The Crookston School Board met on Monday evening in the Crookston High School choir/orchestra room.
FINAL AUDIT
Tracee Bruggeman of Brady Martz and Associates gave a presentation on the final audit for the Crookston School District. The district had deficit spending of $343,138 in 2023.
RECOMMENDATIONS ON REDUCTIONS IN PROGRAMS/POSITIONS
The board approved the resolution directing the administration to make recommendations for reductions in programs and positions and reasons why, which is something school boards need to do each year. “Pretty much every January, all school boards implement this resolution to take a look at if we have to make any cuts,” said Superintendent Randy Bergquist. “At this point we don’t have anything planned right now. Our enrollment is steady, and we are up in the elementary grades and stable in the middle school and high school.”
FIRST READING OF POLICY 801
The Minnesota School Board Association (MSBA) recommended that schools update Policy 801, so the board held the first reading of the Policy update at the meeting. The policy requires that all students have a safe space and can have meetings like Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) before or after school. “801 is equal access to school facilities, and the MSBA said we need to update the policy because they reflect statutory requirements set forth by the legislature,” said Superintendent Bergquist. “The policy of the school district is to not deny equal access or equal opportunity or discriminate against any students who want to conduct a meeting based on the religious, political, philosophical, or any other content of this speech at such meetings.”
Superintendent Bergquist added that the school district will not influence or form any of the groups and will not force any student to be a part of any groups or meetings. “Basically, this is a safe space for students to have,” said Superintendent Bergquist. “If students want to have a sweatpants club, for example, they can come in the morning at 7:00 a.m. or after school at 3:30 p.m. Obviously, we don’t want students coming in alone, and we have to have an adult there, so nothing gets out of hand. As an educator, I don’t think it is right to tell the students what to believe. I believe our job is to make sure students are critical thinkers so they can make decisions on their own.”
SCHOOL BOARD ELECTION OF OFFICERS
The 2024 Crookston School Board Officers are listed below-
Chair – Frank Fee
Clerk – Mike Theis
Treasurer – Tim Dufault
OTHER MAIN AGENDA ITEMS
The official law firms for the district are Fischer, Rust Law; and Ratwik/Roszak and Maloney, PA.
The official media outlets are KROX Radio and the Crookston Times.
The board set the schedule for the 2024 school board meetings on the fourth Monday of each month at 5:00 p.m. The December meeting will be held on December 9 at 6:00 p.m. due to the Truth in Taxation Hearing.
The board approved the pay equity report.
CONSENT AGENDA
The consent agenda included the approval of minutes from the December 11 meeting and the approval of current bills and disbursements. The personnel items included the approval of salary lane advance requests and the approval of Leave Of Absence requests for Highland Elementary School teacher Stacy Olson and Washington School teacher Megan Wright.
The board accepted the resignation from high school custodian Jeremy Harris, Boys Head Track and Field Coach Wayne Folkers, and from Special Education instructor Jenifer Dockter.
The board approved the employment of Monique Arguelles as a paraprofessional at Washington Elementary School and Kent Erickson as a high school custodian. The board also approved Kayla Snyder as the concession stand manager.
GRANTS AND DONATIONS
The board accepted grants and donations from the United Way of Crookston for the District’s Patch Program in the amount of $1,000. A donation from the Eagles Auxiliary for the FFA program in the amount of $788.56 was accepted, and a donation from the Crookston Youth Basketball Association for the boy’s and girl’s basketball programs in the amount of $1,000.
HIGHLAND SCHOOL READ-A-THON LEADERS HONORED
Highland School Principal Chris Trostad read off names of the top readers in the school’s recent read-a-thon fundraiser.
The top 10 readers in terms of minutes read are below –
1. Elizabeth Capistran 1,918 minutes
2. Keeva Kliner 1,730 minutes
3. Keira Gudmundson 1280 minutes
4. De’marion Isum 1,193 minutes
5. Finn Brekken 1,184 minutes
6. Landon Klawitter 1,160 minutes
7. Naomi Rose 1,141 minutes
8. Owen Salveson 1,105 minutes
9. Jayden Nguyen 1,100 minutes
10. Corbin Caillier 1,100 minutes
Six of the top 20 readers were able to make it to the meeting and are pictured below.
NEXT MEETING
The next scheduled Crookston School Board meeting will be on Monday, February 26, at 5:00 p.m. in the Crookston High School choir/orchestra room.
Principal Trostad with some of the Read-A-Thon top readers
Tracee Bruggeman of Brady Martz presents the final audit to the board.
