CROOKSTON SCHOOL DISTRICT AND UMC COME TO A NEW PSEO AGREEMENT TO BENEFIT BOTH SIDES

The Crookston School District and the University of Minnesota Crookston (UMC) recently signed a post-secondary education option (PSEO) agreement that should help both schools.  Under the previous contract, if a Crookston High School kid elected to be a post-secondary student full-time at UMC, the Crookston School District wouldn’t get any money for that student.  Under the new agreement, the Crookston School District will get the money and pay UMC for the tuition, which will bring in extra money for the school district, around $20,000 extra, and UMC will get paid faster.  “We are allowed in the state of Minnesota to run one of two types of agreements.  One is a direct bill where UMC is paid directly by the State of Minnesota, and that generally leaves some state aid on the table.  The other is a tuition agreement, and that is what we just agreed to.  In the tuition agreement, we agree to pay the cost that UMC usually would have billed, and we pay that directly to UMC, and that allows us to capture a small amount of additional state aid, which we are very fortunate to do,” said Olson. “We are very thankful for the partnership with UMC because it allows UMC to get what they need, it allows us to get what we need, and it lessens the burden or the cost of PSEO to the school district to some degree, and that helps out in that relationship.  We want to thank UMC for their work on that, and we are thankful to be partners with them.”