The Crookston School Board held a special meeting on Monday evening in the Crookston High School Choir/Orchestra room. The special meeting was called to hire a new high school guidance counselor, but since the agenda was released last week, the applicant decided to take a job closer to home. The board received good news with a decrease in health insurance premiums for next school year, which will save the staff some money, or have more money put into their health savings accounts. The meeting recap is below –
GUIDANCE COUNSELOR –
At the start of the meeting, item 2.5 on the main agenda (Approve employment with Maegan Reller, HS Counselor) was removed. Reller let the district know that she took a job closer to home.
One of the three working session topics after the meeting was finding a counselor. Like many other districts across Minnesota, the Crookston School District is struggling to find candidates for the open school counselor job. Crookston High School Eric Bubna said they posted the job three or four times and have only had three licensed applicants. They offered the job to one, another applicant dropped out, and the third wasn’t going to be a good fit. Bubna added that the salary Crookston is offering is one of the top in northwest Minnesota. “We continue to look for a school counselor because having a full-time fully licensed guidance counselor is a priority for our district,” said Crookston School District Superintendent Jeremy Olson. “It has been difficult to recruit candidates because we don’t have a large pool of candidates in this part of the state.”
The discussion revolved around what to do if the district can’t find somebody and what a plan B might look like. While the State of Minnesota doesn’t require a guidance counselor, everyone in the room agreed that they want a full-time guidance counselor at Crookston High School. Principal Bubna said if they can’t find a guidance counselor, they will have to go to a plan B. Plan B could include working with the Northwestern Mental Health Center to get extra help next year. Next year, Crookston High School will have somebody from Northwest Mental Health Center at the school as a full-time equivalent and would want to add more. Bubna said they could hire another administrative professional to do the academic work like talking college and prepping the students, post-secondary, class schedules and changes, and many other things. The school has been operating without a counselor since late January. “Plan A is to find a school counselor, but if we can’t find one, what does plan B look like,” said Superintendent Olson. “That (Plan B) would be a temporary measure with a long-term goal of recruiting and retaining a full-time counselor.”
HEALTH INSURANCE SAVINGS –
The first topic on the main agenda was that the Health Insurance bids came back with positive news for school district employees with decreased health insurance costs. Superintendent Olson said Crookston School District Business Director Laura Lyzcewski worked hard crunching the numbers. The recommendation for health insurance next year was through Blue Cross Blue Shield with a 10 to 11 percent decrease in premiums next year while maintaining the same aggregate value. The switch to the new health insurance plan for the next school year was unanimously approved. “We received several bids, and we did select Blue Cross Blue Shield direct. Our district currently has Blue Cross Blue Shield through the service coop. However, Blue Cross Blue Shield direct came in with a significant decrease in premiums which we are more than happy to accept.”
The staff will be paying around 10 percent less in premiums than they are currently for a savings for our staff with the same plans they have this year.
RETIREMENTS –
The board approved the retirement of two long-time employees, Carol Picard as an instructional aide at Highland School and Randy Hviding as a custodian at Washington School. “We are sad to see them go,” said Superintendent Olson. “It is hard to thank someone for the number of years they have put into the district. Saying thank you doesn’t do them justice. Both of them are quality employees that will be greatly missed.”
The board also approved a resignation letter from Tracy Hoffman as a Music Teacher at Highland School.
OLD BUS GARAGE DISCUSSION –
One of the working session topics was the plans for the old bus garage and direction from the board. In a brief discussion, Superintendent Olson was told to solicit bids for the brick portion of the old bus garage. “I was looking for a timeline from the school board, and I was basically given the nod to move forward as quick as we can to identify a bid process, which we pretty much have established, and to start soliciting bids for the purchase of the old bus garage site,” said Superintendent Olson. “The brick site is the one that is open, and there is a wooden structure that is next to it, and we are still trying to determine what our next steps are for that structure.” Olson added that they are probably a month or two away before the bid process begins so they can give due notice.
CULTURE OF HIGH EXPECTATIONS FOR THE CROOKSTON SCHOOL DISTRICT
Another discussion item was a “Culture of High Expectations” and what that should look like for the board and their expectations of the superintendent. Superintendent Olson gave the board three areas he was hoping the board would look into.
1. What does it look like for the board setting goals for the district
2. Accountability
3. Performance Metrics
Superintendent Olson said he wants the board to look at governance, the nuts and bolts of the district, and a need to highlight academics more in their goals. “We want to create a culture of high expectations in the Crookston Public Schools,” said Superintendent Olson. “That needs to go at every level. What does it look like at the school level, and we need to look at it at the board level and administration level.”
Olson added he is hoping to set academic achievement goals. “The direction I was given was to come back to the school board towards the end of the year and start looking at the metrics and mechanisms that we are going to use to monitor that,” said Olson. “What is the growth going to look like, and work with the admin team on what does it look like.”
