The Crookston School Board held a working session on Wednesday to discuss operations for the upcoming school year at Highland Elementary School. The session was led by Highland School principal Chris Trostad.
SCHOOL LAYOUT
The session began with an overview of the TENTATIVE Highland School layout, which includes four classrooms for each grade and three pre-K classrooms. One of the major concerns with the transfer of the remaining elementary programs from Washington School to Highland was whether there would be enough classrooms for everyone. Trostad made sure that with the recent addition at Highland, there would be enough room to accommodate more classrooms. “There is space to expand in Highland School,” said Trostad. “If we needed to, we could have an open classroom this next school year, depending on the number of sections for kindergarten. My ultimate goal is to create a school that’s a four-section school for every grade. Since I’ve been here the last 12 years, we’ve never had five sections. We’ve had many three-section grades, so I believe designing a four-section school per grade is exactly what we’re going to be. And if we have numbers go down like this year of kindergarten, we don’t have enough for four section, then we end up with an open room, and you know there’s people that you know could maybe go into that room for a little extra space, if they wanted to, so we all fit.”
There was some discussion about possibly reconfiguring special education classrooms to provide adequate space, especially if there isn’t an additional kindergarten class this year. Trostad and his staff made sure there was enough space for every department, but also wanted to limit how often teachers would need to move classrooms based on class sizes. “I think everybody has really nice spaces, as far as classroom spaces, especially special needs. That was a big one that we heard from, that you know, we don’t want them stuck in closets. There is no special ed teachers stuck in a closet. They all have more than is required for the recommended space for special-needs rooms and classrooms. I think we got nice classroom sizes, too.”
SCHEDULE
The next discussion focused on the daily schedules for each grade. Trostad told the board there were no major changes to the schedule from last year, except for expanding the lunch period for all grades to 30 minutes and group rotations. There was some discussion about the lunch rotations, as some faculty felt the lunchroom would become too noisy with multiple groups of students eating at the same time. Trostad mentioned that the school had looked into sound padding for the lunchroom, but the cost would be high. A temporary barrier was suggested, and Trostad considered the idea.
DROPOFF AND PICKUP CHANGES
Another topic of discussion was a proposed change to the drop-off and pickup procedures. The plan would create two drop-off and pickup areas at Highland: one for pre-K and kindergarten students on the east side of the building by the parking lots and one for grades one through five on the front side of the building. The change was initially proposed by Trostad to prevent traffic backups along Central Avenue and to allow faster drop-offs and pickups for parents and guardians. “I think most parents are going to be very excited to be able to leave the parking lot in the southeast corner, not have to go through the drop-off lane, and take the bypass lane to get out,” Trostad explained. “And then having two drop off zones, grades one through five will drop off in front of Highland School, and then K and Pre K will drop off on the east side of Highland School. So, adding a drop off lane, you gotta do something different, and we know that the pre K is going to be a lot more park, help the child get out, walk across, so I think we have as best a design that I could come up with, as far as isolating it and giving parents a nice opportunity, pull in, park, get their kid out, walk them into the school, walk back, and be able to exit, and not have to go through the drop off in the bypass lane.”
The district has received a bid from Reitrock Paving of Crookston to expand the southeast entrance to include an exit lane and pave a three-foot section of the parking lot that was not previously addressed. The bid will need board approval before work can begin.
Some board members also voiced concerns about buses navigating around the pylons and barriers recently added at the corner of Barrette Street and Central Avenue as part of an Active Transportation Plan project. During that discussion, it was mentioned that the pylons and barriers are expected to be removed before the school year begins to avoid impeding bus traffic in and out of Highland.
Based on the feedback received during the working session, Trostad expects to have finalized plans ready for board approval ahead of their next meeting on July 27 so any remaining projects can be completed ahead of the start of the school year.
