Month: September 2020

The Northwest Regional Corrections Center announced the arrests of the following individuals:

Jacob Lee Else, 20, of Crookston, for a gross misdemeanor for emergency telephone calls or communication that interferes with 911 calls.

Coral Malaysia Ashford, 18 of Crookston, for misdemeanor domestic assault.

Crookston High School will hold an information night for parents and guardians of senior students on Wednesday, September 30 at 6:30 p.m. in the auditorium at Crookston High School. The meeting will include information about graduation, college applications, and joining the workforce.

Crookston High School Guidance Counselor Leah Zimmerman said she’ll be going over a wide range of topics that are important for senior year. “It’s an evening session for all senior guardians and parents,” said Zimmerman. “Senior students don’t have to attend. During the presentation, I’ll be going over the graduation requirements, the timeline for seniors which covers college applications, FAFSA, transcripts, scholarships, ordering cap and gown, yearbook photos, the Triple-A banquet, and there will be time for question and answer as well.  I’ll be showing where resources are located on the school website. I have already gone over all of this with the seniors in the classroom last week and they have it in their google classroom. I’ll be sharing all of this info with the parents and guardians, so if you have questions or want to know more this is a great opportunity to get a better feel for what the year will look like for seniors. I’ll have handouts and all that stuff there too, so hopefully, you can join us.”

The information presented will be important for everyone regardless of their post-high school plans according to Zimmerman. “Everything I’ll be talking about is relevant for all students no matter what you’re doing after high whether you’re going into a one-year program, two-year program, four-year program, going into the workforce right away or the military,” said Zimmerman. “If you have a student that’s a senior this year, I highly suggest that you come, and have all the information that you need for the year.”

While Zimmerman hasn’t seen many big changes in applying for college, a few schools have made standardized tests optional. “Not a ton of big changes,” said Zimmerman. “I have noticed a couple of more schools have chosen to go test-optional with requiring the ACT or SAT for admissions. So, something to look at when you’re thinking about colleges and where you want to attend if you need that test or not. However, this year’s seniors, Class of 2021, didn’t get to take the ACT last spring, so we are taking it on October 6 for those that have signed up to take it.”

Zimmerman said meetings with college representatives would likely be held virtually this school year. “I sent out a survey to the seniors and juniors of what colleges they would like to visit with,” said Zimmerman. “Hopefully next week, once I get most of the students to fill out those surveys, I can see where the schools are, they want to visit with and contact them. Schools from the different colleges normally contact me anyway, so I can let them know how many kids, or what, students are interested in. We can set up a group Zoom or maybe a one-on-one Zoom with the student and the college rep.”

The Crookston City Council will meet Monday night at 7 p.m. in the Council Chambers at City Hall. There is one item on the regular agenda, approving the CARES Act grant recipients for small business loans.

The consent agenda includes approving the meeting minutes from September 9 and September 14, approving bills and disbursements totaling $184,387.26, approving the final payment for 2019 street approvements, and approving a fireworks application for October 7. Also included on the consent agenda are resolutions to amend the guidelines for businesses to receive CARES Act money, approving receiving CARES Act money from Polk County, appointing candidates to the temporary Crookston Visitor’s Bureau (CVB) board, approving an update committee composition for the City Council members, and appointing election judges for 2020.

The CVB board appointments include voting members Laurie Stahlecker, Cory Dallager, Brent Melsa, Brooke Panzer, and Dean Adams along with non-voting members Kristy Swanson, Nate Lubarski, Greg Garmen, Bob Magsam, Nell DeBoer, Jess Bengston, and Lisa Tadd. The council committee assignments also include adding Councilmen Jake Fee and Steve Erickson to the CVB Board.

The election judges to be appointed are Kathy Altringer, Marsha Odom, Carol Dufault, Marlys Mjoen, Joel Kulenkamp, Joye Thompson, Judy Meyer, Jerome Knutson, Darcy Pester, Linda Cournia, Randy Beattie, Rebecca Rude, Paul Dubuque, Debbie Domier, Gene Ovsak, Sue Kaiser, Ashley Rystad, Beth Benoit, Paulette Melbye, Lyle Westrom, Ray Dusek, Jan Kelly, Annette Hegg, Sue Westrom, Geri Ovsak, Carol Weber, Bob Altringer, Timothy Baker, Laureen Anderson, Mark Ecklund, Tom Skjei, Juli Tubby, and Angel Weasner.

The Ways & Means Committee will meet immediately following City Council.  The agenda includes accepting the City of Crookston’s 2019 audit report, a CARES Act equipment purchase for Valley Tech Park for live streaming equipment, and an update on the communications with APG development.

The Crookston School Board will meet on Monday, September 28 at 5:00 p.m. in the Crookston High School choir/orchestra room.

Consent agenda items are – Approval of prior minutes of the regular meeting on August 18, current bills, and salary lane advancement requests.
The board will be asked to approve several personnel items, including –  employment with Kylie Brekke as a Paraprofessional at Highland, Brooke Van Overbeke as Instructional Aide at Washington, Stephanie Neisen as Paraprofessional at Highland, Toni Langved-Kelley as Instructional Assistant at Highland, Rochelle Chaput as Instructional Assistant at Highland, Ben Trostad as After School Care Aide at Highland, JoElle Boucher as Instructional Aide at Highland, Heather Visness as Instructional Aide at Crookston High School, Allie Love as Instructional Aide at Crookston High School, and Wyatt Erickson as a part-time custodian at Highland.

The board will be asked to approve a one-year Leave of absence request from Tammy Warcken as an instructional aide at Washington, a resignation letter from Ann Pahlen as a paraprofessional at Highland, a resignation letter from Penny Halstad as a paraprofessional at Highland, a resignation from Don Edlund as Junior High baseball coach, and Herlinda Cisneros as an instructional assistant at Washington school.

Also, in the consent agenda is the approval of the 2020 Football and Volleyball coaching staff and the board will set a date for the Truth and Taxation hearing.

Items on the main agenda include approval of the preliminary property tax levy for 2020 payable 2021, the 2020-2021 membership renewal fee to the Minnesota State High School League, and to approve the addition of a Technology position for the 2020-21 school year.

The board will receive reports from the principals, activities director, and Superintendent Jeremy Olson.