Month: February 2022

The Crookston Just for Kix program is making a massive move from their current studio to a new studio where Functionally Fit used to be on Tuesday, March 1st. Just for Kix Director, Grace Espinosa is planning to work alongside the owner to set up the studio in bigger ways than they have before.

After starting the dance program in Crookston five years ago, the Just For Kix squad practiced in two different studios where they balanced their schedules to give each age group or team enough time to practice. Though they had large, open rooms on the upper floors of their studios, the lower floors in the basements weren’t nearly large enough for dance practice. The new studio in town has more rooms and is much larger in size that, will allow them more rooms to practice simultaneously, which will give them more time to hold more practices and lessons.

Director Espinosa also believes that the move will be a great way to help the studio grow exponentially as the new studio’s size can make room for more classes than before. “Now we can add more classes; then we can get more kids in and make more availability for time cause we have a lot of classes that mainly range on Monday through Thursdays, and a lot of people have been asking for Sundays. So now we can do more on Sundays and bring in more coaches, bring in more styles of dance, we’re bringing in tumbling, which is kind of more on the gymnastics side of things, but we’re going to bring in tumbling, we’re bringing in pom, which is kind of like cheer. So it has a lot of room to grow for us,” she explained. The Just for Kix in Crookston currently has around 200 dance students ranging from ages 2 to 18, but the program is looking to add additional classes for adults and a fitness and health room as ways to get fit instead of just dancing.

The students are extremely excited to move to a new studio since it’ll have new dance floors and additions that’ll be not only fun for them but their parents as well, as the program looks to add many new additions like the before mentioned fitness and health room, and classes for the dancer’s parents while they wait for their children in the dance studio. Some of the older students have mixed feelings about leaving the original studio that they have practiced in for nearly their entire high school careers and since the program’s beginning at the high school but know the greater rooms and additions will make for a great new studio.

Director Grace Espinosa isn’t just the Director at Just For Kix, but she’s also the Crookston High School’s Varsity and Junior Varsity Dance Team Coach that performs many times throughout the year with the High School Dance Teams and Just For Kix. And is planning to use the studio to prepare the Dance Teams for their seasonal performances better than ever before, “Every year, we run our season from September through May, and from September to October, we get ready and have a Halloween show with the younger kids. And then after that, we do a winter show in December, and usually, that’s held out at the High School in the gymnasium. And then it’s pretty quiet, January-February, but we try to get in the nursing homes and do some performances there. And then our competition season starts, and that usually lasts until April, and then our oldest kids go to Nationals in May. And then after that, we do a Spring show, every once in a while, we’ll do some Easter performances, anything out in the community when there’s events we try to get there to dance at,” she said.

While there’s still much to do in the case of designing and refurbishing the studio, Espinosa is hopeful to have everything fully operational by the summer and have a massive performance in celebration of its grand opening. “We’re planning this year to do a Summer Bash, to kinda do a grand opening of the studio, cause once we get in there, we have to do some stuff with getting new flooring in one of the areas, and then we’re painting, putting up all the mirrors, making it more of a dance studio. And once that’s all ready, we’re gonna do a big grand opening and a little show for community members to come check it out,” she explained.

The Crookston High School Dance Team and Just For Kix move into their new studio on N Main St. on Tuesday, March 1st, and will begin lessons and practices on the same day. To join the dance studio or take part in any classes or lessons at Just For Kix, you can go to https://www.justforkix.com/danceclasses/crookston-mn/ and click on the age group and plan that’s right for you.

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The Early Childhood Family Education (ECFE) program is going to the movies at The Grand Theatre on Monday, February 28th, from 5:00 to 6:00 p.m. for a fun, child-friendly movie. The doors open at 4:30, with it being a free entry to families with children ages birth through five with concessions available for purchase at the Theatre. The movie itself has yet to be determined, but the program is looking for a child-friendly one that’s a little active has some singing or dancing in it for the children. Masks are recommended but not required to come and be a part of the event.

