The Crookston School Board held an organizational meeting on Wednesday night inside the Crookston High School Choir/Orchestra Room. The meeting began with electing the School Board Chair, Treasurer, and Clerk for 2022. The three individuals that were selected to serve in those roles are listed below –
- School Board Chair: Frank Fee
- School Board Treasurer: Tim Dufault
- School Board Clerk: Adrianne Winger
Fee, Dufault, and Winger are all keeping their role from 2021, and Crookston Public Schools Superintendent Jeremy Olson explained the excellent job they’ve all done serving the School District. “Our board has done a great job of working together and getting things done,” said Olson. “So, I was very happy to see the positions stay the same. Frank (Fee) has done a great job in the past in the chair position and working closely with me, and he’s been a great leader. I think we’ve worked very well together strategically to move the district forward.”
The biggest item on the agenda was to approve a School Board Policy from the Minnesota School Board Association (MSBA) that will go into effect on January 10. The policy is regarding a COVID-19 mandate from OSHA that would require a business or organization with 100 or more employees to have all employees be vaccinated or wear a mask and provide a negative test once a week.
The Crookston School District has around 250 employees, and a policy will need to be put into place before January 10. Failure to comply will result in a fine for the district, with the exact cost of the fine unknown at this time. The board had two options to choose from, and Olson explained the policy that the School Board passed. “This new policy is to comply with the law,” said Olson. “This is a temporary measure from OSHA that all employers that have 100 or more employees must comply with. The board adopted the friendliest policy for our employees under the law. The policy gives staff members who are unvaccinated the opportunity to wear a mask and test weekly rather than simply be terminated.”
If a staff member refuses to get vaccinated or to comply with masking and testing, they will be sent home and subject to disciplinary measures. Olson noted some money has been secured to pay for the testing that would be required with the mandate in place, but alternative options and funding will need to be secured in the future. “This pod of money we have was actually for testing prior to this mandate,” said Olson. “We already have secured the funding for it, and we are holding it now so that we can use it for this and not put the cost on our employees because we want to keep our employees. We will need to have another conversation once that money runs out to discuss how we would like to proceed forward with providing testing.”
The School Board’s biggest concern is losing teachers and staff due to the mandate. The other policy the school district could have chosen would’ve required all staff to be vaccinated or simply terminated. The policy will go into effect on January 10 unless the courts stop the mandate.
The next item on the agenda was designating the School District’s official law firms for 2022. The board voted unanimously for Fischer, Rust, Stock & Rust. PLLC, and the law firm of Ratwik, Roszak, & Maloney, PA. to be the School Districts official law firms in 2022. The board then voted unanimously to designate KROX and the Crookston Times as the School District’s official media outlets.
Following that, the board also agreed on the proposed meeting dates and times for 2022. The School Board meetings in 2022 will be held on the fourth Monday of each month at 5:00 p.m., and the Truth in Taxation Hearing will be held on December 12 at 6:00 p.m.
A closed session was called after the adjournment of the meeting for the School Board to review Superintendent Jeremy Olson’s performance. School Board Chair Frank Fee said the board found Olson’s performance very strong. “It’s just like the last evaluation; he comes out very strong in all categories,” said Fee. “Covid has thrown a loop into testing scores, so we will need to improve that, but otherwise, he came out strong once again.”
The next school board meeting will be on Monday, January 24, at 5:00 p.m. inside the Crookston High School Choir/Orchestra room.
