The Crookston School Board met Monday evening at the Crookston High School Choir and Orchestra room. The board didn’t move on a motion to allow teachers to teach from home during distance learning, they heard an update from Crookston High School Ag Instructor Whitney Rupprecht and more. The meeting recap is below.
MOTION DIES DUE TO LACK OF SECOND
The meeting started with Crookston School Board member Dave Davidson making a motion to give staff the choice to teach at the school or from home during distance learning. The current school district policy requires the teachers to teach from the school unless they have a note from a doctor, are in quarantine, or many other reasons. The motion died for a lack of a second from another board member. “What I wanted was a chance to talk about the teacher’s situation going into distance learning. I wanted the teachers to have the option to choose either working in the district or in the home,” said Davidson. “I was really disappointed that my motion died for a lack of a second because that didn’t give us a chance to discuss it. I think the discussion was key and I really wanted your listeners and other people that follow these kinds of things to know why people thought the way they did in regards to this issue.”
Davidson added, “I believe we also sent a message to the professional staff and I’m not sure what it was specifically, but it was negative.”
After the motion died due to a lack of a second, a handful of district teachers walked out of the meeting.
CROOKSTON HIGH SCHOOL AG PROGRAM UPDATE
Crookston High School Ag Instructor Whitney Rupprecht gave a presentation to the board and took several questions about the classes 
she teaches to start off the official portion of the meeting. Rupprecht taught about 235 kids in 7-12 in the first quarter in a variety of classes ranging from Intro to Ag all to Leadership 101. “The kids are learning life skills, the basics of agriculture. They might never ever judge a cow in their life, but they learn how to explain their rationale and give their reasons,” said Rupprecht. “It is really those life skills like cooking. I found out students didn’t know how to turn on a stove, one didn’t know how to wash a dish. Life skills are huge right now with our students.”
Rupprecht added that so many students don’t know a lot about farms. “Students are so removed from the farm. It’s no longer my grandma and grandpa farm, it’s a distant cousin they might see once a year,” said Rupprecht. “It is fun to be able to bring stuff into the school like we brought chickens into the school and eight chickens loose in the welding shop was fun to let them watch and catch them.”
Rupprecht said there are so many jobs that are Agriculture related outside of being a farmer. “Anything from the foodservice industry to the clothing industry. I do photography on the side and I tell them if you love photography you could do photography and graphic design and specialize in an agricultural market and as long as you know the background information, people want to hire you. It’s a growing field.”
Rupprecht said she is enjoying teaching in Crookston. “I seriously love all of my students,” said Rupprecht. “Crookston has been a welcoming community. The students are amazing and are exciting to be in classes. I don’t if they love that I jump around the classroom, but I know they are paying attention.”
BUS HOIST PURCHASE–
The school board approved the purchase of a bus hoist for the new bus garage. They went with the low bid of $38,854.66 from Gray Manufacturing out of Missouri. Crookston School District Transportation Director Rick Niemela said he thought it was a good company and they have a patent on this kind of equipment. “The hoist will lift the bus up and it will be more efficient to do mechanical work,” said Superintendent Olson. “It will also be safer.”
AUDIT APPROVED –
The 2019-20 school year audit was approved and it was a good report. “We had a very good year fiscally and it comes down to ADM’s. Enrollment went up and we made a switch in preschool that allowed us to get more seats,” said Superintendent Olson. “Our fund balance has increased, but as I look out over the next couple of years the state could have less revenue and that will mean less revenue for districts so it will help us weather the storm.”
OLD BUS GARAGE DISCUSSION
The school board discussed possible options for the old bus garage properties. There is a brick building, a white wood building, and a white metal building. The district plans to be moved into the new bus garage by mid-January. Discussion ranged from tearing the buildings down, to using the metal building for storage, and another option was selling the building. There have been several entities interested in the brick building and if the district sells, they would have to sell to the highest bidder. “We have some numbers for a teardown and what it looks like,” said Superintendent Olson. “We will continue to get more numbers and other pieces to the puzzle and bring more information to the board in the next meeting.”
MAIN AGENDA –
The board also approved the following –
Fundraising requests for the school year.
The application to the Minnesota State High School League.
To combine and assign the polling place (St. Paul’s Lutheran Church) for a school district election not held on the day of a statewide election (this is done every year).
CONSENT AGENDA –
The board unanimously approved the resignation of Rochelle Chaput as an instructional assistant at Highland School.
They approved the reinstatement of Tammy Warcken from her one-year leave of absence as an instructional assistant at Highland School.
The master agreement with the instructional assistant group for 2019-20, 2020-21 was approved.
The board accepted donations of $7,435 from the Pirate Fine Arts Boosters, and $3,650 from Lowell Township in leftover money from the CARES act to be used towards COVID expenses.
The Crookston High School winter activity coaches list was confirmed. The coaches for each activity are listed below –
Boys Basketball –
Head – Greg Garmen
Assistant – Jason Tangquist
C squad – Brett Brenden
8th – Lon Boike
7th – Nate Lubarski
Volunteer coaches – Kevin Weber/Tom Anderson
Girls Basketball –
Head – Darin Zimmerman
Assistant – Tayler Christensen
C Squad – Emily Samuelson
8th grade – Brandi Nesseth
7th grade – Jamie Kresl
Boys Hockey –
Head – Josh Hardy
Assistants – Connor Morgan and Sam Melbye
Girls Hockey –
Head – Tim Moe
Assistants – Emily Meyer and Stacy Olson
Volunteer – Nick Biermaier
Wrestling –
Head – Wes Hanson
Assistants – Colton Weiland, and Daniel Rooney
Volunteers – Cade Peterson, and Jake Larkin
Dance – Grace Espinoza
Speech – Brandon Adams, Colleen MacRae, Gaye Wick, Phyllis Hagen
One-Act – Beth Carlson
Skating – Erica Uttermark
Knowledge Bowl – Katelyn Stegman
Trainer – Luke Biermaier
Math Counts – Dana Erickson and Andrea Adrian
Junior High Student Council – Katelyn Stegman
The next meeting will be on December 3 at 5:00 p.m. to discuss the learning model. The next regular meeting will be Monday, December 14 with a Truth-in-Taxation hearing with a meeting to follow starting at 6:00 p.m. at the Crookston High School Choir/Orchestra room.
