Month: February 2023

Henry James Amiot, a Crookston landlord, is facing multiple charges after allegedly entering the apartments of his tenants without notice.  For more on the story see the video below.

The post CROOKSTON LANDLOARD CHARGED AFTER ALLEGEDLY ENTERING APARTMENTS OF TENNANTS appeared first on KROX.

The Crookston Public School’s Long Range & Finance Committee met on Friday morning in the Crookston High School District Office to discuss several staffing plans and contract negotiations.

City Administrator Charles “Corky” Reynolds and Community Development Director Kari Kirschbaum attended the meeting to discuss the future uses of Washington Elementary School after the Kindergarten and Preschool additions to Highland Elementary School were completed.

The city had an interest in using the school to be used as a Childcare Center as the city has been working to improve the childcare situation in Crookston and saw that the school could be a great location for the Center with the kindergarten and preschool classes moving to Highland, along with other potential uses. “For at least a year, the city has been contemplating how we address the childcare issue in Crookston. Now with the school moving potentially its kindergarten through the other grades up to Highland, Washington School could become available, and the city has talked about obtaining the Washington building and potentially expanding the present childcare there under one entity or using a concept called “podding” where individual rooms would be run by individual providers,” Reynolds explained. “Also potentially talking about moving what is at Valley Tech Park into a portion of that building as an incubator unit. The city has a number of ideas that it believes are possible for the Washington building, and the city wants to use the building and repurpose it. We don’t need another building sitting idle and empty, but the city is committed to exploring this option very thoroughly.”
The city is currently working with Stephanie Okroi and was helping her pay for the training of her staff to help open the childcare center in Washington. She is currently licensed to be able to house 41 children and was also planning to hold an Open House for the new childcare center located in the north two units in Washington School on Friday, February 17.

The city also had an interest in expanding the school to allow more rooms and services in the building and could even ask the school district to partner with them. Kirschbaum noted that Crookston was lacking about 80 spots for childcare while East Grand Forks was short by over 300 spots, and this could be a way for the school to gain new student transfers.

The city shared it would conduct an inspection of the building to analyze what the building could be best used for and if there were any improvements or repairs that needed to be made. The board asked how much the city would pay for the school to sell, to which Reynolds answered they were unsure of the amount they would offer until they did the inspection of the school. The board also told the city that they had received concerns about the school being turned into an apartment complex similar to the Lincoln School, but the city answered that this wasn’t a plan the city had in mind and they mainly wanted to focus on it becoming a childcare center.

Board member Tim Dufault asked if the school’s playground equipment and gymnasium would stay for the center if the city purchased it, which Kirschbaum answered they believed would be good assets to a childcare center for indoor activities and to entertain the children. Another concern was what the impact would have on the neighboring area, to which Reynolds explained it would reduce the traffic congestion in that area and could increase vibrancy with the sight of all of the children playing. When asked what they would use for funds for improvements to the building if they purchased it, Reynolds explained the city had some funds available for projects like this and could budget for it in the future. They also had the option to seek bonding or grants from the state or private entities.

2023-24 Budget and Staffing Plan

The board then began discussing updates to the district’s budget and staffing plan for 2023-24. Superintendent Kuehn mentioned that they still had to figure out some positions for the staffing for the middle school addition at Crookston High School. The school currently needs four teachers for the middle school addition to teach multiple grade levels for the four core subjects (math, science, social studies, and language arts), and they currently had two that were moving up from Highland. They had also gotten the third position filled thanks to another internal hire, but this left the middle school Science teacher still open.

Highland Principal Chris Trostad and High School Principal Matt Torgerson explained that several teachers at Highland for classes like music and physical education would move up from Highland to the middle school addition near the end of the day to teach the sixth-grade classes, which would save the district on hiring new teachers for the school.
However, this still left open positions that needed to be filled at both the High School and Highland, so the board would meet with the district’s administration team and some of the teachers as part of the staffing plan before the next School Board meeting on February 27.

