Month: April 2020

The Crookston Ways & Means Committee met on Monday night, agreeing to organize a meeting to discuss the future relationship between the Crookston Visitor’s Bureau (CVB), the Crookston hotels collecting lodging taxes, and the Crookston Chamber of Commerce. 

Cory Dallager, manager at AmericInn in Crookston, spoke to the Crookston City Council on Monday about the hotels in Crookston wanting something to change with the current operation of the CVB.  Dallager cited other cities where the visitor’s bureau operates independently of the city’s Chamber and said Moorhead just recently made a change to work separately because they were dealing with some of the same issues Crookston has been. “We’re just trying to address and promote Crookston a little bit better,” said Dallager. “How it’s been going, there has been some confusion and everything with the board—trying to move forward with the hotels all on the same page right now. We’re all here to promote Crookston, bring business to town, fill our hotels, and then, bring more business to town. That’s all kind of our goal.  We want to move forward, and it’s not been moving the right way for quite a while here.  Hopefully, we can get that resolved with a meeting with everybody.”

Councilman Bobby Baird brought Dallager’s comments up again during the Ways & Means Committee, where Councilman Tom Vedbraaten asked why the council was discussing the issues when things should be worked out between the Chamber and CVB.  City Attorney Corky Reynolds explained that the City of Crookston has an agreement for the Chamber to provide services to the Chamber and CVB and that the city would need to give a 90-day notice if it wanted to terminate that contract. 

Crookston Inn operator Laurie Stahlecker told the committee that every other CVB in the area has it’s own website and promotes its own marketing to promote events.  Stahlecker said the CVB webpage on the Chamber website has no mention of the upcoming Eagles Convention, and the need for the webpage to be updated to reflect that has been brought up at past meetings.

Councilman Clayton Briggs suggested that a meeting be scheduled to discuss the future relationship.  Mayor Dale Stainbrook suggested a meeting be held between the chairs of both the Chamber Board and CVB Board, the Chamber Executive Director Terri Heggie, and the City Council liaisons to each board to determine the best course of action before the next Ways & Means Committee meeting. “It’s a little bit of sticking point, and I think the discussion is we’re not all on the same page,” said Stainbrook. “We just need to get the Chamber chair, CVB chair, the council members on those boards, and the hotels together to ironed this out. We all are positive about Crookston and want all the businesses to be successful. Let’s get together and see what the issues are, try to tweak it, and move forward.”

The committee also approved the Land Option Agreement with Epitome Energy.  City Administrator Angel Weasner said one change completed was to Section 10 of the land option with the addition that the city may not unreasonably withhold consent for the assignment or transfer of the option agreement. “There was concern about the meeting having to do with the sale of the property between Epitome Energy and another property,” said Weasner. “The city still wants to have control, but we added that the consent would not be unreasonably withheld from the city.  So, as long as they are still fulfilling the obligations, it would be approved.”

Another area of clarification the committee asked for last week was to ensure that Epitome Energy would be liable for any lost crops on the city’s cash farm lease if the, if the land option was executed, said, Weasner. “The developer will indemnify the farmer for any damages that would be occurring to his crop as a result of the growth of that area,” said Weasner. “We wanted to ensure that it was there because we are looking at a future lease unless the land option gets executed immediately.  However, we do not expect it to be executed immediately, so we are looking at a future farm lease to occur.”

The land option will have a three-year term for $3,000 when executed, with two one-year extensions for $1,000 each.  The execution of the land option would require the soybean crush facility and biodiesel plant to be built within the 3-5 years of the land option.  The committee approved the land option agreement unanimously, and Epitome Energy will now review it.

The final item discussed was a modified schedule in the search for a City Administrator.  Stainbrook asked the committee if they thought upon reading the struggles with finding qualified candidates during the first attempt if they should consider raising the starting salary range to a floor of $115,000.  The discussion was split on that decision with Councilman Don Cavalier making a motion, seconded by Councilman Dylane Klatt, to bring a vote on raising the salary floor, which failed to pass by a 5-4 vote.  The committee then discussed if there were other alternatives to raising the salary floor, such as providing health insurance from day one of employment rather than waiting the standard 30-days before beginning coverage.  Councilman Steve Erickson requested that Weasner contact David Drown Associates (DDA) to inquire if they had any suggestions for tweaks that could be made in the listing to attract more qualified applicants. He added that he wouldn’t be opposed to raising the salary floor if they had more information from DDA about their suggestions.  Erickson voted no on the motion Monday night to raise the salary floor.

The committee will have time to consider possible changes to the position posting, as the position is scheduled to be reposted on May 28. The committee is expected to meet twice before then, May 11 and May 26. Assuming the city administrator position is posted a second time on May 28, Weasner updated the committee on what the key dates in the timeline would be for the new schedule. “There are three key dates that we will be looking at,” said Weasner. “The city will be holding a selection of finalists on July 21.  That is when the council will determine who they want to select as a finalist.  The interviews will be held on August 12 and 13.  There will be an evening gather, so some community members can beet the potential candidates.  But, the decision will be finalized in August.”

The Crookston School Board met on Monday evening with four members attending through video conferencing and two members and Superintendent Jeremy Olson physically present in the Crookston High School Choir/Orchestra room. 

The school board approved putting a committee together to look at possibly having prom in late July, pending the slim chance the Governor allows large groups to gather.  The board also approved reducing second grade from four classes to three classes next year. The news from the meeting is below. 

