The Crookston School Board met on Monday evening at the Crookston High School Choir/Orchestra room.
The meeting led off with a presentation from Shelly Thomforde, Amy Follette and Maddie Everett and their experience on the Europe Trip this summer. Thomforde said there were 28 students on the trip and 26 of them were females. They split into five groups that they called families and Thomforde added that she was proud of how the kids behaved and how well they treated each other and other people.
While on the trip Everett and Follette said they had bus and river tours to see all the sites from Paris to Normandy to England. The saw the Palace of Versailles, Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame Cathedral, and museums. In Normandy, they saw the Cain Memorial museum, Omaha Beach, a cemetery for American soldiers, war sites and picturesque Normandy towns. They took a Ferry to England and stopped at Canterbury Cathedral, Hampton Court, Tower Bridge, the Imperial War Museum, London Tower, Great Scotland Yard and more.
Everett said the trip was amazing. “My favorite place we visited was Normandy because it was just tiny French villages on the French coast and they were all super picturesque and looked just like they did in the 1940’s and it was interesting to be in the area,” said Everett. “My favorite historical sight was the Tower of London in London because so much crazy history happened there. So many imprisonments and beheadings and King Henry the VIII and all of his wives and Crookston High School did a play on it and I was in it and that was a blast.”
Follette said her favorite things was the war museums. “When we were in Normandy we went to the Caen Museum. It was all about Word War II and it hit home to me on how real the war was and the effects of the war and how everybody was affected,” said Follette. “We went to the Palace of Versailles and it was crazy were the treaty was signed. It was such a blast every second you were awake.”
Both girls said they would do the trip again if they had a chance.
After the presentation, the board approved the current bills and approved the employment agreement with Linda Morgan as Youth Services Director, Travis Oliver as the Industrial Technology Instructor and will be part-time because he will have to student teach to finish his teaching licensure, Ramona Erickson as a Kindergarten aide and Lynnae Larson as a long-term sub at Washington School. The board also approved the resignation from Chris Reynolds as a Title Aide at Highland School. The last item of approval was the list of fall coaches for the district. School Board member Adrianne Winger abstained as she was one of the coaches on the list, but the rest of the board approved the list.
The board moved to the main agenda where they approved the milk bid from Deans Foods and the bread bid from Pan O’Gold. They also approved the Crookston School District Goals. They had four goals –
1. Build positive relationships and trust
2. To provide leadership to ensure the effective management of the school district finances
3. Continue efforts to retain and grow student enrollment through marketing the school
4. Focus on Pirate pride and a positive view of the Crookston School District
Crookston School Board Chair Frank Fee explains the goals. “It was a little over a month ago we had a meeting with the Minnesota School Board Association and we set goals for the school district and they would be what we evaluate the new superintendent on and we passed them tonight,” said Fee. “There are many things that come under those four categories and each school board meeting, Dr. Olson will address his report towards those specific goals.”
They will evaluate Superintendent Olson halfway through the school year and again at the end of the year.
Superintendent Jeremy Olson said he wanted to establish metrics on the goals and he will bring them to the board at their next meeting for approval. Olson also talked about the long-range planning for the district. He said he is looking into a bus garage, looking at working with the City of Crookston on the future of the pool and who would benefit the most from the ownership of the facility, referendum planning, enrollment and getting a committee together and build Pirate pride.
The next Crookston School meeting will be held on Monday, August 27 at 5:00 p.m.
Amy Follette and Maddie Everett had a great recap of their Europe Trip
