Hazel Oberholtzer
The I.S.D. 166 school board welcomed Hazel Oberholtzer, a junior at CCHS, to the school board at the board’s February 27 meeting. Hazel has agreed to serve as the school’s student representative on the board.
School board Chair Dan Shirley introduced Hazel, citing her as an exemplary high school honor student who takes part in athletics and has served on the student council, amongst other things.
During public comments, Jay Arrowsmith Decoux rose to speak on behalf of the selection of Oberlhotzer as a student representative. Jay, who has helped coach Hazel in high school sports, talked about Hazel’s great qualities and her intelligence and implored the board to seek her input.
Hazel won’t be able to vote on resolutions, but she will be a bridge between the board and the kids at I.S.D. 166.
After several months of discussion between the school board and the county, the school district is still not ready to sign a custodial contract to clean the YMCA.
The Cook County commissioners recently approved purchase of custodial services from the school district that would open the door for the school custodians to clean the YMCA, but there are several items in the contract the school district needs cleared up before it will sign an agreement with the county.
The county owns the building that houses the Y but has had trouble in recent years, keeping staff on to clean the Y.
The county sent the school district a joint contract for custodial services. Under the agreement, the county would continue to perform routine maintenance, preventative maintenance, and scheduled replacement of systems.
The county also agreed to pay the school district up to $90,412 annually for the custodial services, but the school board wants the contract to be more specific about what the school’s role would be. For now, the school district has not agreed to a contract to clean the Y.
What happens when a hungry I.S.D. 166 student’s meal account reaches zero? The school board reviewed and approved its school lunch policy.
I.S.D. 166 has had a policy in place that ensures all students will eat even if there is no money in their account, and the school board talked about the current lunch policy.
When it comes to paying for meals, when the balance reaches zero in a student’s meal account, the school may charge up to $10 on this account. When the $10 limit is reached, a student will not be allowed to charge further meals or an a la carte item until the negative account balance is paid.
Following Minnesota Statute 124D.111, the school must provide lunch without charge to all students who qualify for the free or reduced-price meal program.
A student with an outstanding meal charge debt will be allowed to purchase a meal if the student pays for the meal when it is received.
Alternate meals that meet federal and state requirements may be offered to a student who does not have sufficient funds in their meal account. The school will accommodate special dietary needs concerning other meals.
When a student has a negative meal account, the student isn’t allowed to charge a snack item or a la carte items until they have funds available in their account.
Reminders are sent to parents or guardians when the student’s lunch account gets low or falls below zero.
The school district makes reasonable efforts to collect unpaid meal charges classified as delinquent debt. Outstanding meal charges are designated as delinquent debt when payment is overdue. Negative balances of $20, not paid before the end of the month, will be turned over to the superintendent or superintendent’s designee for collection. Collection options may include use of collection agencies, claims in the conciliation court, or any legal method permitted by law.
After going over the policy, the most important thing noted was that no student would go hungry and students who didn’t have enough money in their lunch account wouldn’t be singled out in front of their peers.
Principal Megan Meyers gave an update about the activities at the school.
The school board signed an amended joint powers agreement with the North Shore Collaborative, which works to establish and govern a family services/ children’s mental health collaborative.
Board approval was granted for overnight trips for the robotics team and students attending Wolf Ridge.
The school board accepted Nicole Bockovich’s letter of resignation as a paraprofessional.
Signy Sherman was hired as an English as a Second Language teacher. Signy holds a tier 4-ESL K-12 license.
Some changes were made in the work agreement for the Media Center Supervisor/ Assessment Assistant. The position, which is held by Jill Boen, is an at-will and confidential employee supervised by the superintendent.
Alex Ermatinger, RN, was hired to perform the duties of the school’s Public Health Nurse.
In school board reports Dan Shirley, who serves as the school board’s liaison to the YMCA Advisory Council, said he was presented with monthly membership information (increased over last year) and looked at the budget with a discussion of the dues that the Y pays to the National YMCA and the Duluth YMCA Association. The Cook County Y pays 19.5 percent of their revenue into dues to these two organizations, or $170,000 annually.
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