The Crookston School Board met in the high school choir/orchestra room on Monday evening.
2023-24 SCHOOL YEAR PRELIMINARY BUDGET
The board approved the 2023-24 school year preliminary budget, which comes up short about $160,000, which is better than anticipated in a meeting last week. There are new expenses and new staff additions, and the district is looking at more grant funding to help balance the budget as close as possible. The district is also conservative on its enrollment numbers, so a bump in enrollment could change things. “It is pretty close to being a balanced budget. We have a new bus in there, we have added a few staffing positions we have talked about the last five months with behavior interventionists, we have also picked up some additional funding from the state, we have added a full-time superintendent compared to a part-time one,” said Kuehn. “We are hoping to bring in a few more students, and the budget can be changed anytime, and I think it is a more balanced budget than we had a year ago.”
BREAD AND MILK BIDS
The board approved Pan O’ Gold’s bread and Prairie Farms’ milk bids. There were multiple bids for both items. “Milk prices are relatively similar to last year after they saw a huge increase two years ago with supply chain issues,” said Crookston School District Food Service Director Anna Ogaard-Brekken. “We did see a big increase in bread prices this year, and that is due to the supply chain issues, and that won’t be out of the ordinary for other schools in the area, and we are hoping federal and state reimbursement rates will cover the increase.”
With the State of Minnesota passing free meals for all schools in the state, the increase in bread costs won’t affect the families, but it will affect the school districts. “With the Minnesota Free Meals program, all meals will be free, both breakfast and lunch per student each day,” said Ogaard-Brekken. “We are hopeful that will increase participation and that will increase our revenue as school districts get reimbursed per meal served. We are still waiting to see our reimbursement rates, but we hope they will remain high.”
SUMMER FOOD PROGRAM SEEING HIGH NUMBERS
The Crookston School District and Crookston United Way Eat United Summer Food program has been a big hit this year with some of the best numbers they have seen, including serving 200 meals in one day. “We see a lot of familiar faces with Park and Rec activities, but also the Fisher Summer bus comes every day with a busload of kids, and the Tri-Valley Bus is running all over town and bringing participants from home,” said Ogaard-Brekken. “We will continue to run the program Monday through Thursday through the end of July, except no meals the week of the fourth (July 3-6).”
The meals are served free of charge for kids 18 and under at the Ray Ecklund Complex from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the Lions Shelter.
OVERDOSE MEDICATION POLICY
The board approved an Overdose Medication Policy as recommended by the Minnesota School Board Association. The policy and state law requires schools to have Narcon in buildings where students are present. The school district will have the medication at Washington, Highland, and the High School. “This is effective July 1, and the legislature has been talking about this for the past couple of years to have the opiate medication in the district,” said Superintendent Dave Kuehn. “We are making a committee with our school nurse, incoming Superintendent Rand Bergquist, and other staff members. We will train staff that we feel is necessary, figure out the plan and training, and be ready when school starts.”
LOCAL LITERACY PLAN
The board approved the district’s Local Literacy Plan. Washington School Principal Denice Oliver put the plan together and made changes for the next school year. “It is something we are required to have in place to talk about all the things that we do to make sure we are teaching and how we are doing things with students at all levels and especially the younger students,” said Kuehn. “We want to ensure all kids are reading at their grade level. There is a heightened requirement that school districts ramp up their literacy plans, so a lot of time and money is being used in our professional development.”
CONSENT AGENDA
The board approved the resignation of Emily Olson as head cook, Wes Hanson as a science teacher, and Mavis Braaten as custodian. They accepted the retirement of Tammy Warken as Instructional Assistant at Highland School.
The board approved the employment of Brandon Lee as a middle school Social Studies teacher, Jaclyn Hubbard as an elementary teacher, and Amanda Wolf as an elementary teacher.
The board approved the assignment letters for Emma Morlan as a Behavior Intervention assistant, with Donovan Edlund as Transportation Assistant/bus driver and Lennis Fuller as bus driver/mechanic.
The board approved status changes for Jana Hodgson from Class B to Class A in the Administrative Assistance Group, a letter of assignment for Robin Reitmeier as Special Services Administrator and Assistant MARSS Coordinator, and an employment contract with Marilyn Wahouske as Executive Assistant to the Superintendent and HR Specialist.
The board approved the 2023-24 and 2024-25 school year contracts with Activities Director Nate Lubarski and summer contracts with Orchestra Instructor Haley Ellis and Band Instructor Adrianne Winger.
The board approved the project manager’s proposal with superintendent Dave Kuehn for upcoming construction projects.
MISCELLANEOUS
The board approved incoming Superintendent Randy Bergquist as an Identified Official with Authority for the Minnesota Department of Education.
The board also approved membership with the Minnesota Rural Education Association and the Minnesota School Board Association.
