The Crookston School Board met on Monday evening at the Crookston High School Choir and Orchestra room.
The meeting started with presentations on the Math Masters program from Highland School Chris Trostad, and Superintendent Dave Kuehn gave the board information on the World’s Best Workforce. “They have three areas that they would like to see move forward in the district,” said Superintendent Dave Kuehn.“Doing interventions, family and student engagement, and the third was providing more opportunities for grades 9-12.” One item was suggested, and the board members gave their support to a parent advisory board to get input from the district parents of all the schools.”
CHANGE TO THE 2023-24 SCHOOL DISTRICT CALENDAR-
The board approved two changes to the 2023-24 district school calendar. They voted to make two changes. The first change was to have the sixth and eighth-grade students start a day before the 9-12th graders to give them time to assimilate to the new middle school remodel. “We are looking to make it a middle school day and have our sixth through eighth-grade students there and have the ninth through 12th graders start a day later to give them a chance to be in the building and walk around without all the other students,” said Superintendent Kuehn. “We thought it was a way to start a new middle school format the right way.”
The second change to the calendar is two early release days. One on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and before Easter break. “We want to get in some additional professional development for our teachers,” said Superintendent Kuehn. “We are doing a lot on our other professional development days with our LETRS training and Literacy training, along with other areas like diversity and equity training. So those are the two changes to the calendar.” All teachers in pre-school through fifth grade have voluntarily signed up to take the LETRS training.
NEW AIR EXCHANGER FOR THE WOODS SHOP AT THE HIGH SCHOOL
The Crookston School District called for bids on a new air handling unit for the wood shop class at the high school. Three companies bid, and Vilandre of Grand Forks, ND, came in with the lowest bid at $109,000. “The woods classroom has a pretty sophisticated and heavy-duty air handling system, and it is shot, so in order to have kids in there and have a safe learning atmosphere, we need to replace the unit,” said Superintendent Kuehn. “This will fall under our long-term facility maintenance dollars, so we have money in that account to replace it. It is a big-ticket item, and the board approved it.”
MISCELLANEOUS-
The board called for bread and milk bids for the 2023-24 school year. They approved membership with the Minnesota State High School League and the LETRS agreement with teachers. All the preschool through fifth-grade teachers have signed up to participate in the LETRS training. The summer programs were approved, which included marching band practice, orchestra practice in the summer, and credit recovery summer school in June for 9-12th graders. The final main agenda item was a resolution to reinstate two teaching positions. The combination of a grant and a teacher resignation allows the district to offer the jobs to two of the teachers they cut from Highland School. The board approved the resolution.
CONSENT AGENDA
The consent agenda included the acceptance or retirement letters from LaDonna Peterson as part-time physical education instructor at Highland School and Greg Garmen as Assistant Principal at Crookston High School. The acceptance of resignation letters from Gabrielle Foede as choir instructor and Nicholle Fredrick as a paraprofessional at Highland School. The consent agenda also included the reduction of an Instructional Assistant position at Washington School and the employment of Kelsey Grunewald as payroll accountant for the district, Wyatt Ecklund as a special ed instructor at the high school, and Emily Scheresky as Food Service Director.
DONATIONS-
The board voted to approve seven donations totaling $21,131. The donations included $2,606 to the FFA from the Crookston Masonic Lodge, $2,606 to the FFA from the Minnesota Chapter of the Masonic Lodge, and the FFA also received a $500 donation from Farmer’s Elevator of Eldred. The board also accepted $2,500 from Nicholas Proulx for the multi-use sports complex, $1,000 from the Area 1 Envirothon of Minnesota for the Envirothon team, $11,000 towards Crookston High School scholarships from the June Shaver Endowment, and $919 to the Pirate Boys Golf team from the Crookston Pirate Boosters. “We are very thankful to all the people that give donations to the district, and it comes in a lot of different ways and from different entities,” said Superintendent Kuehn.
POLK COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT TRUANCY REPORT-
Polk County Commissioner Gary Wilhite handed out the Polk County School District truancy report to the board. He also took some questions from the board. You can see the report over the past four years below.
