The Crookston School Board met Monday evening and started with the swearing-in of newly elected board member Mike Theis. Mike won the special election on November 5 and fills the seat left open when Kari Miller moved out of the district.
MAIN AGENDA – (Polling place, Therapy Dog, and Supply budget)-
The school board approved a resolution establishing a single polling place for any district election not held on a day of a statewide election. The polling place will be at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church. “As a precaution, every year we are going to pass a resolution combining polling places,” said Superintendent Olson. “It is more efficient for our voters, it actually reduces cost by at least half and it helps us be fiscally responsible with taxpayer dollars.”
The board approved a therapy dog named Ziggy for the school district. Ziggy 
(pictured to the right) has been working with the district since the start of the school year, but the approval was procedural. “This fall I gave approval for a therapy dog at the High School that is used at our elementary schools,” said Superintendent Olson. “There was a step I skipped procedurally because I should have brought this to the school board and noticed it a couple of weeks ago and brought it to them today.”
Washington School principal Denice Oliver said they love when Ziggy comes to the school on Tuesdays because Ziggy makes a big difference and can deescalate a classroom by walking into the room. “The therapy dog was initiated by our counseling department. Jill Carlson had come to me and said I think this is something that we have had before to help kids, what are your thoughts,” said Superintendent Olson. “We realized this was a good step for our district and decided to say yes to the program.”
The board also approved restoring a 10 percent supply budget reduction after a big increase in enrollment has put the district in better financial shape than originally expected. The school district had 1128 students on the first day of school and is currently at 1132, which is higher than anticipated. “We were anticipating a smaller student count this year,” said Superintendent Olson. “We were looking at a $450,000 hole in our budget and had to make the reductions. The thing that changed was our enrollment went beyond my best-case scenario. My best-case scenario was 1115 and we are at 1132 today. Because of that, we realized we can absorb bringing back that 10 percent supply cost reduction. It is more fun to bring back something than to cut it. It is a positive sign (with increased enrollment) and we are seeing some good trends.”
CROOKSTON PIRATE FINE ARTS BOOSTER PRESENTATION –
Jim Kent, President of the Pirate Fine Arts Boosters (PFAB), was the feature presentation and he thanked the community for their support of PFAB and he explained the awards given to the school district arts programs this school year. “It is an absolutely fantastic organization,” said Crookston Superintendent Jeremy Olson. “They are looking to advance the needs of our kids.”
The largest purchases were $4,500 (funded from the June Shave Estate funds) for up-lights for the Crookston High School Auditorium; $1,700 for half-sized violins, bows, and equipment for the orchestra; $1,300 for two junior spotlights and a wireless microphone for the Crookston High School Auditorium. The PFAB also bough classroom resources, instruments and choral music for Highland and Washington School, percussion equipment and new instruments for the band, choral music and music folders for the choir, and other items for the art and speech programs.
PFAB also gave $2,600 in scholarships to students to attend various camps and programs. For the complete list of people that donated to PFAB and what PFAB has purchased with the funds, CLICK HERE.
CONSENT AGENDA (Contracts and donations) –
The board passed the consent agenda which included the approval of minutes from the October 28 and November 12 meetings, and approving the current bills.
Several personnel items were approved including a 12-week leave of absence for Jennifer Knutson, a school readiness/Early Childhood Family Education instructor. The board accepted the resignation letter of Alicia Jay, a paraprofessional at the high school. The board approved the employment of Christine Erdman and Linda Brown in dietary at the high school and Amanda Christianson as a paraprofessional at the high school.
The school board also approved the employment agreement with Anna Ogaard-Brekken as Food Service Director for 2019-2022 and a master agreement with educational assistants for 2019-2021. “It is very nice to get those done,” said Superintendent Olson. “We have been working through a series of negotiations, trying to systematically work through our employment groups to get everybody up to date and moving forward in the future trying to settle the contracts before they are done out of respect to our employees and to make sure we are getting things done in an appropriate manner.”
The board was happy to accept three donations. The donations were $16,250 from Pirates Fine Arts Boosters, $1,000 from the Crookston Youth Basketball Association towards waxing the gym floor, and $276 from the Wrestling Club to help cover costs for the Wrestling team when they compete in the Rumble on the Red tournament at the Fargodome in December.
BUS GARAGE –
Superintendent Olson said they are working on a Bus Garage Construction bid spec packet and when they have it finished they will be able to know when they will open the bidding window. “We are trying to be cautious. We have anticipated windows of time of when the bid window and bid opening will be, but we want to wait until we know for sure to be respectful to the vendors,” said Superintendent Olson.
WEBSITE AND SOCIAL MEDIA –
The school district hasn’t been happy with their new website and have been working with the company to see what can be done. If they wanted to get out of the contract, it would cost $25,000. The company said they could do a possible reboot of the website and Superintendent Olson said it hasn’t been a great experience. “Right now we are exploring some options with our website,” said Superintendent Olson. “We started negotiating with our current vendor and worked out a deal on a free reboot. We are exploring what template we want to use and how is it going to function.”
The district is currently talking to a social media company that would help them with their social media presence. “We want to make sure we are communicating with our community and that is part of our master plan,” said Superintendent Olson. “More and more parents are relying on social media to get their news. We have three options that we are looking at and trying to provide a pretty awesome service to the community.”
PTO BINGO A SUCCESS –
Highland School Principal Chris Trostad said the PTO bingo held earlier this school year was a huge success, bringing in about $6,000. He said usually the fundraiser brings in around $3,500 and this year was well above that.
SCHOOL BOARD MEMBERS THANK THE COMMUNITY –
All the Crookston School board members thanked the community for their support in the election on November 5.
NEXT SCHOOL BOARD MEETING –
The next Crookston School Board meeting will be held on Monday, December 9 at 6:00 p.m. The meeting will start with the Truth in Taxation hearing, followed by the only scheduled meeting for the month.
