The Crookston School Board met on Monday evening at the Crookston High School Choir and Orchestra room and the first item on the agenda was the election of officers for 2019. The officers will remain the same as 2018 with the board chair Frank Fee, the board clerk will be Adrianne Winger and the board treasurer will be Tim Dufault.
The feature program was by Crookston Pirate Boosters president Corky Reynolds. The Pirate Boosters Club was started in 1987 with John Peters and Howard Reitmeier and it was revitalized in 2000. From 2000 to 2011 the boosters raised over $350,000 and from 2012 to the present they have raised over $350,000. Reynolds said they have benefitted from the June Shaver estate which has given a large sum of money each year since her passing. The Crookston Pirate Boosters have around 150 ongoing members that give anywhere from five dollars to $1,000. Reynolds said they try to meet the needs of the athletic teams by purchasing equipment and capital investments. Crookston Activities Director and Boys Basketball coach Greg Garmen said he and the all the coaches and athletes are appreciative of the Pirate Boosters. “Without them we would struggle to keep our kids equipped with all the equipment that we need. Our budgets aren’t that big,” said Garmen. “In order to get new uniforms, we would have to save up for years, for example, in basketball we just got 20 new blue uniforms and that cost us $2,000 and my budget is typically around $800 a year and that gets me basketballs basically and with the help of the Pirate Booster Club we are able to get blues and whites every five years or whatever we can get out of them. One football helmet is $250 and up so each sport is different and we try to get them what they need.”
The consent agenda was passed unanimously with the board approving the minutes from the December 10 and 20 meetings, the checks and disbursements in the amount of $87,892.86, the resignation of Alma Pierce as the ELL teacher, employment of Cheryl Bingham as a paraprofessional at Highland School, employment of Maria Argueta as ELL teacher, employment of Ken Olson as a bus driver/mechanic, a leave of absence for Leah Zimmerman, a MSHSL Form B grant request and a donation of $1,470 from the MSHSL for student participation and $1000 from Digi-Key for Crookston High School choir performances at their Christmas party with the money going to the music department.
In the main agenda, the board approved a resolution directing the administration to make recommendations for reductions in programs and positions and reasons therefore. This is something that is done every year. “The resolution is a fiscally conservative measure that the board is letting the superintendent know that if there is any alterations or any efficiencies to be found lets make those efficiencies and if there is any programs that need to be reduced because of fiscal issues down the road lets bring those to the boards attention,” said Superintendent Jeremy Olson. “This is a standard item that close to 100 percent of the school districts do.”
The board approved the official law firms of Rust, Stock, and Rust, P.A. of Crookston and Ratwik, Roszak and Maloney, P.A. of Minneapolis and the official media outlets are KROX Radio and the Crookston Daily Times.
The board also approved a change in meeting times from two times a month to once a month starting in March. The school board will meet on the fourth Monday of each month except in April and May when they meet on the fourth Tuesday of the month because of Easter and Memorial Day holidays. “It really comes down to the amount of business we were conducting at each meeting. We want to be efficient with how we utilize our school board time and staff time, our focus is really more on our committees to get things done and moving them on to school board for approval,” said Superintendent Olson. “If there is a need for a special meeting or a work session we do have that open on the second Monday to host a work session or special meeting.”
The board approved 2019 committee assignments. For a list of all the committees click here.
The board also approved an early dismissal on February 22 for grades 7-12 because the Crookston High School will be hosting the Section 8A Individual Wrestling tournament.
The board approved a proposal from Superintendent Olson to have Big River Group, LLC to help facilitate the districts strategic plan. “I am really excited to start working with the community and our staff on creating a vision on where we are going as a district,” said Superintendent Olson. “We have a couple different options and we could have done this without facilitation work, but we do believe the work that Big River has done will benefit us because they have done it many times and they can guide our district through the process which will contribute to a better product for our students, staff and our families. We need to get the process right so we get the right input so we can make the right decisions so we can create the right plan.”
The board approved an Achievement and Integration plan and the Crookston School District is teaming up with Thief River Falls and East Grand Forks so they can receive extra state funding. Crookston has $164,000 with 70 percent coming from the state and 30 percent locally. “We have three components, one is to provide more funding for preschool,” said Superintendent Jeremy Olson. “The second is a student success coach, basically a liaison to our families to work with our students that are struggling or behind a grade level to make sure they are succeeding and the third component is intervention for seventh and eighth graders to make sure they are able to succeed.”
The last item on the agenda was the mid-year evaluation of Superintendent Jeremy Olson. School Board chair Frank Fee said Olson was evaluated on five goals and he met or exceeded all five goals. “Doctor Olson did very well in the school boards analysis,” said Fee. “The first goal was to provide timely communication to the school board and he exceeded expectations there. Goal two was to provide leadership and effective management of school district finances and all the board members thought he met that expectation and we like what he has done so far. Goal three was continued efforts to retain and grow student enrollment through marketing and we all thought he met that goal. Goal four was a focus on Pirate Pride and a positive view of the school district and we felt he exceeded that and the fifth goal was student achievement and we felt he met the goal there and he has spent a lot of time on this goal. So he has met or highly exceeded his expectations, overall we are pleased with his efforts so far.”
Board member Dave Davidson said he has been impressed with Olson’s work so far and said the district has been trying to get rid of the pool for many years and four months into the job he was able to get it done.
The next Crookston School Board meeting will be on Monday, January 28 at 5:00 p.m. at the Crookston High School and Choir room.
