Twenty-seven community members and school representatives spent Saturday, May 18, 2013 interviewing five candidates out of a field of 16 for the Cook County High School 6th-12th grade principal position that is being reinstated next school year. By Monday, May 20, ISD 166 Superintendent Beth Schwarz announced on the school’s facebook page that Adam Nelson, a social studies teacher at Red Wing High School, had been offered and conditionally accepted the job.
In a special meeting on Thursday, May 30, the board voted to hire Nelson on a one-year probationary contract at a salary of $78,000 plus benefits. His duty year will be 210 days (the equivalent of 42 weeks) with up to 15 paid-time-off days for sickness and/or other approved uses. He will be moving here with his wife and baby girl and will start working full-time in August.
Facility remodeling
The board spent considerable time at its May 16 regular meeting discussing possible changes to the Cook County Schools facility and use of various spaces within the building. Some of the changes are related to the sale of the west wing of the school to the county for the new Cook County Community YMCA.
According to a plan proposed by Superintendent Schwarz, “The compounding factors of an additional principal, relocation of the North Shore Fitness Center [to the YMCA], need for increased security, declining enrollment and change in the balance of high school vs. middle school populations necessitate a review of the ISD 166 campus.”
A task force that included Sheriff Mark Falk met May 3 to discuss building security. “We spent quite a bit of time discussing minimizing the entrance to the school to one door only, the need for full-time supervision of that door, and the current functioning of the PK-12 office,” Schwarz’s plan states.
The plan offered several possible configurations for the district offices, with both the district and PK-12 offices located in the current PK-12 office and counseling area. School doors would be locked from 8:20 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. and visitors would need to be buzzed in except during community events. Visitors would enter at the eagle doors and check in at an office that would be constructed to the left of the eagle display case.
The board discussed the three office configurations proposed by the superintendent and took a tour of the space. Two out of the three configurations included a space for supervision of students on in-school suspension. Regarding offices planned for both a PK-5 principal and a 6-12 principal, Schwarz wrote, “Three administrators at ISD 166 is likely a short-term commitment of three years.”
Other areas of the building would be reconfigured as well and some soundproofing would be installed between classrooms that have noise problems. The original elementary office, where the district office has recently been located, would be used for mental health offices and volunteer, paraprofessional, and tutoring work. The area where the fitness center has been would be turned into two rooms: an EBD classroom with an adjoining office and a health classroom with an adjoining office where Athletic Director/Health Teacher Pam Taylor would be located.
Schwarz’ps plan included moving the school counselor’s office out of the administrative office area into another room in the middle/high school. One of the considerations she listed in making changes was “improved career/guidance counseling services.”
With a middle/high school student population projected to be down to 282 next year, Schwarz recommended moving Michael McHugh’s English classroom out of the Arrowhead Center for the Arts (ACA). School board meetings, which will no longer be held in the Jane Mianowski Conference Room because it will be YMCA space, could then be held in the ACA.
Schwarz proposed no longer having the middle school focused in the lower hallway and the high school focused in the upper hallway, since the middle school (grades 6-8) is expected to have about 110 students and the high school (grades 9-12) is expected to have about 180 students and the lower hallway has more classrooms. Instead, she proposed having middle school classrooms primarily on the west side of both hallways and the high school classrooms primarily on the east side of both hallways.
Superintendent Schwarz asked the board to consider spending up to $50,000 for the changes, with the office reconfiguration costing an estimated $24,000-$37,000.
Teacher Michael McHugh asked the board to consider spending money on keeping teachers on staff rather than on remodeling the building. Superintendent Schwarz stated that in the last referendum, the district agreed to put $100,000 a year into a capital improvement fund, and money from that fund cannot be moved into the general fund.
McHugh said he understood that but suggested that keeping a good teacher like middle school science teacher Sarah Malkovich, who was not offered a new contract for next year, might be more beneficial for students than offering a culinary arts class, since students can get culinary arts experience through work study opportunities in downtown Grand Marais. Principal Gwen Carman is planning to offer a culinary arts class next year after the family and consumer science department folded up last year upon the retirement of teacher Cindy Muus.
In the special meeting on May 30, the board approved a revised building configuration recommended by Superintendent Schwarz. A location for in-school suspension was not yet identified.
New honor roll criteria
The board voted to change the honor roll criteria from A and B honor rolls to high honor rolls and honor rolls based on quarterly GPA. Students with GPAs of 3.25- 3.79 will be on the honor roll and students with GPAs of 3.8 and higher will be on the high honor roll.
In the first quarter of this school year, 44 middle and high school students were on the A honor roll and 77 were on the B honor roll (121 total). Under the new criteria, 48 would have been on the high honor roll and 66 would have been on the honor roll (114 total). In the second quarter, 34 students were on the A honor roll and 82 were on the B honor roll (116 total). Under the new criteria, 47 would be on the high honor roll and 77 would be on the honor roll (124 total).
Personnel
The board approved a stipend of $5,512 for District Office Specialist Lori Backlund for extra work she has been doing this school year. The board also approved reassigning her to the position of district finance administration assistant, replacing Cindy Carpenter-Straub.
The board approved a stipend of $3,600 for ACA Manager Sue Hennessy for work she has done for school programs. She gets paid separately for the work she does for extracurricular Community Education programs.
Music and band teacher Kerri Bilben and elementary teacher Natalie Shaw were awarded tenure. Probationary teachers Todd Toulouse, David Liechty, and Tim Dennison were awarded contracts for next year.
The resignation of maintenance worker Nick Lindgren was accepted with much appreciation for his 7½ years of service to the school.
At the special meeting on May 30, the board voted to place Spanish teacher Kristen Carlsgaard on .31 FTE (full-time-equivalent) unrequested leave of absence due to low student numbers and financial limitations. This would leave her with a .69 FTE position.
At that meeting, Schwarz informed the board that the state legislature had recently passed a new requirement that schools not on an official, approved four-day week be in session 165 days a year. While the district’s 2013- 14 schedule includes more than the minimum number of required instructional hours, it would still be short five days. Superintendent Schwarz will be working to resolve this issue as soon as possible.
New auditing firm
After sending requests for quotes to several different auditing firms, the district received two quotes for its annual audit. Two firms sent quotes: Braidy Martz Certified Public Accountants and Consultants of North Dakota and Thief River Falls, with a quote of $18,000 a year, and Wipfli, an international accounting and business consulting firm with its closest offices in Duluth and Cloquet, also with a quote of $18,000 a year.
Wipfli also offered a three-year contract at $13,500 a year.
Superintendent Schwarz recommended that the school hire Wipfli, saying they had done a lot of work in the area. The only complaint the district office heard when they checked references was that Wipfli’s presentations were “a little dry and boring.” The school board laughed when she said that.
Schwarz said she is expecting Wipfli to provide reports that have “more depth” than the ones the school has been getting. It had been paying Althoff & Nordquist of Pine City $10,000 for its annual audit. Althoff & Nordquist did not submit a quote.
The board authorized the district to enter a three-year contract with Wipfli.
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