On Monday night, the Crookston School Board met inside the Crookston High School Choir/Orchestra room. The meeting began with two School District residents expressing concerns to the board. One was a racial concern within the School District, and the other was a School Bus concern and accountability for making sure kids get on the right school bus. Superintendent Jeremy Olson was absent from the meeting. The School Board acknowledged both concerns and directed both residents’ fears to Olson when he is available, as they had no power to act on either situation.
MAIN AGENDA
There was only one item on the Main Agenda to approve a resolution that would allow the administration to possibly make recommendations for reductions in the School District’s programs and positions and reasons thereof. School Board Chair Frank Fee explained. “Every year, we direct the administration and ask that they review everything,” said Fee. “We aren’t looking for cuts or asking for them, and we are in good financial shape right now. If they look and find some places where we could cut, that would be great, but we aren’t looking to cut. Every year we do this, so by no means are we looking to replace people or get rid of people.”
The board approved the resolution unanimously.
REPORTS
School Board member Dave Davidson gave a World’s Best Workforce Report and provided what the report entailed. “The World’s Best Workforce Committee is charged by the legislature to provide the School Board recommendations about how to improve academics in a number of ways,” said Davidson. “Right now, we feel the best way to do that is to offer students mental health to meet their emotional needs. Everything is important, but the Committee agreed that is most important at this time.”
Davidson also explained how the district would move forward to accomplish this. “Hopefully, what is going to happen is that we can find a way to hire more counselors,” said Davidson. “We would like to get a counselor at Highland and more counseling help at the High School as well.”
The report was informational, and no action was needed from the board.
The board also heard reports from Washington School Principal Denice Oliver, Highland Elementary School Principal Chris Trostad, and Crookston High School Principal Nicki Martinez. Both Trostad and Oliver were not in attendance but left packets for their report that the board reviewed.
Martinez’s report highlighted the start of semester two, which is taking place this week since the weather last week pushed the end of the first semester back a few days. Martinez also noted there might be several incomplete grades due to covid and students missing class time. She anticipates kids needing to make up finals in the coming days and weeks before all the grades will be in.
CONSENT AGENDA
The Consent Agenda included approval of the December 13 and January 5 meeting minutes and approving all current bills. The Consent Agenda also included approval of Lane Advance Requests, and approval of employment with Angie Oien as a Paraprofessional, Donna Hartel as a Cultural Liaison, and Nathan Sorenson as a Success Coach. The consent agenda will also include accepting resignation letters from Whitney Rupprecht Marlene Murray and accepting a retirement letter from Activities Director Greg Garmen. The last item on the Consent Agenda was approving the Seniority List for the 2021-2022 school year. The board approved all Consent Agenda items unanimously.
The next meeting will take place on Monday, February 28, at 5:00 p.m. inside the Crookston High School Choir/Orchestra room.
