The Crookston School Board met on Monday evening in the Crookston High School Choir/Orchestra room.
RESIGNED DANCE COACH SUPPORT
The meeting had a large crowd of mostly dance team participants and parents. Crookston Pirate Dance team coach Grace Espinosa resigned and stated on Facebook that she was pushed to her limits and couldn’t do it anymore. A dance parent, Kari Trudeau, spoke during the open forum to voice her displeasure that Espinosa was resigning and also assistant coach Quinn Siegle (who was interviewed) didn’t get the job. “Grace is currently the Crookston and Thief River Falls (Just For Kix) Director and previous high school head coach. Her assistant and some parents were not happy with her taking on three programs, her commute from Grand Forks, communication, and making new friendships. Many stated it was too much for her to handle and it would take away from our dancers,” said Trudeau. “While she did experience issues with her TRF (Thief River Falls) program, and they had trickled into the CHS season, this was by no means for an assistant or athletes or parents to go behind her back and not support her.”
Crookston School District Superintendent Randy Bergquist said they chose to have the new dance coach hiring the same meeting as the former dance coach’s resignation because the next meeting isn’t until August 26, and the Minnesota State High School League has certain rules and regulations on when you can meet with your student-athletes, so he personally moved it up to the meeting this month. “I will take full responsibility. I don’t believe Mr. Lubarski (Nate Lubarski, the Activities Director) did anything wrong in this. I feel bad that it has got to this point. I am not on social media, well I have an account but the picture is about 14 years old, but people send me things. I feel bad it has gotten to this point, however our district is moving forward,” said Superintendent Bergquist. “What really bothers me, what really disappoints me is that I have worked in education for 30 years, and I have never met an activities director that has more passion about school, community, and kids, and when I hear people say he or I are racist and all that kind of stuff, I think that is a bunch of crap. I can honestly say this, he is the best Activities Director I have worked with in 30 years, probably because he wasn’t in education first. That is the thing about Nate Lubarski; he would bend over backward for kids. I take full responsibility, and if people want to be upset, they can be upset with me because Nate Lubarski and I have been communicating about this, and I think he is getting kind of a bad rap.”
Bergquist added that he tried to set up a meeting for all the dance parents to meet and didn’t realize there was animosity within the parent group.
RESIGNATIONS-
The board accepted the resignations of Dance Coach Grace Espinosa and Special Education teacher Emily Fonteyn.
NEW HIRES/POSITION CHANGES
The board approved the employment of the following –
Ashley Powell as a Physical Education teacher at Crookston High School. Powell is a recent graduate of Winona State University.
Davin Rose is a high school Science teacher. Rose has five years of teaching experience and is from Indianapolis, Indiana.
Thomas Sherman as a high school social studies teacher. He is a recent graduate of Bemidji State University and has one year of experience.
Meghan Jeffries was hired as a Special Ed teacher with three years of experience. She has a BA from the University of North Florida and a Masters Degree from the University of Central Florida.
Kate Mulvey was hired as an EL teacher for the district. She has 10+ years of experience and graduated from the University of Minnesota with a master’s degree from Hamline University.
Alison Olson and Lori Wagner were hired as paraprofessionals at Highland School, Leigha Stevenson as head Dance Coach.
They approved the promotion of Anita Brekken from assistant cook to head cook at Highland School and Karen Reierson from head cook to kitchen helper at the high school.
MSBA MEMBERSHIP APPROVED
The board unanimously approved its membership with the Minnesota School Boards Association.
TWO FULL-TIME SUBS APPROVED
The board unanimously approved hiring two full-time substitute teachers, one to be based at Highland Elementary and one to be based at Crookston High School.
APPROVED POLLING PLACE
The board approved St. Paul’s Lutheran Church as the combined polling place for school district elections not held on the day of a statewide election.
UPDATE POLICIES
The school board unanimously approved updated policies as recommended by the Minnesota School Board Association: Policy 506—Student Discipline, Policy 507—Corporal Punishment and Prone Restraint, Policy 507.5—School Resource Officers, and Policy 514—Bullying Prohibition Policy.
STUDENT HANDBOOKS APPROVED
The board approved the School District student/staff handbooks for the 2024-25 school year.
CLICK HERE FOR THE CROOKSTON HIGH SCHOOL HANDBOOK PART 1
CLICK HERE FOR THE CROOKSTON HIGH SCHOOL HANDBOOK PART 2
CLICK HERE FOR THE CROOKSTON MIDDLE SCHOOL HANDBOOK
CLICK HERE FOR THE HIGHLAND SCHOOL STUDENT HANDBOOK
CLICK HERE FOR THE WASHINGTON SCHOOL HANDBOOK
OFFICIAL SIGNATORIES/FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS
The board designated Superintendent Randy Bergquist and Business Manager Blake Stoltman as the investment authority. They designated the official financial institutions: United Valley Bank of Crookston as the payroll account, Bremer Bank as the financial account, and Bremer Bank as the lockbox account.
They also designated the official financial operations signatories – School Board Chair Frank Fee, School Board Clerk Mike Theis, School Board Treasurer Tim Dufault, Superintendent Randy Bergquist, and Business Manager Blake Stoltman.
The school board will designate Superintendent Bergquist and Business Manager Blake Stoltman as the district personnel to lease, purchase, and contract for budgeted goods and services.
The board accepted $1,100 in donations, with $500 from COBANK, ACB for the FFA program, $500 from Kathie Barnes for the Pirate Football program, and $100 from Pagnac Farms for the Summer Food program.
Tags:
