The Crookston School Board held a special meeting on Wednesday morning, where they voted to shorten the 2020-2021 school day by two days ending the year for all students on Friday, May 28. The two days will be used as staff training for technology and preparation for its expanded use during the school year. The change will also need to be approved by the Crookston Education Association (CEA), which is the teacher’s union, and their vote is scheduled for later Wednesday.
Superintendent Jeremy Olson said the two additional days of staff training would be August 11-12, allowing staff time to digest and implement the training before the year starts. “A couple of years ago, we worked with CEA to develop a calendar that we felt met our needs at the time,” said Olson. “Obviously, with COVID-19, there is a desire to prepare our staff for what is coming this fall. Going from 172 contact days to 170, and then, taking those two days and moving them to August 11-12 is the proposal to front-load our staff, so they have the preparation they need. We’re looking at some technology training, safety training, and talk through the mode of operation we’ll be in this fall.”
The Department of Education is expected to provide schools with a fall operation plan during the last week of July, which will determine whether classes are held in-person, through distance learning, or a hybrid of both. “The week of July 27th, the districts will be notified of the mode of operation they’re going to be in whether its distance, hybrid, or face-to-face,” said Olson. “We want to use that time then to train for the different scenarios – what are we doing for lunches – all those different pieces, the million different that we’re going to have to make. We want to walk through some of those decisions with our staff so that they know what to prepare for.”
The district would then have their traditional workshop days to answer additional questions from the earlier training and do the regular preparation for the year scheduled for September 1-3 with the first day of school scheduled on Tuesday, September 8.
CARES ACT
Olson presented the board with a budget for the $328,422 Crookston schools received from the CARES Act. A portion of those funds will go to Cathedral and Our Savior’s Lutheran Schools through the Title 1 process. At the same time, the rest will be used for technology, protective equipment, and academic achievement by hiring a third Title I teacher at the elementary schools, explained Olson. “We tried to look at two issues,” said Olson. “One is to hold the district harmless from a technology standpoint. Whether that’s tech loss or increase in technology, looking at protective equipment, cleaning supplies. All of those different expenses we know have already come to us or will be coming. The other side of the funding was how do we make kids whole. This was not a great time for kids that were maybe struggling. We know some groups of kids fell backward this spring, even though we tried our very best. We know that not all students were moving forward. To fight that, my proposal is to add a third Title I teacher to help give kids a boost. So, for the next two years, the district is committed to a Title I teacher to boost our students and give them the help they need to try to close that achievement gap, especially at the lower elementary end.”
The Title I program serves younger students in K-8, and Olson said closing the achievement gap at the higher grades will fall under the Intervention and Success Coach hired by the district last year. “We have a safety net in place there,” said Olson. “We added an Interventionist last year so that interventionist is going to have to focus on that gap. Most research says when you have limited funds and concern about the achievement gap, the best place to put that is in the elementary. So, from a strategy perspective, we’re going to utilize the safety net we put in place last year with the Interventionist and Success Coach at the high school and add that third Title teacher at the elementary level.”
Olson also said he doesn’t anticipate that the widespread free internet service that was available this spring will be available in the fall if part or all the classes are distance learning. So, on the technology side, the district is buying and paying the monthly service subscription for 10 hot spot devices that can be checked out from the school. Additionally, there as of a week and a half ago, there was $37,000 worth of technology that was missing and had not been returned to the school from spring distance learning. “About a week and a half ago, we were at $37,000 in missing devices,” said Olson. “People have been returning those devices. We are in step two of recovering those devices, and we are asking our families that if they still have a school device to bring that in. There are a couple of exceptions; we’ve talked with a couple of families that are working with another organization that we very much support that will need those devices over the summer. They’ve been given special permission, but for the majority of t devices, we need to get those back into the school.”
NEW DISTRICT NURSE HIRED
The School Board also approved the employment of Laurie Wagner as the Licensed School Nurse for the district following the retirement of Laurie Coauette this spring. Olson said that while Wagner is currently otherwise employed and not scheduled to begin until the fall, she has agreed to help as much as possible with preparing the district’s COVID-19 plans. “While her employment starts this fall, I’ve already talked to her that she’s going to have to be a part of the planning process this July, and she’s agreed to do that where she can,” said Olson. “Obviously, with her current employer, she’s focused on wanting to leave them well, and we want to make sure that we are honoring that. But wherever she can, she’s going to popping in to help us develop our COVID-19 plan, our back-to-school plan, and all those pieces we’re going to have to make sure we adjust to whatever form we’re in to operate safely.”
ADDITIONAL PERSONNEL
The board approved the resignation of Deb Myrold as a title aide at Highland Elementary and approved a three-year contract extension of the Superintendent’s contract through 2024. The contract will include raises of 1.6, 2.74, and 3 percent respectively each year of the contract explained School Board and Negotiations committee member Tim Dufault. “It went very smooth. Everything was unchanged except his salary and B3 retirement benefits,” said Dufault. “We’re in the last year of the current contract. In the new contract, his salary will be going up on an average of 2.5 percent over the three years, and his retirement will go up similarly. We were able to lock him in for another three years. Like we discussed, if something comes along that he wants to look at, another district, he’s welcomed to do that. But at least we’ve got the details signed for the next three years, and it looks really good.”
Dufault said the board had been pleased with Olson’s reviews and the work Olson has done toward reaching district goals. “Ever since he got here, he’s had nothing but great reviews from the board, staff, public, and kids,” said Dufault. “And when we did his review again this spring, he is right on task, watching the budget well, and academic success is going up. We brought more kids back into the district, which is a good thing. So, all the goals we set for him he’s been working at, chipping away, and improving. It was a very good review.”
