New staff members, enrollment increases, several generous donations heard at Barneveld School Board meeting

By John Dalton

At Wednesday’s, September 10th Barneveld Regular School Board meeting, in her Building Report, Principal Heather Schmitz reported that Inservice was a success and gave a big shoutout to new and current staff with their enthusiasm in their instructional practices and positive climate and culture.  Ten new staff members were welcomed and many topics discussed between staff and board members Jaci Haack, Marlea Knox, and Jeff Reese.  

Schmitz said that during professional development days, “Stay Golden” was the theme chosen by staff members for the 25-26 school year.  It capitalizes on last year’s “Be Golden” theme encouraging students, staff, and community to continue to strive for excellence.  

She also said the professional development action team worked this summer to create learning for staff around their focus of formative assessment.  She said the team will continue to lead learning sessions throughout the first term of the school year.  

Schmitz and Dean of Students Melanie Norton both thanked Jen Tarrell for organizing a presentation on Managing Behaviors by Dixie Dempsey.  Dempsey spoke about finding the root cause for the behavior and strategies for staff to use to address the behavior.  

She also said safety drill planning for staff and students throughout the school year, and like it or not, Artificial Intelligence is here, and Schmitz said her and the technology team will be creating a student guidebook, and goals for the year with AI...

(See the rest of this story in the September 18, 2025 Chronicle issue)