The Crookston School Board met tonight inside the Crookston High School Choir/Orchestra room. The meeting always begins with a time when visitors can share concerns with the school board. Multiple citizens stated their concern to the board about vaping within the Crookston High School. Crookston Public Schools Superintendent Dave Kuehn informed everyone that they are working with the Crookston Police Department to work on the issue. They will begin to write citations to students who are caught, and it will be a misdemeanor. The citation goes all the way to a maximum fine of $300. School Resource Officer Don Rasicot stated they are having issues within the school and bathrooms, and that they will continue to try and fix the issue so that other students do not need to deal with this problem.
FEATURE PROGRAM
After the open forum, the meeting continued with the board receiving an update on the Middle School project taking place at the Crookston High School. Crookston High School Principal Matt Torgerson was supposed to give the report to the board, however, he was out sick, so Superintendent Kuehn stepped in and addressed the board on the update. “Towards the end of January Matt (Torgerson) had a parent meeting where he went through a slideshow that showed pictures of the remodel and talked about the philosophy that we want to have with this new middle school addition,” said Superintendent Kuehn. “He went through what a schedule might look like for them in that new setting, and just different changes that they may have. It’s different from what they are currently doing and that is the point. We want them to be treated as a true middle school student and not as a High School student.”
Kuehn went through the same slideshow that Torgerson showed back in January and took questions from the board or visitors. No action was taken, and the presentation was merely an update on the progress.
CONSENT AGENDA
The Consent Agenda included the following items.
- Approval of the January 23 Special Meeting minutes
- Approval of the January 23 Regular Meeting minutes
- Approval of the February 15 Special Meeting minutes
- Approval of Current Bills in the amount of $175,076.91
- Accept resignation letter from Danielle Edlund, Paraprofessional at Washington
- Accept resignation letter from Katrina Gonzalez, Paraprofessional at Highland
- Accept resignation letter from Jenny Slyt, Paraprofessional at CHS
- Accept resignation letter from Caitlin Becks, Band Instructor
- Accept retirement letter from Jill Carlson, School Psychologist
- Approve employment with Jessica Wilson as Paraprofessional at Highland
- Approve employment with Bradley Hubred as Science Instructor at CHS
- Approve increase in hours for Jessica Holzer, Admin. Asst
- Approve Spring Coaches List
- Acceptance of Donation in the amount of $1,600 from Ag Country Farm Credit Services for FFA
- Acceptance of Donation in the amount of $976.82 from the Crookston Baseball Assn. for Boys’ Basketball program
- Acceptance of Donation in the amount of $250 from the Crookston Eagles Auxiliary 873 for the student meal debt
- Acceptance of Donation in the amount of $2,973 from the June Shave Endowment for the CHS Drama Club
- Acceptance of Donation in the amount of $2,000 from Halstad Telephone Co. for student scholarships
- Acceptance of Donation in the amount of $700 from the Crookston Wrestling Club for boy’s Wrestling
- Acceptance of Donation in the amount of $9,937 from the June Shaver Endowment for CHS Healthcare Scholarships
- Acceptance of an anonymous donation in the amount of $100 for student meal debt
- Acceptance of Donation in the amount of $412 from the Methodist and Presbyterian Churches
All Consent Agenda items were approved unanimously, and Superintendent Kuehn wanted to share his thanks to the community for being so generous. “It’s always great to see members of the community giving back to our School District,” said Superintendent Kuehn. “Anytime we get donations from a variety of sources it helps our school and allows us to put more resources towards things.”
MAIN AGENDA
The Main Agenda began with the review and approval of the Safe Learning Plan. “Back when we started the Covid-19 era, each School District was required to put together a Safe Learning Plan,” said Superintendent Kuehn. “It had in person learning, hybrid learning, and all of those things. It’s evolved for the most part to in-person learning and what kind of precautions we have in place now compared to when it was first established and things like that. It really isn’t changing, and this was more of a formality for the board as we are required to review it twice a year and that’s what we did.”
After reviewing the Safe Learning Plan the board approved it unanimously. The next item on the Main Agenda was approving the Achievement and Integration Budget for 2024. “We get money for Achievement and Integration as we are a school that has diversity and qualifies to get about $171,000 in revenue,” said Kuehn. “We use that money to help staffing and programming that all goes back to helping students. It has to get approved by the board so really all we are doing is showing the board what the money is going towards so they can give their stamp of approval on it.”
The majority of money as Kuehn stated is towards staffing such as in Intervention/Success Coaching positions. The board approved the Achievement and Integration Budget unanimously. The following item on the Main Agenda was discussing the 2023/2024 budget and staffing plan. The discussion did not cover specifics but wanted to give the board an idea of what to expect. Superintendent Kuehn stated that they are going with a conservative approach when it comes to staffing as they cannot be sure how much federal funding they will receive. Two Intervention positions over at Highland will need to be lowered to just one for the upcoming year based on the projections. Superintendent Kuehn believes that while this is taking a step back, there are grants and opportunities to subsidize staffing down the road. On the budget side of things, it is a similar cautious and optimistic approach with more specific details to come down the road. With the legislation going until May, there is simply no way to know for sure what the exact numbers will be. The item was discussed, and no action was taken from the board.
An item that was added to the Main Agenda was a resolution approving a quick claim deed on a piece of property out near the Crookston Airport. There is a piece of property near the airport that has the Crookston School District’s name on the deed, and the School Board approved the quick claim deed to take their name off of the deed. There was also another last-minute addition to the Main Agenda by Superintendent Kuehn. He suggested that the board discuss possibly re-opening the search for a new Superintendent. Kuehn believes there is still an opportunity to find a long-term solution and that re-opening the search may not be the worst thing to do.
There have been inquiries from other candidates since the search has been suspended, and Superintendent Kuehn believes these are quality candidates for the opening. After some discussion, the board decided to re-open the search, and the position will be posted for 10 days. It was not a unanimous decision as board member Dave Davidson voted against the re-opening of the search. After that time, they will review applications, and the process to try and find the right hire will begin. The search will be through the Minnesota School Board Association (MSBA) and there will be no extra charge.
The next board meeting will take place Monday, March 27 at 5:00 p.m. inside the Crookston High School Choir/Orchestra Room. Pictures of the middle school addition slideshow are below.
