Independent School District (I.S.D. 166) school board members held a lengthy meeting on July 20, addressing several maintenance and summer building projects while also discussing educational goals for the coming school year.
Tom Nelson, head of maintenance, said work would soon begin to take down the old school bus garage. Following the cleanup a new bus garage will be built and should be open by October, he said.
Repair work on two portions of the school roof was coming along on schedule, and the two areas under reconstruction will be finished before school opens this fall.
Nelson said the new floor in the cafeteria was finished, and the floor in the grade school gym was also done. Some questions were asked about the high school gym floor because not all of the lines for volleyball had been replaced. After some discussion about the importance of at least one missing line, it was decided to have the contractor who did the work come back and finish the job. Activities director
A discussion was held about the activities director position. This year Pam Taylor will be the athletic director, but she will retire at the end of the year. Superintendent Dr. Crandall said it would be good to start training someone to take Pam’s place. Because the position requires someone to coordinate band, robotics, choir, and other after school programs other than just sports, the job title will be activities director.
School board chair Sissy Lunde suggested that if a coach were to be hired, it might be best to hire an assistant coach rather than a head coach. Head coaches tend to be very busy when their sport is in the season, and at least one person is the head coach of two sports, which might make the activities director job very hard to do given the limited time a head coach would have to offer. More discussion will follow at upcoming meetings to decide on the job description for the position.
Principal Adam Nelson said the change to block scheduling will make it easier for kids to graduate early unless the school board changes the number of credits it takes to graduate. Unless the school board added more credits to graduate, a lot of kids could end up having enough credits under the current guidelines to graduate early. He suggested adding one credit per year for the next three years so kids could adjust to the new requirements. Science curriculum
Following an excellent presentation from science teacher April Wahlstrom and Chad Benesh the school board approved the upcoming science curriculum, budget, purchase of new lab equipment and chrome (computer) tablets. The curriculum will run from 2017 to 2022.
The Grand Portage Trust Lands Department of Natural Resources has proposed to begin a natural resources education program with Cook County Public High School to improve outreach to high school Grand Portage youth, said Wahlstrom. She said the program would benefit Cook County youth by increasing their knowledge and understanding of biological and environmental research that the Grand Portage Band and 1854 Treaty Authority are accomplishing and by exposing the students to careers in natural resource management. “I will collaborate with Grand Portage and 1854 Treaty Authority staff to develop lesson plans that will promote the objectives of this proposal,” she said.
Wahlstrom asked about getting more tablets (chrome books) for the science classes. Dr. Crandall said some school districts purchase tablets for all of the kids and they could take them home at night, but at the end of the year, the kids have to return them. Instead of teachers checking tablets out to kids and then trying to keep track of them, this might be a better way for both the kids and school, he said. Dr. Crandall will meet with technology director John Jacobsen to discuss what this would cost the district, looking at options to either purchase or lease the tablets. It would involve getting about 430 chrome tablets at around $270 each. He will check to see if the recent school bond that was passed can be used for this purchase/lease, and bring that information back to the board to consider at an upcoming meeting. Summer breakfast/lunch program
Between 80 and 90 kids, each day, are eating breakfast and lunch at school during the summer, said board chair, Sissy Lunde. The Monday through Friday program is state funded, and the meals are free.
The school has been collaborating with the YMCA to offer this meals program to all kids under 18. Lunde said the number of young people benefitting from the program exceeds what was expected, but she added that school cook Kelly Roberts was doing a great job of feeding the kids.
The board approved hiring Mila Horak to teach art. After interviewing several candidates, Dr. Crandall said Horak stood out to the interviewing panel who helped in the hiring process. Horak, said Dr. Crandall, isn’t currently licensed but can obtain a teacher’s license in a relatively short time.
Special education teacher hired
On Dr. Crandall’s recommendation, the school board voted 3-2 to hire Theodore (Theo) Olson to teach special education.
Voting to hire were Chris Goettl, Carrie Jansen, and Deb White. Voting against were Sissy Lunde and Jeanne Anderson.
Olson taught special education for 10 years at St. Paul, Como Park Senior High School. In 2015 he started posting on Facebook and Blogger, posting under an alter ego as special education teacher Tom O’Shea of North End High.
The fictional post caused a stir in the district, and, according to the St. Paul Pioneer Press, Black Lives Matter St. Paul organizer Rashad Turner called Olson a white supremacist and the epitome of a bad teacher. Turner also threatened to shut down Como High unless Olson was fired.
On March 7, 2016, Turner called off the threat to close the school down after meeting with Como’s superintendent of schools. Shortly thereafter Olson was put on paid administrative leave. He left the district, saying he had been blacklisted as a teacher.
Dr. Crandall said he talked to parents whose children Olson taught, as well as school officials and found that Olson was a talented teacher. Olson also was upfront about the negative connotations of his posting and admitted it was poor decision making on his part to blog the way he did, said Dr. Crandall. Both Anderson and Lunde said that they couldn’t vote to hire Olson because of the poor judgment he has shown.
Last, the school board accepted with regrets the resignation of ECFE and Special Education teacher Pamela Foster. Dr. DeWitt said, “Whoever gets her will have a fantastic teacher.”
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