6-11-2023 4:48pm

Kinnikinnick School District to appoint members to vacant board positions

Michael McGinnis Editor

Kinnikinnick CCSD No. 131 District office

The Kinnikinnick CCSD No. 131 Board of Education will hold a special meeting on Tuesday, June 13, 2023, at 7 p.m. at the Kinnikinnick School Library in Roscoe, Illinois. The agenda includes the appointment of board members to vacant positions, reports from the superintendent, correspondence, and new business matters.

Even after the April 4, 2023 election, the school board was shorthanded. For one unexpired position, there was no candidate. For three other positions, there were only two candidates: Lynsey A. Welch and Trisha Tousant. So both were automatically elected. But two positions remained unfilled.

Superintendent Keli Freedlund told us that three individuals applied for the vacant positions. The Board interviewed the three candidates and will be filling the positions at Tuesday's meeting.

Freedlund will review the IASB Joint Conference, which will be held November 17-19 in Chicago. With a 90 year history, the conference offers school board members a chance for professional and personal development, as they network with their peers in other school districts.

The Hononegah Nations Annual Joint Board Meeting is scheduled for June 21, 2023. The meeting will include the school boards of Hononegah Community High School and its feeder school districts: Kinnikinnick, Rockton, Prairie Hill, and Shirland. The general public, including trustees from Rockton and Roscoe, is invited.

Freedlund will provide an update from the board's strategic planning sessions. She will also report on the Prairie State Insurance Cooperative, a unified insurance cooperative for Illinois schools, and provide an update on the health insurance coverage for district employees.

A closed session is scheduled, not open to the public, to deal with "the appointment, employment, compensation, discipline, performance, or dismissal of specific employees."

The board is expected to approve the June 13 personnel report, involving the hiring and resignation of both certified and non-certified staff, as well as the approval of administrative contracts.