The Crookston School Board met on Monday in the Crookston High School Choir/Orchestra room.
The meeting started with a presentation from Sara Geist and Ann Brekken, Title I instructors, on the Title I program.
RENTING SPACE AT WASHINGTON SCHOOL TO A CHILDCARE
The board gave Superintendent Jeremy Olson approval to talk with the City of Crookston about the possibility of renting space at Washington School for childcare. The city approached the district about a childcare looking to rent space at Washington School. “Is it possible for us to bring in a childcare provider and rent two classrooms from the district, and we have a portable classroom attached to Washington School, which is nice and self-contained, and we feel like that is a very viable option,” said Olson. “The childcare provider has already walked through and looked at it and felt like it was a good space to put the childcare there.”
Olson added that childcare is a huge deal, and this would be good for the City of Crookston.
FOOTBALL/TRACK FACILITY RFP’S
The board told Superintendent Jeremy Olson to put out a request for proposals for architects to get more information on a track and football field complex at the high school. The move comes after the track and football field committee approved moving forward with a turf football field and 8-lane track facility. “We will be looking for an architect that has experience in designing and building track and fields,” said Olson. “We also ask for how much it would cost, and then we would invite two or three architects to be interviewed by the board. The board wants to do this project right.”
The goal is to have an estimate back by the June 28 school board meeting.
NEW SIGNAGE TABLED UNTIL NEXT MEETING
The district is looking at getting new signage that would read “CROOKSTON HIGH SCHOOL” with a Pirate logo on the left. The board liked how one of the options looked during the day, but they liked how the other option looked at night. Superintendent Jeremy Olson received new information from the company to make it work and combine the two options. “It’s really a great look. It came down to was we had halo letters that are blue that everyone really liked during the daytime. At night, it doesn’t pop as much, so everybody liked how it looked in the daytime, but not at nighttime,” said Superintendent Jeremy Olson. “The other option, they liked how it looked at night, but not during the day, so the bottom line is the board got information today that we could cover it with an overlay to make everybody happy.”
They are also looking at adding HOME OF THE PIRATES over the main entrance at the high school.
The board decided to table a decision on new signage so they could go over the new information.
CARMEN SCHOOL PROPERTY –
The Crookston School District owns the land on the south end of the Carmen School property, which came as a surprise to some in the room. The City of Crookston has been taking care of the land and has put playground equipment on it. Superintendent Olson asked the board if they should transfer the land to the city and the school board decided to keep the land. “It has been used kind of as a community green space, used for soccer, and there is some playground equipment there and some picnic shelters,” said Olson. “That is actually school district property, and it came as a surprise to me and apparently some other people, so I proposed transferring it over to the city. The school board would like to continue its ownership and make sure it continues as a green space. We need to get some agreements with the city and how to proceed with how people put things on the property (like playgrounds).”
Olson said he became aware of the district owning the land when a developer approached him. “I was approached by a businessman on the possibility of developing the area, so we checked on it and realized it is our land and we have been paying taxes on it, and as a district, they knew we owned it, but me being new I didn’t know that.”
BASEBALL FIELD LIGHTING
The board approved giving the City of Crookston $31,000 for the $155,000 lighting project at Jim Karn Field, being spearheaded by the Crookston Baseball Association. The district used the field about 20 percent of the usage, so they figured giving 20 percent of the project cost would be fair. Mike Theis was the only board member to vote no because he isn’t a fan of putting money into projects on land they don’t own, sighting how things have gone with UMC.
SUMMER MUSIC CONTRACTS –
The board approved the summer music lessons contract with the band instructor Caitlin Becks for 37 hours for $1,656.40 and orchestra instructor Haley Ellis for 112 hours for $4,600.
The board approved the following personnel items-
The resignations of Madison Olson, Brooke Van Overbeke, and Autumn Petron as Instructional Assistants at Washington School; Stephanie Niesen and Sandy Seregin as paraprofessionals at Highland School Ashley Stopa as head volleyball coach, and Mitch Bakken as head baseball coach.
The board accepted the retirements of Janise Dorman as Instructional Assistant at Washington School and Gary Stegman as high school art teacher.
The board approved the hiring of the following – Rosa Ibarra as the School Age Care Coordinator for the summer, Kaitlyn Borah and Rebecca Aaker as a teacher at Highland School, Tara Klein as High School Counselor, Ron Ostgaard as head custodian at Washington School, Emily Meyer as head girls hockey coach, and a donation of $1,000 to the Girls Hockey program from Larry Altringer. “We are hiring two elementary teachers to fill teachers we have assigned to the Title program, so we are beefing up our Title program and doubling from two to four Title teachers next year as part of the district’s commitment to take care of students that have struggled,” said Olson. “Not only during the pandemic but also in normal times. There were disproportionate hits during the pandemic to those that are learning to read, so we are trying to beef up those kid’s skills, and we thought the Title program is the best way to do that.”
The next meeting will be Monday, June 28 at 5:00 p.m. at the Crookston High School Choir/Orchestra room.
