The Crookston School Board held a working session on Wednesday to discuss multiple topics, including budget realignment, superintendent goals, and athletic department restructuring.
BUDGET REALIGNMENT
Business Manager Blake Stoltman addressed the board regarding the fiscal year 2027 budget and the 2025-26 audit. He told the board the 2025-26 audit is almost finished and could be brought to the board for review as soon as the December meeting. As for the 2026-27 budget, Stoltman reported that the fund balance has seen a slight increase so far, which continues to strengthen the district’s financial position. Some LTFM projects have also been completed or are in progress, including new front doors for both schools and a new fire alarm system for the high school. Stoltman doesn’t see any major concerns, as revenues continue to be disbursed throughout the year and will balance out by the ned of the fiscal year. Interim Superintendent Todd Selk appreciated the update from Stoltman and wants the community to know that the district is doing what it can to ensure the fund balance remains stable and keeps levy amounts lower. “I think the message really to our taxpayers and to our community is that it’s early in the fiscal year, and though we are in November, some of our revenues we don’t realize yet. We’re still realizing some revenue from last year. Our audit is not complete, as you suggested. It’s nearly complete. We probably will approve the audit in at the December board meeting. At that point in time, we officially close the 25-26 school year, so we know where we ended. And now we’re looking more closely at the 26-27 year for actuals versus budget, and then we’re also starting to look at already at the 27-28 budget. So the budget is a continuous process.”
SUPERINTENDENT GOALS
Following a discussion with the Minnesota School Boards Association about strategic planning, the board was encouraged to identify goals for Superintendent Selk to address and complete before the end of the 2026-27 school year. Some of the topics that the board identified for Selk include improving communication with staff and the public, hiring and retaining staff, finalizing the transition of Washington School students and staff to Highland, and developing a strategic plan. The board is looking to bring a finalized list of goals to be approved at the November 23 school board meeting. Selk was encouraged by the board’s discussions about these goals and by opportunities to address specific areas for improvement outside day-to-day responsibilities and ongoing topics like the budget and finances. “Goals are somewhat interesting because some of the stuff that was talked about is more of a day-to-day operation thing that is just expected of me as a superintendent of schools to do. And so, typically, what you like to do is, you couldn’t possibly measure every piece of the job description, so a couple members of the board will get together, and they will write, with some input from me, kind of what two or three goals might be, and then underneath that will be more of the strategies that we hope to accomplish those goals, so I look forward to that process.”
STUDENT REPRESENTATION ON SCHOOL BOARD
School Board Chair Tim Dufault asked whether the board wanted to continue having a student representative after Halle Nicholas was the first to serve in that role in 2025-26. The board agreed that a student representative is beneficial, as it gives the student an opportunity to see how a school board functions and to discuss the district’s needs. It was suggested that the board further the student representative program by bringing in a junior and a senior to the board, so that there is consistency year-to-year with student leaders. Dufault requested that a staff committee is assembled to oversee the selection of the student representatives through an application process, including an essay question describing why they would like to serve as a student representative to the school board. “Last year was the first year we did it with Halle Nicholas, and it was excellent having a student’s point of view. I mean, some of us on the board have students in the school, but it gets filtered up through your child. So now you’ve got a perspective from a non-relative, and so we’re looking at perhaps having two people on there, a junior that would have a two-year term and a senior then would have the one year, and keep rotating so that every year, a junior would come on board and have a two-year term, get a little continuity for them, and hopefully for them it’s a good leadership training.”
ADMINISTRATIVE STAFFING
Superintendent Selk was next to address the board to discuss administrative staffing. The board had previously identified building a strong administrative team as a goal for Selk to address over the school year, focusing on filling the payroll specialist and human resources position vacated by Wendy Ault in October, as well as bringing in a permanent principal at Highland Elementary after Chris Trostad’s retirement in August. Selk has observed that the principals at both Highland and Crookston Middle/High School spend a significant amount of time addressing issues such as student discipline rather than handling administrative tasks such as staff and student development. He wants to take a deeper dive into the current administrative structure and determine what, if any, changes are needed. “Our principals are our instructional leaders, and I think percentage wise, maybe they are spending so much time on student discipline right now that some of the instructional leadership pieces of their position that are needed for staff development, for growth for our staff, for the evaluation of our staff, and for support of students in general. It’s lacking because of the excessive time that they’re spending on student discipline, and with a district of our size, are we staffed appropriately? I don’t believe that we are, and it’s just a deep dive that we’re going to take with input from our staff and our current administration, and then put together what I would believe is a recommendation to the board sometime here later.”
Selk also suggested to the board that based on the recent discussions with the MSBA regarding strategic planning, they will need to identify the direction they want to go in regarding the superintendent position, as Selk’s current contract runs through June 30, 2027.
ATHLETIC DEPARTMENT REALIGNMENT
The last item to be discussed was the athletic department and potential realignment. Selk has had concerns that the athletic department has seen enrollment and participation decrease over the years without a firm plan to address any issues and see how the department can ensure that students are being given the best opportunity to succeed. Selk was adamant that there are no plans to cut any athletic programs or activities, but he wants to work with Pederson and the school principals to compile data and develop a plan to ensure the district offers optimal opportunities for students to compete and perform. “I don’t think that the district has really engaged in any kind of an analysis of how our enrollment has affected our participation numbers in certain activities, and there’s no question that the district enrollment is down from what it was when these activities were all created. Can we support them with the student enrollment we have? Can we support them financially? It’s a process that I want to enter into with our activities director, with our principals, with our business office, and then ultimately come up with an idea or some recommendations again to the board, and maybe that recommendation is we just stay status quo, but without having some type of an analysis of what we have, what we offer, and what our enrollment maybe would dictate that we can support, we’re just kind of shooting in the wind and just kind of reloading every year without giving a good look at what it is we offer.”
The Crookston School Board is scheduled to meet for its monthly meeting on Monday, November 23, at 5:00 p.m. in the choir/orchestra room at Crookston High School.
