Although school doesn’t start for students until Tuesday, September 2, staff at School District 166 was hard at work this week. That included a cadre of new teachers. Welcome to (L-R, front) Middle School English and Science Teacher Morgan Baldwin; Choir Teacher Erika Ternes; Special Education Instructor Anna Brown; Kindergarten Teacher Stephanie Lindstrom; 3rd grade Teacher Terry Blood. (L-R, back) Middle School Math/Physical Education Teacher Andrea Hofeldt; Career/Guidance Counselor Kris Hoffman; 2nd grade Teacher Amanda Barras; Ojibwe Language Instructor Martina Wigwas; Industrial Technology Teacher Peter Johnson. (Not pictured Culinary Arts Instructor Jason Gesch.)
The August 21, 2014 meeting of the ISD 166 school board began with Facilities and Transportation Director Tom Nelson reporting on final preparations taking place prior to the first day of school. The upcoming week will be his staff’s busiest time of the year. He and his staff successfully completed a mock Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) inspection. Nelson elaborated on a new safety saw stop for the industrial arts area which is designed to immediately stop an electric saw blade if it senses contact with skin. The safety feature is intended to reduce what could be a major injury to just a nick. He intends to test the feature with a hot dog.
Nelson and Superintendent Beth Schwarz led a walking tour of the school as part of the meeting. The building currently is 169,000 square feet, which includes 23,000 square feet which was sold to the Cook County Community YMCA. Some remodeling has taken place and most of the classrooms are being prepared for the upcoming school session. The business lab is newly outfitted with about three dozen new personal computers which have replaced the 13-year-old Macintosh computers.
Most classrooms now have smart boards which can be used interactively with a computer projector while allowing the teacher to make notes, highlight, and print out content from the board. Classroom doors are also equipped with lock down devices that can be set to allow easy access most of the time but can allow for the complete lockdown of the classroom door instantly in the event of an emergency. Schwarz noted that during the last drill they performed, it took just 47 seconds to lock down the entire school.
Bus routes have been completed but may have to be slightly adjusted depending on last minute enrollments. There is a possibility that enrollment may be slightly higher this year but 10 to 15 students who say they are coming do not have their enrollments completed yet.
Board member Ed Bolstad was curious what it would cost to have a computerized global positioning system (GPS) installed in buses and school vehicles so that their whereabouts could be determined at any time. Nelson said there is currently a passive GPS system on bus’s now. It allows the school to go back and determine the time, speed and other details about a bus’s movement in the event of any incidents that need to be followed up on. He believes this could be upgraded and switched to a live reading. He will research the cost of such an upgrade.
During her superintendent’s report to the board, Schwarz reviewed the approximately 16 new members who will be joining the staff this year. ISD 166 has 43 or 44 total teachers that equal a full time equivalent of 39 teachers. Eighteen teachers are still considered probationary, having less than three years employment with the district.
Principal Gwen Carman stated that there will be an open house/orientation event on Wednesday, August 27. All teachers will be in their classrooms and available to meet students and parents. Students will also be able to follow their class schedule with five-minute class periods to help them get acquainted with their upcoming school timetable. About a dozen different community organizations will also be on hand to answer questions and make presentations.
Taxes, Bids and Contracts
The board unanimously agreed to convert $300 of the current $861 per pupil property tax levy from voter approved to a board approved basis.
No bids have been received yet for the parking lot renovation. The project was last estimated at a cost of $137,100 to $184,100 for phase one this year. This is to be followed by an estimated cost of $106,766 to $141,866 for phase two next year. The board has already approved a $100,000 property tax abatement levy for phase one and may consider an additional property tax abatement levy next year to complete the project.
The annual contract for refuse removal was approved by the board at an increase of 3½ percent over last year. Pan O’ Gold was accepted to supply bread for the school lunch program. At the time of the meeting no bid had been received to supply milk. Upper Lakes Foods (ULF) is currently working with Kemps to come up with a solution. ULF has given their assurance that there will be milk available by the first day of school. The Silver Bay school district is having the same problem.
The district has received over $14,000 in donations during May, June and July. Of that, $11,000 was received from the Minnesota Twins Community Fund and is earmarked for the baseball program. Also included is $1,095 from the Cook County Tennis Association toward the tennis program and $1,000 from a Northland Foundation grant towards the mural on Johnson’s Grocery.
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