The Crookston Early Childhood Family Education program is led by many of Crookston’s teachers and school principals. ECFE Coordinator Gina Gunderson explained the basis behind the program and ideology behind the organization, “The Early Childhood Family Education program is based on the idea that parents provide their child’s first and most significant learning environment and parents are their first and most enduring teacher’s. ECFE works with parents and caregivers to support, strengthen, and empower families,” The program frequently collaborates with Crookston’s Public Schools, City Hall, and the Crookston Library for many of their events around town.

Gunderson is very excited to try this new event again for families and hopes that they will come out to enjoy the movie theater experience, “A few years ago, we took ECFE families to the movie theater, and it was a really great experience. For many of them, it’s their first experience in a movie theater. So please, don’t feel nervous about bringing them, if they’re talking, if they’re moving, that’s totally fine,” The event had been canceled the last two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but she now hopes to make this a yearly event and apart of their monthly activities they hold throughout the year.

ECFE holds multiple events for the children each month called Monthly Childhood Events. One of those events is at the Crookston Library for the Celebrate the Young Child Collaboration’s Event: Imagine if you Were “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” on Tuesday, March 1st, from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. Another is the Crookston Public School’s holding an Early Childhood Screening on March 7th and 8th. Later in the month, they will be attending the March Musical Madness concert performed by the 5th and 6th-grade Orchestra, where they can participate in an interactive concert. And in April, the group will go to the town pool to swim and be apart of the Washington School’s End of the Year Picnic at the end of the school year on Monday, May 16th.

Doors open at the Grand Theatre at 4:30 p.m., and the movies begin at 5:00 p.m. Entry is free for families with children birth through five. Families can buy concessions at the theater. Masks are recommended but not required to come and be a part of the event. For more information on ECFE and the schedule for their upcoming events for the year, you can contact Gina Gunderson at 218-281-7385 or at ginagunderson@isd593.org or go to https://www.crookston.k12.mn.us/departments-communityeducation-ecfe and click on their Winter/Spring Newsletter. 

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The Minnesota Department of Health released the COVID-19 numbers for today (February 25) and the state reported 961 cases with 15 deaths. 1 death was reported in northwest Minnesota, in Roseau County. Polk County reported no new cases but had one probable case, Pennington County had 3 with eight probable, Marshall County had 1 new case with one probable, Roseau County had 1. 

All the information is below-

Data is for cases that were tested and returned positive. At-home test results are not counted by MDH.

All data is preliminary and may change as cases are investigated. Many data points are collected through an online survey or during case interviews; however, not all cases are interviewed. Case interviews are focused on people under 18 years old, hospitalizations, deaths, and people with vaccine breakthrough or variants. Data presented below is for all cases, regardless of interview status.

Positive PCR test results are considered confirmed cases. Positive antigen test results are considered probable cases. All probable cases get the same public health follow up and recommendations as cases confirmed by PCR tests.

Testing

Minnesota Case Overview

Cases no longer needing isolation

Deaths

Hospitalizations

Case Demographics

Age

Gender

Race & Ethnicity

Residence

Cases by County of Residence

County of residence is confirmed during the case interview. At the time of this posting not all interviews have been completed.

As of 10/28/21, likely exposure and residence type are no longer collected for all cases and therefore no longer reported. Archived data can be found in the COVID-19 Weekly Report.

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The Fisher School Robotics Team is coming off what has become the norm for the program, another successful season. After a first-place score in the “skills” portion of a recent competition in Valley City, North Dakota, the Arctic Knights recently learned that they have once again advanced to the state robotics competition. The state event will begin in St. Cloud on Thursday, March 3. The Polar Knights, Fisher School’s elementary robotics team, has also earned a trip to the state competition.

Members of the high school team, the “Arctic Nights,” include Ethan Kromschroeder, Kasen Stromstad, Jack Krause, Tristan Beckstrand and William Kromschroeder. Up-and-comers in elementary robotics, the “Polar Knights,” are Danica Scheving, Ashley Anderson, Connor Speldrich, Bennett Henderson, Joseph Bylund, Kalden Stromstad and Jorgen Scheving. The teams are coached/mentored by Mike Nielsen, Stacy Stromstad, Brandon Nielsen and John Bylund.