Kuehn then shared a plan the legislature came up with that would give the school district some new revenue sources. “These are some possibilities, and this was anything from four percent on the funding formula, which would bring in roughly $320,000 ($80,000 per percent) of new revenue. They talked about Special Education Cross Subsidy, which is the district has to pay a certain percentage of the cost of the Special Education costs for our district. If they reduce it by 50%, that would bring roughly another $500,000 of new revenue for our district. The Universal Free Breakfast and Lunch program would be a great benefit for our families and students. Part of that is that we have Compensatory Revenue in for next year. Since we did a good job getting our families to fill out free and reduced applications, we’ll see some additional revenue in our Compensatory, which we know for sure we’re going to get.” Kuehn explained. “The other things coming from the legislature, those are things we believe something’s going to happen, and we’ll get additional revenue. We just don’t know what they look like right now, so as we appropriately staff and budget for next year, we are being super conservative, and we’ll make some adjustments in May and June once we know some of this revenue is actually going to flow to our district in 2023-24.”

Retire and Rehire Process

The board then began discussing its retire and rehire process along with possible contract language. Kuehn proposed for the board to set up a meeting with the Crookston Education Association (CEA) to agree on any contract language for retiring and rehiring. “There’s always been a process where teachers retire, and people take advantage of the teacher’s retirement account, and what’s happened maybe more recently because of the shortage of teachers, there’s been teachers that wanted to stay in work for a couple more years but wanted to exercise the right to draw from their teacher retirement account,” Kuehn explained. “We’ve had that happen this year with at least three retire rehire type contracts, and we’re trying to reach some agreement with the board and the Crookston Education Association on getting some contract language that is appropriate and makes sense for both sides.”
With the agreement, the board won’t have to bring in individual memorandum of understanding to each school board meeting and better serve future retire and rehire cases. The board agreed that they would meet with the CEA so they could discuss terms for the contracts in March.

Upcoming Contract Negotiations for 2023-24

The board finished the meeting with a discussion about upcoming contract negotiations for 2023-24. Kuehn asked the board what they wished for him to do about some upcoming contract negotiations, as several teachers’ two-year contracts would expire on June 30, as his interim contract would end by then. So he asked the board if there was anything they wished for him to help with negotiations before he handed the position off to the next superintendent or let them handle it. After much discussion, the board explained they would work with the next superintendent when they started to discuss the next negotiations for the teacher’s contracts.

The Crookston School Board will next meet on Monday, February 27, at 5:00 p.m. in the Crookston High School Choir/Orchestra Room.

The post CROOKSTON SCHOOL DISTRICT MEETS WITH THE CITY ABOUT CHILDCARE CENTER IN WASHINGTON SCHOOL appeared first on KROX.

Minnesota families who have owned their farms for 100 years or more are invited to apply for the 2023 Century Farm Program. Produced by the Minnesota State Fair and the Minnesota Farm Bureau Federation, the Century Farm Program was created to promote agriculture and honor historic family farms in the state. More than 11,000 Minnesota farms have been honored since the program began in 1976. 

Family farms are recognized as a Century Farm when three requirements are met. The farm must be: 1) at least 100 years old according to authentic land records; 2) in continuous family ownership for at least 100 years (continuous residence on the farm is not required); and 3) at least 50 acres and currently be involved in agricultural production.

A commemorative certificate signed by Governor Tim Walz, the State Fair Board of Managers President Joe Scapanski, and Minnesota Farm Bureau Federation President Dan Glessing will be awarded to qualifying families, along with an outdoor sign signifying Century Farm status.

Applications are available online at mnstatefair.org/about-the-fair/awards-and-recognition/; at fbmn.org, by calling the State Fair at 651-288-4417, or at statewide county extension and county Farm Bureau offices. The submission deadline is Monday, March 6. Recipients will be announced in the spring. Previously recognized families should not reapply.

Information on the Century Farm Program will be available at the Minnesota Farm Bureau exhibit during the 2023 Minnesota State Fair. A Century Farm database is also available at fbmn.org.

The Minnesota State Fair is one of the largest and best-attended expositions in the world. The Great Minnesota Get Together is 12 Days of Fun Ending Labor Day, showcasing Minnesota’s finest agriculture, art, and industry. The 2023 Minnesota State Fair will run from August 24 through Labor Day, September 4. Visit mnstatefair.org for more information.

The post MINNESOTA STATE FAIR AND FARM BUREAU FEDERATION NOW ACCEPTING CENTURY FARM APPLICATIONS UNTIL MARCH 6 appeared first on KROX.

The Crookston Public School Absentee Ballot Board met for the final time on Friday afternoon to count and verify more absentee ballots that had come in for the upcoming referendum.