GRADUATION PLANS-
Crookston High School Principal Eric Bubna was asked what graduation might look like this year.  He said they are trying to get options out to seniors and their parents this week to get input on what they want to see.  “We would still like to do something on May 22.  Under current guidelines we would not be able to have a ceremony,” said Bubna. “At this point our option A is having it at the arena where families can be properly spaced, and each graduate can have a limited number of guests, three or four people.  Plan B would be maybe a parade through town or something, and we are committed to having something on May 22.  If it isn’t a ceremony, we will postpone it to a later date.”  Parents should be getting communication from the school district by the end of the week.
“We will want to have a ceremony as soon as possible if we can do it in the summer that would be great,” said Bubna. “If this gets into August, September, October, which I certainly hope it doesn’t, where are the seniors at that point?  I hope we can do something this summer.”

SLIGHT CHANCE PROM COULD BE IN LATE JULY –
The Crookston School Board heard from Crookston High School Principal Eric Bubna about prom.  Bubna recommended they cancel the prom. “I recommended canceling prom, which is in line with what other area school districts are doing,” said Bubna.  The board voted to “look” at having prom in late July, and Bubna said that Linda Morgan is in charge of prom, so they will have to talk to her first.  The board directed Bubna to set up a committee at his discretion and come up with a drop-dead date to notify people if it won’t be happening.   “The board wanted to see it postponed rather than canceled, so we will move forward with that and will look at doing something in July and schedule something tentatively and have a decision date of July 1 or July 5 or whatever the date might be.  We will make a determination based on the state’s guidelines if we can have it at that time,” said Bubna. “I will start working with our prom coordinator Linda Morgan, she does a great job, and we will figure out a tentative date in late July and when a decision date has to be and communicate that back to the board.”
Everybody is an agreement that a chance of prom in late July doesn’t look likely at this time with all the state guidelines in place because of COVID-19. “I am done trying to predict what the guidelines will be,” said Bubna. “It seems like we will be doing the social distancing for a while.”
Bubna also noted that the school does NOT run blast to Bede, and that is a parent group that runs the event, and the school doesn’t have anything to do with it.  

SECOND GRADE DOWN TO THREE CLASSES
The Crookston School Board approved cutting second grade from four sections to three sections for the 2020-21 school year because a projected 69 students will be at Highland School.  That would make three sections of 23 kids per class.  Superintendent Jeremy Olson said anything below 25 students is acceptable. “This isn’t a decision that is made on the overall enrollment because even though we had an increase in overall enrollment, next year’s second graders are only around 69 students,” said Superintendent Jeremy Olson. “We didn’t think it would be responsible to have four sections, so we recommended three sections next year.  The 23 kids per class are right around our average for our elementary classes outside of kindergarten.”
The board approved the move unanimously. 

The board also approved the termination and non-renewal of Danielle (Larson) Johnson as a probationary teacher.  Johnson is currently a second-grade teacher.  The board approved the move by a 5-1 vote with Dave Davidson voting no. 

FUTURE OF ALTERNATIVE LEARNING CENTER
The board discussed the future of the school board. Superintendent Olson said due to state guidelines, they will have to make some changes, including offering the same hours as the high school.  “They want us to make changes for compliance before next year,” said Olson. “We will have to look at hours of service, which will increase expenses.  We are having some discussion on what the future of the ALC is.  Financially it doesn’t make sense to the district, but there is the student service component, and we want to serve our students.”  Olson added they would explore many options, including looking at an Alternative Learning Program.
Joan Darco, who works at the ALC, said they would like to meet in a conference to discuss the future of the ALC.

CONSENT AGENDA
The consent agenda was passed unanimously.  The agenda included the following personnel items, approving the bus driver agreement for 2019-2022, approving an agreement with Kevin Weber as district technology director, approving the employments of Whitney Rupprecht as an industrial technology teacher, and Daniel Rooney as a special education instructor.
Also accepted was the resignation letters of Jill Dalzell as a music instructor at Highland Elementary School (HES), and Cindy Fahser as the family and consumer science instructor at Crookston High School. The remaining items on the consent agenda were the approval of the March 23 meeting minutes, current bills, and accepting donations to the kid’s meal program fund including $250 from VFW Auxiliary Post 1902 and $300 from the Nels T Would Unit 20 Auxiliary, and a donation to the PATCH program of $1,000 from the Crookston United Way.

POLICY UPDATES
The main agenda had the first reading of the 300 and 400 series policies, including updates recommended by the Minnesota School Boards Association to policies 303, 307, 413, 414, 419, and 421. The board approved the removal of policy 424, requesting the superintendent to review teacher’s licenses annually, from the policy manual as the district has a licensing committee that performs that operation.

DISTANCE LEARNING
The Crookston School District has done better than the administration thought it would, thanks to the staff, parents, and students.  While everyone admits it isn’t perfect, all things considered, it is going better than they expected.  “We need to adjust some things, but overall it is going well all things considered,” said Olson. “I have had some parents say they are getting to much work, and some parents are saying there isn’t enough work. Our staff has been great, and we are trying to balance this out the best we can and considering the situation we are in, I am really proud of the area we are in.”

The next Crookston School Board meeting will be Tuesday, May 26, at 5:00 p.m. in the Crookston High School Choir/Orchestra room.