The ISD 166 school board set the Truth in Taxation meeting for December 17, 2020, at 6 p.m. The site of the meeting was not decided but will be announced at an upcoming board meeting.
Feeling the pandemic’s financial pinch, the school board voted to approve the maximum amount the school district can levy. Finance Director Lori Backlund said the levy could be lowered before it has to be submitted to the state at the end of the year. There are still some numbers to crunch before she can present a more complete financial report in November and then the school board will have a better read on the school’s finances.
Also approved were the Cook County School handbooks, which cover Sawtooth elementary, middle/high school and employees. Acting Superintendent Megan Meyers said the teachers and employees went over the handbook at the beginning of the year and signed off that they had read it. She and Principal Mitch Dorr said the handbook might be tweaked, with additions or subtractions sometime in the middle of the year if there was a need to make changes, but neither thought any significant changes would be in order.
The board accepted the resignations of three para-professionals.
A proposal from Johnson Controls to install ION Bi-polar air filtration in some air-handling units was discussed.
The school district’s Head of Maintenance Tom Nelson was brought into the conversation. Nelson was traveling back from Duluth when contacted. He said the system would pay for itself in three years because of energy savings due to the school not having to run air handlers 24 hours of the day. The cost to install the first two of a potential three phases would be $60,000 plus the cost to install the tubes that do the work to treat the air. This would cover everything except the gyms, said Nelson. He also noted that the way the system works, flu germs are killed almost instantly on contact with the ionization, and the school—when kids eventually come back and fill classroom seats—should receive less sick days because of the way the air is treated.
Nelson noted that UMD had installed this system, as well as several other notable facilities. Principal Dorr said his son’s college had also just installed the same system, and he was told it was the gold standard of air filtration treatment.
When asked how the district would pay for the system, Backlund said there was $20,000 in the Health and Safety account and substantial money in the CARES account that could be used to pay for the purchase.
School Board Chair Dan Shirley, using the back of a napkin to do some quick math, said the cost to replace tubes might run as much as $25,000 per year, but that was quick math, he noted, and the board focused more on the health savings and not just the maintenance of the air filtration.
With that, the board voted unanimously to have the system installed. It will take four to eight weeks to have the work done, said Nelson, due to the sales volume Johnson Controls was experiencing.
Acting Superintendent Megan Meyers said that as of September 15, the district had fifty students who had un-enrolled. She said with new students coming into the district; overall enrollment was down 45 students from the 431 enrolled in September 2019. The current registration is at 386. Sawtooth Elementary has 25 fewer students than last year and the middle school is down 21 students. One student has been added to the high school because students attending PSEO classes still count as enrolled students for the district.
The principals’ report noted that the federal meal program from this past spring was extended through at least December. This means that breakfast and lunch can be delivered and served for those students who sign up during school days.
In other actions, the board voted unanimously to write a letter of support for a health grant that would help support the early childhood program.
A proposal to pay Acting Superintendent Megan Meyers for her additional work was put on hold until the school district’s attorney could look at the proposed raise’s language. Meyers will have the title until November 1 and then Dr. Crandall will come back full time and Meyers will again be the principal. Once the contract is okayed, Megan Meyers will be reimbursed for her back hours and her time through November 1.
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