The Crookston School Board met Tuesday night and outside of the discussion regarding the future of co-ops for the hockey program previously reported on had a swift meeting. The school board did appoint Nick Nicholas to serve as a short-term replacement to fill Kari Miller’s position as her resignation from the board is effective June 7.
Nicholas is a past board chair and will not be running in November, which was an important factor according to chair Frank Fee. “After Kari Miller’s resignation I stopped and talked to Nick,” said Fee. “He said ‘I’m not running for school board’ and I said ‘no, you don’t have to, just fill in for those five months.’ He has a lot of respect from former board members, served on the school board for a number of years, was chairman for a number of years, went on to the Polk County Commissioner’s spot. And he’s trying to enjoy life a little bit now, and I thought we’d drag him back into the school board. Nick serves, and he said yeah he’d do that. We brought it up tonight, and all the other board members seemed pleased with Nick, and he was voted through unanimously. So we’re excited to have Nick start next month.”
A special election will be held in November to fill Miller’s position until the next regular election about two years down the road. During the open forum, Marcia Meine brought up the topic of vaping and asked what was being done about it. She also said she’d been told about students who’ve been caught vaping in class and sent to the office only to have nothing done about it. Superintendent Jeremy Olson rebuked that notion quickly. “I can tell you and promise you and give you my word that has not happened,” said Olson. “We’ve addressed every case of vaping that we are aware of. This is something that we do discipline for. We take this very, very seriously. That is fundamentally incorrect if someone is telling you that. Because I will personally promise you that does not happen.”
The board approved the list of summer programs to include orchestra, band, summer splash (special education), alternative learning center, northern lights academy, K-6 summer camp, community education, and the summer food program. They also approved a purchase up to $50,000 from reserves for lockers at Highland Elementary school, accept Bremer as their insurance agent for Property, Casualty, and Worker’s Compensation Insurance and passed a resolution for membership into the Minnesota State High School League for 2019-2020.
The board also approved the following personnel items. They accepted the resignations of DeAnn Schmidt, a dietary worker at CHS; Maria Argueta, ELL instructor; and Madison Brekke, kindergarten teacher at Washington Elementary School (WES). The also accepted the retirement letter of Marjean Sanderson, a paraprofessional at CHS. They approved employment with Megan A. Hanson, a kindergarten teacher at WES; and Brett Brenden, high school science teacher at CHS. And finally, they approved a one year leave of absence for Rachel Loraas, a special education teacher at CHS.
All of the board and the superintendent welcomed the new staff and thanked those staff who were outgoing. Dave Davidson also gave special recognition to Maria Argueta who is leaving the district for the Peace Corp and Rachel Loraas. “Rachel Loraas has been a friend of mine for a long time and someone I taught next to or at least in the same pod for several years,” said Davidson. “There is virtually no one I’ve ever met who is better than she is at working with kids with disabilities.”
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