The Crookston Community Education Committee met for its third meeting of the year on Tuesday afternoon in the Crookston High School to discuss upcoming programs for the Crookston Public Schools.
EARLY CHILDHOOD PROGRAMMING
After approving the minutes from their last meeting on January 24, ECFE Parent Educator Gina Gunderson updated the board on the 2023 Winter/Spring Programs. The school was looking to bring back many of the same programs, such as “Oh, the Places You’ll Go” and the Children’s Interactive Concert March Musical Madness on March 27 with the Highland Elementary School 5th & 6th-grade Orchestra and Valley Fiddlers from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m., and the Family Festival in April.
Dolly Parton Library
Gunderson also shared she had applied for a grant with the United Way of Crookston to fund the creation of a Dolly Parton Imagination Library and had gotten 150 kids to sign up for the program but is currently waiting to hear back from the United Way about the grant at the end of March.
VPK Renewal Grants
Community Education Director Denice Oliver shared that the Volunteer Pre-Kindergarten grant and Pathways To grant had been completed to help fund School Readiness programs and help make it easy for families to sign up for Early Childhood programs.
“When we get that funding, we apply that right to our School Readiness program for the next year, and what that does is reduce costs for us, so it helps us to provide Early Childhood Programming for our three, four, and five-year-olds,” said Oliver. “We at least have spots for 108 of them. Registration for that will come out near the end or middle of April, so you can be looking for that.”
Anyone eligible for the program will receive a mailing for the registration, but registration for the program will be on a first-come, first-served basis, beginning in the fall. If you haven’t received any information from the school district, contact Washington School at 218-281-5078.
Early Childhood Screening
Oliver shared the Childhood Screening that was held on March 6 had gone well, with about 55 children getting screened at Washington School, which nearly completed the preschool student body after their first screening event in August 2022. There would be another screening event on August 2, but options were available to parents who wish to have their children screened before that or haven’t done it yet.
“Screening is required for any child that’s entering a preschool or kindergarten program. We have another one coming on Wednesday, August 2, which will be for any child that hasn’t been screened or for those children who will be entering preschool or kindergarten programming and have not been screened,” Oliver explained. “We will be sending out information about that. If people are registering for any kind of Early Childhood programming or kindergarten and have not been screened, we will contact them to attend the August 2 screening.”
Summer Early Childhood Program
Gunderson shared they had received many requests for a summer early childhood program and are looking to run the programs again once a month with some events they would do, like going to the Community Pool, Castle Park, and Water Park.
SUMMER PROGRAMS
Oliver shared that Safety Town will be completed again on the first week of June, from June 5 to 9, for children who have completed kindergarten, as many of the volunteers at last year’s Safety Town event shared teaching the children was much easier with the kindergartners. Safety Town will be held again, and registration for it will be given out to kindergartners’ families next week.
Summer Care
Oliver shared that Summer Care would also be returning for families that needed childcare during the summer, and would be available to children who are kindergarten eligible to 4th grade and would run from June 12 to August 18. They would be adding information about the care for parents to find on Washington School’s page on the Crookston Public Schools website at https://www.crookston.k12.mn.us/washington-elementary-school, but would also have information available at the school itself.
Summer Preschool Program
Oliver shared she was applying for funding to have the Summer Preschool Program for children going into kindergarten to help them with transitions and self-management. The program is funded for two years, and it was entering its third year, so it would need an application to be funded again.
Summer Reading Program
The school had opened summer programs last year, but they were not well attended, and many students seemed to be struggling in reading after the events of the COVID-19 pandemic, so the school district was looking to change the focus to mainly summer reading.
“We determined our summer programming based on community need and the ability to find teachers to teach summer school, which has been difficult. Through COVID, people had to teach very differently, but because of COVID, we’ve noticed that our literacy schools are lacking with some of our children, and we have some struggling readers out there. So, to help them make that catch-up growth, we’re focusing our summer programming on summer reading,” Oliver explained. “We’re looking to offer that program in August when all the other summer programs have ended. It’s usually a great time of year because it’s right before school’s going to start, so it gives those kids who haven’t read over the summer or struggle to read that boost to get ready for the fall.”
Other Summer programs
The Golden Link Senior Center Gaye Wick announced they were holding the Summer Safari Theatre partnering with the Crookston Community Theatre to perform “Finding Nemo” for children from 3rd-6th grade in the Highland Elementary School Theatre from August 14-19.
The University of Minnesota Crookston representative Jess Bengston shared they would have some summer programs, such as STEM and summer camp activities.
During the summer, the High School will have construction to add the Middle School addition to the building. Highland would begin adding the Early Childhood Addition to being open by 2024, which could cause some changes to the locations of some of the summer programs.
PROGRAM REPORTS
The Crookston LEO Club is continuing to do projects in the Villa and other areas each month and was helping with the Washington Reading event. They had also helped the Crookston Care & Share with their newsletters and would partake in the Senior Citizen Brunch in April. They would also hold a self-defense class in April for the senior students.
The PATCH program has worked with 844 students, which was a 109% increase in attendance from this time last year. They had worked with T.H.E. Bus and have given 137 rides home to students and continued to team with Food Services to order snacks for the students. They had $2,000 added to their budget to keep appropriate staffing, but they had concerns with funding for the 2023-24 year since United Way grant monies aren’t allowed to be utilized for staffing costs, and with the current costs, they would exceed the allowance given, so they were requesting if there was any way to increase their budget, or they would have to cut the days they were available. The High School was planning to purchase an activities bus for sports and potentially for PATCH to help get students home and to the school for events and practices.
UMC is inviting the community to their events in the future, like Open Ride Night on Sunday and a solo piano recital next Thursday.
The Golden Link is still serving meals and will hold Treats and Meals for veterans and first responders, but they are hoping to get a grant to allow them to add healthcare workers as well. Their pizza sale on Monday, March 13, was a great success and had sold out of pizzas within three hours. They also plan to have Allen Dragseth give a presentation about sugarbeets and will start a medical education series in April.
The Common Ground event is continuing to be an annual event throughout the year and will have a movie event at the next event on April 5. The churches were also getting greatly involved with the Cove and are participating in a fundraising dinner on April 14. The Faith Community has all been working at the Crookston Care & Share Hope Center to furnish rooms for families living there.
The Community Education Committee will next meet on Tuesday, May 9.
