The Crookston School Board met in a special meeting on Monday afternoon in the Crookston School District office. After approving the new superintendent contract, they heard from the Care and Share Center board about its interest in the Washington School building.
Care and Share Center board members Faye Overgaard, Kari Brault, Allen Dragseth, Rick Keller, and center Director Jane Freeman attended the meeting. They expressed their interest in the Washington School building. The Care and Share joins the City of Crookston as expressing interest in the Washington School building when the district moves out.
The Care and Share is located at the old Cathedral School building at 220 East 3rd Street in Crookston. The building is over 100 years old, and the building maintenance and upkeep, along with getting it handicapped accessible, would be extremely costly, so they are looking for options. “Care and Share is a facility that goes on every day, day in and day out, and we are looking for another place that could house our residents better,” said Care and Share Board member Faye Overgaard. “Like any building, there is maintenance and upkeep, and we have been putting a lot of money into the old Cathedral School building. It is a good structure, but we would really like our building to be handicap accessible, and to do that, it would involve an elevator, and Washington school is all on one level. I think the school would service us well with a commercial kitchen, a lot of space, and windows.”
Superintendent Dave Kuehn said they could get Rick Niemela, the district transportation and building and grounds director, to give them an informal walk-through of Washington School to see if it was something they would be interested in. Care and Share Director added that Washington School was close to Hugo’s, Walmart, and other places the residents frequent, so that would be nice to be closer to those businesses.
The Care and Share representatives at the meeting said they have meeting rooms, offices, a thrift store, a food shelf, a chapel, a dining room, and a kitchen, along with rooms for residents that need a place to stay, so having a large building like Washington would be nice. Care and Share averages anywhere from 35 to 40 people staying per night; at one point, they had 15 kids at the center. Grants, donations, and volunteers support the center. They are applying for grants and asking the state for $1,000,000 in Capital Improvement funds to help with the center and make it handicap accessible.
The next regular Crookston School Board meeting is scheduled for Monday, April 24, at 5:00 p.m. in the Crookston High School Choir/Orchestra room.
