Superintendent's Corner

Ekalaka Public Schools Board of Trustees has moved to run a bond election for staff housing. As part of the strategic plan made by the board, staff and community over the last year, one main goal is to offer staff housing for recruitment and retention of staff members of the district. Nearby towns such as Baker, Plevna and Broadus offer housing to their staffs therefore the district feels this is essential to draw employees to our community. The bond election will run in both the elementary district and the high school district with each bond valued at $750,000. In our community meeting held on October 3rd, one question was brought up why the district can't run a levy or bond to raise teacher wages instead of running a bond for housing. Mrs. Brence noted that teacher wages must be paid for out of the general fund and the general fund monies are allocated to each district by the state. The general funds are driven by enrollment and formula at the state level. Each bond issue will be for a maximum of 5 years. Those living in Elementary District #15 will see a decrease in taxes this year as the bond for Elementary building will be paid off. Those living in the high school districts will see minimal yearly tax impacts as 93% is paid for by pipelines. Please visit http://www.ekalaka.net for more information on the bond and how to estimate your annual tax impact based on taxable property values. We appreciate your continued support in all our endeavors. If you have questions, please call 406-630-1523.

We are very excited for the 2023/2024 basketball season to be starting and to be using our High School Gym for Basketball games again! As most of you know our High School Gym floor has been refinished and with that we would like to give a public notice to everyone.

We as a school and community need to work together to keep the floor in good condition so we have it to use for years to come without the expense of having it refinished again. The company that completed the floor has told us that we need to essentially "baby" it for the next several years. We are used to the floor having years of finish built up on making it much more durable, right now there is only the initial layer of finish making it more susceptible to damage.

We are asking everyone to please be cautious, during and after games to keep children and adults off of the court, to please be courteous and wipe your shoes before entering the gym, and absolutely no street shoes out on the court.

A lot went into making our floor look fresh and new and we need to do everything in our power to keep it looking this way for as long as possible.

Thank you!