Tuesday, February 15, 2011 was Rod Wannebo’s last day as a school board member. At the regular school board meeting that evening, Chair Mary Sanders thanked him for all of his hard work on the board.
After interviewing two candidates for Wannebo’s replacement, the board appointed Terry Collins of Grand Marais.
Deb White said she appreciated what Collins had said about remaining transparent and improving communication. “Transparency, transparency, transparency,” she said. “This is public money, and we have nothing to hide.”
Rod Wannebo cited various relevant work experiences Collins had and said he had written papers on teaching, accountability, and evaluation.
Jeanne Anderson said, “He values service and he values the county and wants it to survive.” She spoke well of both candidates, however.
The other candidate was Irene Laine. “I think we were very fortunate to have two very strong, well-qualified candidates,” Anderson said. Mary Sanders said both were good candidates, and they value Laine’s involvement with the school. In other news:
MAP (Measures of Academic
Progress) testing is underway through March 4 for grades K-11 in math and reading and for grades 6, 8, and 10 in science. The tests will help teachers tailor their instruction to meet student needs.
Kids either say it’s “fun” or it’s “hard,” Principal Gwen Carman said. Some students have been stressed by the tests, Superintendent Beth Schwarz reported, but staff is trying to help them understand the testing is simply a way to help the school know what they have and have not learned and what they need to teach students next.
Information gleaned from “microtesting” in grades K-2 has helped staff bring students closer to the same academic level, Schwarz said, which makes teaching a whole classroom more efficient.
Schwarz’s monthly written report to the board stated that secondary faculty is excited about the testing’s potential for improving student performance but nervous about the increase in workload and loss of instruction time.
The Lionesses awarded the district $1,750 in grants. The money will be used for eight different projects. “A big, big thank-you to the Lionesses,” Principal Carman said.
The superintendent hopes to move forward at the March 15 school board meeting with approval of a shortened lunch period for middle and high school students. “It really has to do with what makes sense for kids,” she said.
Superintendent Schwarz met with new Senate Education Committee Chair Gen Olson, senators Tony Lourey and Tom Bakk, representatives David Dill and Mary Murphy and a couple of lobbyists at the state capitol.
Schwarz said the question of how education will be funded this year remains unanswered. Disagreements between the Democrats and Republicans were apparent. “You almost felt like you were walking into a bad hockey fight,” she said.
Mary Sanders is heading a longrange planning team. Its first task will be to look into the possibility of planting an apple orchard on school grounds.
A new kitchen use policy will require anyone using the district’s kitchen to pay to have a certified food service employee supervising the event.
The board approved a preliminary budget for 2011/12. It calls for using $158,961 from the fund balance, bringing it down to $840,553.
Wannebo suggested that they consider reducing administrative staff by having a combined superintendent/ principal position.
Schwarz suggested that the school district use its healthier food service fund to pay a portion of Cindy Everson and Lori Backlund’s administrative salaries. Most of the Community Education budget, except for driver’s education, is operating in the red, she said.
Deb White said she heard the best fundraiser a school could have is getting every eligible student signed up for the federal free and reduced lunch program, which brings in programming dollars. Schwarz concurred.
The board approved an expenditure of about $4,695 to switch to electronic keys for the campus’s exterior doors. This will allow the maintenance department to deactivate keys as people leave employment with the district. Sometimes people leaving the district don’t turn in their keys, Maintenance Director Mike Groth said. He also said he routinely finds doors propped open on weekends. With the new system, they will be able to track the last person to open the door with a key card.
Superintendent Schwarz reported that a grant is providing funding to wire the varsity gym so that special events can be livestreamed. In addition, Cook County Emergency Management will be wiring the community gym to aid in communication efforts during community disasters. This wiring will stay in the building permanently, she said. The board voted to offer several retirement incentives or severance packages (depending on the contracts in place when they were hired) to teachers. The motions require that the retirement incentives must result in savings to the district.
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