Great things continue to happen at Crookston Public Schools! We have recently had a string of successes, both academically and athletically. We have also started to look to the future as we evaluate our facilities plans and develop a strong long-range vision for how these facilities can enhance our student experience.
STUDENT SUCCESS
Crookston Public Schools has experienced several successes academically and athletically in the past weeks that I would like to highlight. It is always fun to see our kids succeeding!
Congratulations to the Crookston High School Knowledge Bowl Team for winning three back-to-back first-place finishes. During the meet at Thief River Falls, Crookston Knowledge Bowl Teams took 1st and 4th places out of 41 teams competing!
The Crookston One Act Play was victorious at subsections in Ada and took third place in section competition with the play “The Remarkable Susan”. This play is about Susan B. Anthony which is timely as this is the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th amendment which granted women the right to vote.
Both Girl’s and Boy’s Basketball triumphed against Thief River Falls! Congratulations to Caden Osborn for scoring his 1000th point at Home vs. Thief River Falls!
Girl’s Hockey was able to gain a victory against Detroit Lakes in the first round of playoffs!
SCHOOL BUSINESS
The School District is poised to open bids for the bus garage project on February 20. If the bids come in at or below the approved maximum set by the voters then the School Board will approve the winning bid and start construction during April. Bonds for this project will be sold on February 24th.
We are working on the possibility of offering five-day full-day Preschool. As part of our WBWF Plan, we are working to improve our outcomes for Kindergarten Readiness and I see the 5th day as both a positive academic move and serving the best interest of our parents. We would still maintain a half-day option. This would be subject to School Board approval and will most likely be coming before the board in February.
LONG RANGE PLANNING
We continue to look towards the future with our facilities as we try to determine our uses now and five or even ten years from now. Our current bus garage facilities will need to have a solution as we look at new facilities in the coming year. We continue to work with the city to find the best option for our community. In regard to our sports complex, we will continue our partnership with UMC in the very short term and start to look at the different options in the short term and long term. At this point, we are exploring a partnership with the city, options for building our own Football field/track, or a five-year lease with UMC. At this point, we are just exploring our options.
We also began some planning around our projected enrollment over the next four years and looked at the feasibility to have both Washington and Highland as Elementary sites. It does appear that for the next four years both elementary schools will be needed as Preschool continues to expand. Preschool is a great help to our kids and families and is a strategy that we will use to fulfill our goal of helping each child be Kindergarten ready. Supporting strong Preschool Programming will be a necessity in our future facility planning.
If you have any questions or would like to find out more about Crookston Public Schools feel free to contact me by phone at 218-770-8717 or email jeremyolson@isd593.org. I am very proud to be a part of Crookston Public Schools. Go Pirates!
