The Santa Fe Board of Education’s first action at their final scheduled meeting for the school year, held on June 24, was to welcome back a familiar face to the Board. President Russell Limback thanked long time former member, Brad Hinz, for accepting his appointment to the board.

Following Hinz’s appointment, the board welcomed Santa Fe Agri-Leaders instructor, Brittany Hemme, as she was on hand for the SFAL’s annual review of programming and to present the board with the reimbursement check for the SFAL programming. The board and administration thanked Mrs. Hemme and the SF Agri-Leaders for their ongoing partnership and support of the local community.

In his report, Superintendent Derek Lark updated the board on summer maintenance projects. He highlighted that work would need to be done on the high school activities parking lot, but budget tightening along with contractor schedules have made this a challenge. Bids were solicited and received, but the work could not be scheduled in time for completion this summer as a result of budget concerns.

“This maintenance will simply have to be done,” Mr. Lark said. “Every rain/snow only makes the problem worse; therefore, even if at the sake of other projects in the future, it needs to be prioritized.”

Other projects completed or underway included the refinishing/waxing of the floors in the old gym and main gym at the high school, refurbishing of the Curtis Buhlig memorial sign at the football field, and lighting of the “Santa Fe Pride” signage on the west exterior of the main gym. “All of these things are important to our school and to our community,” noted Mr. Lark. Mr. Lark also mentioned that the local Boy Scouts, under Scout leader Scott Livingston, would be doing some painting around the exterior of district facilities, which the district was grateful for.

Mr. Lark also took time to recognize the coaches and athletes.

“Our student athletes and coaches have been hard at it this summer!” Mr. Lark said. “I want to recognize their effort not only in the weight room, but in the gym and on the fields. We can all be extremely proud of what they are getting accomplished this summer.”

In action items, the board had several items to be considered, starting with actualizing and approving the 2025-26 budget.

“This year’s actualized budget finished several percentage points above forecasted, but still represents a deficit spending year,” Mr. Lark said. “The final reserve balance finished at 38.27%; however, expenditures still outpaced revenue by $457k, which is obviously not a sustainable fiscal program. What we can hope is that for the next couple of years, if we have to deficit spend, that it’s moderate enough to delay the need to ask for an increase in local funding. It’s simple, these deficits have been created by salary schedule mandates forced upon public schools, and the state should fiscally support what they are mandating. The present reality is that the state legislature has passed the buck onto rural local communities where the assessed valuation does not support the increases that were mandated. Next year’s budget shows a deficit of $209k, but that reduction in deficit (from $457k to $209k) is based upon freezing salaries and reducing staffing; not actual increases in revenue. In summary, we did tighten the belts to minimize the loss, but if the state does not support public education funding through the rewrite of the state foundation formula (currently under way), districts like Santa Fe will be forced to rely on their local communities to sustain acceptable educational programming in the future.”

The board also approved the 2026-27 salary schedules, all of which were frozen excepting movement for tenure steps and advanced degrees/profes-sional development.

In other action items, the board set the district tuition rate at $10,000; up from $9,300. They also approved an MOU with the Lafayette County Sheriff’s Department for a coop’ agreement with Wellington- Napoleon which helps pay for the school resource officer (SRO) program.

“We appreciate Sheriff Dye and Lt. McFatrich for their work on this grant, as well as the Lafayette County Children’s Service Fund board for approving funding for the program,” said Mr. Lark.

In closed session, the board approved the updated Extra Duty schedule and discussed legal matters.

The meeting adjourned at 7:10 p.m.