The Crookston School Board met for a regular meeting on Monday afternoon inside the Crookston High School Choir/Orchestra Room.
CONSENT AGENDA
The board’s Consent Agenda consisted of approving the School Board’s Minutes from their meeting on October 24 and their special meeting on November 14. It also included approving their current bills in the amount of $177,783.93. It also included approving the employment of Maria Hammer as a Paraprofessional at Highland Elementary School and Cassandra Brown as a Recess Aide and the MOU for Marcia Scholler. The final items on the agenda include accepting grants from the Education Foundation and the PFAB. The board approved the agenda unanimously.
MAIN AGENDA
The board’s main agenda then began a discussion to approve a Quit Claim Deed for the former Crookston High School/Junior High property of the former High School and Junior High off of Main Street. Interim Superintendent Dave Kuehn explained that the school owned the property until 2007 but is now owned by two different entities. One of the entities was the City of Crookston, as they owned a corner piece of the property and now wished to own the property underneath it. “There’s some language that was with the deed when it was sold back in 2007 that had some criteria of what they couldn’t use the property for,” Interim Superintendent Dave Kuehn explained. “Those don’t make a lot of sense to be holding against the property at this time, so we’ve talked with our legal counsel, and we’re working with the city to sign off on the old language that was in place on the deeds for that piece of property.” Kuehn explained they would also have to do this with the other owning entity to clear the old language and complete the Quit Claim Deeds. The board approved the claims and the sale of the property unanimously.
2nd Reading of Policy Updates
The board then began the second reading of the eleven recent policy updates they had introduced at their last meeting on October 24. Dave Kuehn explained they would hold the final reading and adoption of the policies at their next meeting on December 12.
Policy 534 update
The board then began a discussion of some updates to Policy 534. Policy 534 was about unpaid meal policies. Dave Kuehn explained that the Minnesota School Boards clarified that students with a negative or unpaid balance would still be treated with the same lunch as students with a paid balance to avoid any “lunch shaming.” The board approved the update unanimously.
Review & Comment for proposed multi-use outdoor facility
The board then began discussions about the proposed multi-use outdoor facility. Kuehn explained that they would have submitted a review and comment document to the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE), which they would review before giving comments or approval of the project. “When you do a project, or you’re going to go out for a referendum for a project, you have to submit a Review and Comment document,” Dave Kuehn explained. “Its basically the narrative and scope of your project and not only including the costs but also the “whys” of your project and making sure that the MDE knows that you have a project and you are going for a referendum, so you will have to include all of the referendum information and question. It’s just one of the stamps of approval that we need to get from the Minnesota Department of Education to allow us to go forth with the referendum on February 14.” The board approved the motion unanimously. Dave Davidson reported that with the new property evaluations, the tax addition for the referendum would be a small increase compared to initially believed, and with the Ag Innovation Tax Credit, that would also help cover many of the payments for it.
Superintendent Search
The final item on the board’s agenda was to discuss their next action on the search for the district’s next Superintendent. Kuehn explained that they would use the Minnesota School Board Association’s (MSBA) Search Service to help with the search, and several districts had gotten great results from using them. “I think in the best interest of the school district and finding the next leader, the sooner you start on these preparations, and you get the advertisement out, and we’re hoping to do that in January that you’ll get some of the better candidate pools than the idea of going with an Interim Superintendent last spring as you’re not going to have the same pool of candidates in May as you will in January,” Dave Kuehn explained. “So, we’re trying to get ahead of the others, and there’s going to be a lot of Superintendent openings again this year. Last year, I think there were about 85 to 90, and they’re looking at something close to that again this year. If you’re looking and hiring some of the better candidates who may be looking to aspire to be a superintendent or move from a current superintendent position, the earlier you can get going with the process, the better your district will be in finding that right candidate for it.” Kuehn explained the service would cost $9,900 and they should start as soon as possible to find the district’s best candidate. Board member Dave Davidson motioned to use the MSBA’s Service, which the board approved unanimously.
REPORTS
The board then heard a Superintendent’s Report from Interim Superintendent Dave Kuehn. Kuehn reported that the National Honor Society Initiation was held recently with multiple new additions. The school’s classic Noel dinner and concert would also be held on Sunday, December 4, and several other sports teams’ seasons were starting. The administration was also making staffing plans with the 6th-grade’s transition to the High School for the Junior High addition but was looking to use most of the existing staff from Highland but may have a few new positions available. He also reported that he was heading to the Crookston City Council meeting later that night to give a presentation on the referendum and share it with them and their wards. There would also be a public informational meeting about it on December 13 in the High School Auditorium, with more meetings scheduled for January.
The next Crookston School Board meeting will take place on Monday, December 12, at 6:00 p.m. in the Crookston High School Choir/Orchestra Room, after the Truth and Taxation meeting that will begin at 6:00 p.m.