The board received 91 ballots last week and 94 this week, for a total of 185 Absentee ballots collected. However, despite this being the last time the board will meet before the election on February 14, the school district is still collecting ballots for the referendum. “We will be collecting ballots postmarked on February 13,” Election Judge Kathy Altringer explained. “We can still open them on the 14th once they go get the mail, but they must be postmarked for the 13th.” Absentee ballots are still available for people if they cannot come and vote on February 14 and can be received at the Crookston High School District Office or mailed to them from the school.

On February 14, the board will take the ballots they collected over the previous few weeks, along with any others that come in on February 13, to St. Paul’s Lutheran Church. “When we get the Absentee Ballots in, we verify that people’s names and signatures match up with our records,” Election Judge Beth Benoit explained. “Then we store the ballots, sealed in their envelopes, until the actual election day, where they’ll be brought into St. Paul’s where we’ll be run them through the machine like everyone else’s.”

If you wish to have your vote counted but are unable to come to the St. Paul’s Lutheran Church for the election on Tuesday, February 14, you can still get and drop a ballot of your vote to Executive Assistant to the Superintendent Marilyn Wahouske on Monday, February 13, at the Crookston High School District Office between 7:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m.

Stay tuned to KROX and kroxam.com for more updates and the referendum election results. You can learn more about the upcoming referendum and your property tax credit at: https://www.crookston.k12.mn.us/district-proposedreferendum.

The post CROOKSTON SCHOOL ABSENTEE BALLOT BOARD RECIEVES 185 BALLOTS FOR REFERENDUM appeared first on KROX.

Polk County has begun taking filings for the Polk County 1st District Commissioner after the unfortunate passing of Commissioner Gerald Jacobson on January 15 and is looking for candidates to fill his seat with a special election. The filing period for candidates will go from February 7 until Tuesday, February 21. Currently, the county has had three candidates file for the candidacy. The three candidates that have already filed their candidacy are former Polk County Director of Property Records Michelle Cote, Crookston Ward 1 City Councilmember Kristie Jerde, and Fertile rural resident Travis Johnson.

With more than two candidates submitting their candidacy for the Commissioner position, the county has two special elections that will be held in the spring and summer. “With three people filing, the primary election will be held on Tuesday, May 9. With more than two people filing, we have to have this primary which will be used to narrow it down to the top two candidates,” Election Administrator Sam Melbye explained. “After that, the general election will be held on Tuesday, August 8, for the top two candidates, which will be when we fill the seat. Whoever wins the election will take office as soon as the election is certified.”

A little over a month after the filing period ends, the county will begin Absentee voting for the election. “Absentee voting will begin 46 days prior to the actual elections, which will be on Friday, March 24. We’ll be able to start sending out absentee ballots, and people can apply now,” said Melbye. “It works just like a normal election, so we would get the applications in either the office here, through the mail, to the Government Center at 612 North Broadway in Crookston, or you can email the applications. They can go to Elections at www.co.polk.mn.us.” The elections will be held at all previous election precincts. For Crookston, citizens in Wards 1 & 5 will participate in this election and vote at the First Presbyterian Church on both election days. Citizens can also apply for Absentee voting when it becomes available. If anyone serving in the military wishes to vote, the county has options available to have ballots sent to them.

To file an affidavit for the election, candidates must meet a certain set of requirements in order to be qualified to run. “You come in and fill out an affidavit of candidacy. It asks for your name, address, and what office you’re running for,” Melbye explains. “Then you have to affirm that you’re eligible to vote in Minnesota, you haven’t filed for the same or any other office at an upcoming primary or general election, you are or will be 21 years of age when you assume the office, and you’ll maintain residency within the district for at least 30 days prior to the General Election.” Candidates can get the affidavit form from the Secretary of State’s website at https://www.sos.state.mn.us/media/1027/affidavit-of-candidacy.pdf and pay a $50 filing fee at the Government Center.

The county will also hold a public accuracy test for the election two weeks before the primary election in May, on the first floor or basement of the Polk County Government Center, which is open for the public to attend with signs placed in the building to help guide anyone to the election room. The county will also post and publish the testing results when they are completed. If you wish to file for the District 1 Commissioner seat and live within District 1, the filing date is open until Tuesday, February 21. Stay tuned to KROX and kroxam.com for more updates on new candidates and the election.

The post FILING FOR POLK COUNTY 1ST DISTRICT COMMISSIONER NOW OPEN UNTIL FEBRUARY 21, THREE CANDIDATES ALREADY FILED appeared first on KROX.