Fisher School’s Robotics Program was launched only 12 years ago, in 2010, but in that relatively short time, it has established a tradition of success; it’s a program to be reckoned with each year. As part of the program’s launch, Nielsen explains, the highest academic achievers from the freshmen to the senior class were hand-picked. In those early days, the team competed at Northland Community and Technical College and lacked any coaching or funding. The purchase of the inaugural robot kit was made possible by a grant. Nielsen was asked in the team’s second year to coach them part-time – his daughter was on the team – and was promptly informed by the students during his first meeting with them that they didn’t need a coach. But he stuck around to assist, anyway.

“That year, we competed at Northland with 21 other teams,” Nielsen recalls. “We placed 21^st. It was a learning experience.”

Much has happened over the ensuing 11 years. In part due to Nielsen’s promotion of the program, the Fisher community purchased a field for the Fisher School team to work with their robots, and the trophies and plaques have been accumulating at Fisher School every year since. The team has earned an invite to the state event every year since its establishment in 2013, and it’s been invited to nationals in Council Bluffs, Iowa, five times, including this year, based on its performance in Valley City. In 2018, the Fisher Robotics Team advanced to the world competition in Louisville, Kentucky, that featured more than 700 teams from across the globe.

“So, yes, we are established and are well-known in the state of Minnesota,” Nielsen notes. “These teams are the largest achievers of awards and accomplishments at Fisher School.”

Every year, teams buy a basic robot kit, and each year’s “games” are developed so that a simple claw robot can accomplish a task and score points. Nielsen explains that such an approach makes it possible for everyone to compete, no matter their skill level. Abiding by size and parts guidelines, teams design and build their robots to perform best in that year’s particular “game.” As the season progresses, teams are constantly modifying and redesigning their robot, and the frequent tweaks, additions, subtractions, and re-strategizing undertaken by the Fisher Robotics team are apparent in their “Engineering Notebook,” which is frequently added to with each passing practice and evolves as a robotics journal, of sorts, in Google Drive.

Fisher School is a small school, so even though efforts are continuously underway to expand its industrial technology curriculum, Nielsen says that the robotics program fills an important role when it comes to providing students an outlet focusing on industrial arts and STEM. Spend some time in what would be considered a more traditional classroom setting with some of the team members, and then observe them at a typical robotics practice session, and it’s clear that they respond to hands-on work, perhaps more than they do to what might be considered traditional assignments and testing.

“That observation is spot-on,” Nielsen notes. He mentions a seventh-grader several years ago who joined the Fisher Robotics team. At that time, he was struggling on multiple levels and needed extra help to get his schoolwork finished. By the time he was a freshman, Nielsen recalls, he was keeping up in school on his own, and his leadership in the robotic skills competitions led the Fisher team to the world competition.

“The best thing he learned was confidence; prior to robotics, I don’t think he would have made it through school,” Nielsen continues, adding that the student graduated with a “B” average and is pursuing a career in firefighting. “(The Fisher Robotics program) has seen students who have joined the military become engineers, earned degrees in meteorology, and numerous other careers,” he says.

Team members agree that the hands-on approach and having tangible tasks and outcomes is a draw for them. Krause, an eighth-grader, has been involved in Fisher Robotics since elementary school. “I like building things, and it’s awesome that you can build something, program it, and then drive it,” he says. “You can buy a (remote-controlled) car, and it’s fun for a while, but our robot, you build it, and if it breaks, you rebuild it, and we’re always changing it.”

Stromstad, a sophomore, is drawn to the building aspect of robotics as well, but he especially enjoys the need to problem-solve every step of the way. “They don’t always work the way you thought they would, so you have to change it,” he explains. “I like driving it, too, so I get to see what I worked on actually work like it’s supposed to.”

“We’re all hands-on. That’s why we’re here,” eighth-grader Beckstrand says during a recent after-school practice session. “We get to actually do something, and then you can see what happens right in front of you.”

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