking a standard increase of 4.95 percent over what was received last year, amounting to a proposed $16,776,947.

Grode further remarked that the district is currently able to keep a fairly low tax rate as the community has seen Equalized Assessed Value growth as well as the maturation of some Tax Increment Financing districts.

The board also approved the 2025 year service record acknowledging the number of years district employees have worked.

Also approved was an intergovernmental agreement with the City of Columbia concerning the district’s school resource officer position.

It was reiterated from a previous meeting that this agreement affects the ability of the SRO to give tickets on school grounds, with Grode noting his dissapointment as this repercussion for students vaping has proven to be rather effective.

Additionally, a date for the class of 2026’s graduation was selected as Sunday, May 17, at 1 p.m., to be hosted outside on the turf multipurpose field and brought inside in the event of rain.

It was noted this announcement came fairly early in the year, though it was further said the district tries to alert families and neighboring districts so as to minimize travel and scheduling conflicts.

The final action item to be addressed by the board concerned a special covenant amendment with Career Center of Southern Illinois regarding an intergovernmental agreement among participating districts.

This is the same matter which saw the attention of the Waterloo School Board last week, with that board agreeing to a build-to-suit lease with Southwestern Illinois College as CCSI is looking to establish a new campus and facility on the SWIC Red Bud grounds.

Columbia Assistant Superintendent of Schools Amanda Ganey spoke on this matter, explaining there are some unknowns in this situation as it’s unclear how many districts will wind up participating.

The action item itself served as a declaration of whether or not the Columbia district will participate and thus contribute to the facility and its programs financially.

It was discussed among Ganey and the board that payments for CCSI participation seem to be based on size rather than the participation of a district, meaning the Columbia School District would pay more than the Valmeyer School District even if more Valmeyer students were attending CCSI vocational or other programs.

Ganey spoke about working with the Collinsville Area Vocational Center instead, saying it was a more fiscally responsible choice and adding the Freeburg and Dupo school districts have also opted out of an agreement with CCSI.

“I’m recommending not to sign the lease and then really work on our internal programs and connect with other surrounding districts to build our vocational practices for our students and work on finding and using other alternative school measures for students that might need that,” Ganey said.

The board voted unanimously to not follow through with the agreement.

Ganey also led board discussion during her monthly report, which largely centered around the annual Illinois Report Card which was released a few weeks ago.

She pointed to the district’s receipt of three exemplary designations and one commendable designation and also spoke about how the report card seems to indicate some gaps in the district’s curriculum.

Those gaps include an apparent drop off in math test scores from grades 4-5 and grades 7-8 as well as a drop in English language arts scores from grades 2-3.

She also identified the substantial number of students rated as “proficient” within the report card and suggested a need to help push these students up into the “above proficient” category.

“I feel like one part of that percent that we could aim to work toward improving or making higher is the ‘above proficient,’” Ganey said. “We have a really big proficient amount of students, so how can we shift some of that and start helping some of the students get to that ‘above proficient.’”

Grode’s monthly report was brief. He said the district is pursuing a skid steer and driver’s education car after hitting some roadblocks, and he anticipates the approval of a district audit in December after the federal government shutdown stymied the matter.

Columbia High School Assistant Principal Amanda Bedard offered the building report for the month, opening by praising the success of the volleyball team and boy’s soccer team in the past few weeks.

“They did an excellent job representing,” Bedard said. “I had the pleasure of being there both weekends with them. These kids fought really hard, and both of them were extremely exciting.”

While she discussed a number of other goings-on at the high school, special attention was placed on a recent project by the construction class to renovate the bridge on the campus.

Columbia High School industrial technology teacher Arthur Frisch spoke briefly, discussing the exploits of his students and how they’re getting a real feel for the trades as they’ve worked on the bridge and a number of other projects in the district.

“I’ve implemented a work environment, so to speak,” Frisch said. “The class of 12, I assign a foreman, lead man, and then he picks a crew, and it gives them real-world experience. First they make a presentation. With the bridges, they presented that to Mr. Reeves. He was our ‘customer.’ They wrote the quote up for that, and then we ordered the material.”

Concerning other district renovations, the board touched on the ongoing work at CHS. It was acknowledged the new gym recently had its walls erected, and the audiorium – pending delays – is set to be ready for a theatrical performance come February or March.

Columbia School Board member Adam Hemken commended the work of the CHS drama department for its recent production of “Anything Goes,” remarking it should be the last high school performance done at Columbia Middle School.

Also offering thanks and congratulations was Columbia School Board President Greg Meyer, who voiced his appreciation for the general behind-the-scenes work done by Grode and Ganey.

“They don’t just deal with problems, they look for ways to improve, and as you guys notice from the test scores, they’re looking for patterns and ways to improve it,” Meyer said. “Dr. Ganey just grabbed the bull by the horns and is just doing a wonderful job.”

Toward the end of the meeting, Columbia School Board member Naureen Frierdich offered condolences for Dupo electrical teacher Chris Robinson, who passed away unexpectedly the day before the meeting.

With an agreement between the two school districts, Robinson taught a number of Columbia students in his course and broadly left his mark in both school communities.

“He had such a tremendous impact on students,” Ganey said. “Even the Dupo superintendent said he was interwoven into so many different parts of the Dupo School District… He was just in it for the students. Tremendous loss.”