The Crookston School Board met Monday evening at Highland Elementary School to give the school board a tour of the remodeling that was done throughout the building this summer.
HIGHLAND SCHOOL TOUR/REMODEL
Highland School Principal Chris Trostad gave the tour of the remodeled areas. Trostad, Travis Oliver and the custodial staff were busy this summer getting the building ready for the new school year with first grade through sixth-grade students. “With first grade moving here we wanted to create a school within a school. We put the fifth and sixth grade on the east end and our first through fourth graders on the other end. By reconfiguring the building, we were able to do some things like locating the services like ELL, Title, Special Ed close to our neediest kids,” said Trostad. “Kenny Winger and his crew did a phenomenal job with all the moves and construction pieces, and Travis Oliver was a huge help too. We are pleased with the result, and the rooms are ready to go, and it looks like a new building.” The school has new lockers outside the classrooms, two new locker rooms by the gymnasium where one of the locker bays used to be located. They added a fifth and sixth-grade special education classroom where the old locker bay (north of the gym) used to be. An epoxy finish was used in the hallways by the gymnasium with a Pirate head logo in front of the doors.
While a lot of the construction was to create more usable space, safety for the students was also a big key in the remodeling and locker placement. “I have always been nervous about a fire alarm going off and our youngest kids furthest from their lockers or a second grader having to go outside without hats, gloves, and they would freeze in a matter of minutes in the winter,” said Trostad. “Now we have the lockers outside of the classroom and they will be able to grab what they need, and now we won’t lose as much instructional time because we aren’t spending five to 10 minutes going back and forth to the lockers.”
With all the remodeling and pretty much every teacher at Highland School moving to a different classroom, it will be an adventure the week of school. “It is kind of like everybody is going to a new school,” said Trostad. “We were at 420 students last year, and now we are at 500 this year, and when I first came here we had 500, so we have plenty of room, and now we will be more efficient.”
Trostad and Oliver put in a lot of time this summer with the remodel, including the construction of all the locker bases for 425 feet of lockers. “I feel like we cut a mile of two by fours,” said Trostad. “Travis and I were able to do it, and it was great we were able to do it and the lockers look great and in our school colors (blue). The old ones were 50 years old so it was time to upgrade.”
School board member Tim Dufault said Highland School looked fantastic and hats off to everybody that had a part in the remodel. School Board chair Frank Fee said the custodial staff, Rick Niemela and staff, and all the teachers have the buildings looking great.
CONSTRUCTION TRADES HOUSE UPDATE
The Crookston High School Construction Trades teacher, Travis Oliver, gave an update on the house that his class will be building this year. He said not many schools offer a course like Crookston and he thanked the board for allowing them to build another house.
The house will be built at 1613 Hoven Lane, next to last years house. The house will be 1,520 square feet with four bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a 902 square foot garage with two stalls. Oliver said the house would have nine-foot walls and he believed they would have a vaulted ceiling this year.
This will be the fourth year Oliver has built a house with the construction trades class and he said he frequently gets calls from construction companies wondering if he has anybody that can work.
CONSENT AGENDA
The school board unanimously approved the consent agenda, which included approval of prior minutes and the current bills. The board accepted resignations from Jessica Curry, a paraprofessional at the high school; Madison Crane, an aide at Washington Elementary School; and Anna Alme, as an ELL Instructor.
The board approved employment of: Meagen Solie as a Social Studies Instructor at the high school; Renae Myszkowski as an English Instructor at high school; Mary Wessman as a paraprofessional; Rosa Argueta Frazee as an ELL Instructor; Serenity Adams as a paraprofessional; Travis Oliver as the Industrial Tech Instructor; LaDonna Peterson as a .33 FTE Phy Ed Instructor at Washington School; Bobbie Jo Hebert, .83 FTE VPK Teacher at Washington; Rochelle Chaput, a SR/VPK aide at Washington; and Matthew Torgerson, .30 FTE Band/.70 FTE Dean of Students.
The board added four items to the consent agenda before the meeting, including the resignation of Janice Proulx from Dietary and Jazmine Staehnke as a paraprofessional, boh at the high school
The also added the employment of Herlinda Cisneros and Linda Fuller as SR/VPK Aides at Washington School.
The board also approved leave of absence request for Cindy Fahser.
The last items in the consent agenda were the approval of lane advance requests and the acceptance of grants/donations, including over $3,000 for a piece of football equipment from Nate Lubarski of Crookston United Insurance and $770 from the Walt Keller Scholarship from bingo they held on Nite 2 Unite earlier this month.
Crookston School District Superintendent Jeremy Olson said they had a lot of new families joining the district and a lot of kids coming back to the district at Back to School registration day. The Crookston School District has worked out an agreement with the Northwest Mental Health Center to offer more services for the students.
The next school board meeting is scheduled for Monday, September 23 at 5:00 p.m. at the Crookston High School choir/orchestra room.
