The Crookston School Board met at Highland Elementary School on Monday to discuss multiple agenda items, including the approval of Minnesota School Boards Association strategic planning services and the approval of resolution forms for defibrillator funding.
AULT RESIGNATION
An item on the consent agenda was the acceptance of Wendy Ault’s resignation as payroll specialist and human resources director for the district. Her last day with the district was Friday, October 23. Interim Superintendent Todd Selk was surprised to hear about Ault’s resignation, as she brought innovative HR ideas to her role, and the goal is to continue implementing her projects and initiatives in the future as the district creates a plan to fill this administrative position. The consent agenda also included an agreement with Denise Seberson as the interim payroll accountant. “We wish Wendy very much success in her new endeavor and thank her for her time with the district. I unfortunately only had four months to work directly with Wendy. She was very helpful for me in my transition to the district, and she did kind of open the doors to some HR things that haven’t been probably in place in this district before, so hopefully we can take those ideas and some of those projects she was working on, and see them to the end and implement them into our HR programming. Obviously, payroll is every two weeks. We pay our employees, and obviously how hugely important task that is, and that’s just really important that we get that done.”
MSBA STRATEGIC PLANNING SERVICE
The first item on the main agenda for the Crookston School Board was the approval of strategic planning services with the Minnesota School Boards Association (MSBA). Initial discussions of developing a new strategic plan were discussed at the school board session with the MSBA on Friday, and those discussions will continue at a school board working session on Thursday, October 29, at 1:00 p.m. “We had the initial meeting on Friday with some of that type of thing. Obviously, at tonight’s official board meeting, we approved the idea that we are going to enter into a strategic planning process with MSBA, and then already now on Thursday, we have another work session that will speak specifically to strategic planning and kind of outline the steps and the timeline that will be needed to complete that process. That’s not an overnight process by any means. That will stretch out for the balance of this school year, probably even with approval, maybe over the summer or even into next fall. That’s a real robust endeavor where we will involve not only school people but community people as well.”
MSHSL RESOLUTION FORMS
The next agenda item was the approval of Minnesota State High School League (MSHSL) resolution forms A and B for the 2026-27 school year. Form A is a request from the district for grant funding to offset student activity fees, and Form B is a request for $5,373 in grants to purchase three automatic external defibrillators (AEDs) and provide CPR training for coaching staff. Selk provided information about the forms to the board because Activities Director Evan Pederson was not in attendance. The funding would come from state sales tax collected on ticket sales at state athletic events. While the district currently has AEDs at its facilities, Selk understands that the new AEDs would either be additional units at some facilities or replace units nearing the end of their lifespan. “With the High School League’s backing, they’re speaking of putting those AEDs in our competitive environments, in our gymnasium, on our football field, at our softball or baseball fields, those types of things. We have a lot of those in place already, and we have pretty much all of our spaces covered, but those things get old and they wear out as well. Not necessarily from overuse; they just kind of age out. Hopefully we don’t have to use them, but we certainly need to be prepared to use them should the case arise, so we appreciate the league’s involvement in that.”
REORGANIZATIONAL BOARD MEETING
The board’s final agenda item was the approval of an additional reorganizational board meeting on Monday, January 4, 2027, at 5:00 p.m. With multiple new members set to join the board following the elections on November 3, state statute requires the board to hold a reorganizational meeting to swear in the new board members as soon as possible. Selk also informed the board that he would like to invite the new board members to the November and December board meetings so they can become more informed about the district’s policies ahead of their start on the board. “It doesn’t have to be the first Monday after, but typically, if that Monday is available, that’s when school boards do it, and that’s the night that we picked, Monday, January 4. Between the election coming up here and that January 4 meeting, between those times, we also intend to invite the new board members to be involved as much as possible in some of our work sessions. We certainly will invite them to our regular scheduled board meetings, but we want their input early and often as we start to make plans for the future. They won’t have voting authority until after that January reorganizational meeting, but regardless of their voting status, we certainly want to be hearing from the current board of what is some of the business of that board, and also an opportunity for them to inquire, ask questions, meet with me, etc.“
SUPERINTENDENT’S REPORT
Selk shared a few thoughts on the first quarter of the school year during his superintendent’s report. He is proud to see the students and staff achieving their goals and developing routines in what he calls a quiet start to the year. “A quiet school district means people are doing what’s expected of them. Kids are showing up and doing what’s expected of them. Teachers and staff are showing up and doing what’s expected of them. And when I say quiet, I mean that things are running smoothly and we’re doing the business of school. When we can be that way, everybody is successful in that regard, and that’s a feather in the cap of our kids. It’s also a feather in the cap of our staff, and it’s a feather in the cap of our community that we have a school district that is running that way.”
The next Crookston School Board meeting is scheduled for Monday, November 23, at 5:00 p.m. in the choir/orchestra room at Crookston High School.
