The Crookston School Board met on Monday, September 22 at the Crookston High School Choir/Orchestra room.
The feature program was on BARR Training, presented by Crookston Middle School teachers Brandon Neibauer-Adams and Susan Wagner. BARR stands for Building Assets and Reducing Risks and the program is in its third year after a grant from the Minnesota Education Department. Neibauer and Wagner said they are seeing success with all the students and fewer failing grades because of the program.
LEVY APPROVED
The school board approved the levy for 2025 payable in 2026 at the maximum of 2.51 percent increase, which would be $3,889,921.16, an increase of $95,270.05 over last year. “There was a new levy line item that we’re levying for post-employment benefits for retiree teachers to help with the cash flow as we go forward. Overall, everything looks good. Slight decrease in student count as we’ve seen over the last couple of years, which has kind of stabilized the overall increase to the levy,” said Blake Stoltman, Crookston School District Business Director. “Between now and when we certify the levy at the truth and taxation meeting in December, we’ll have the ability to cut back and levy fewer dollars on our local taxpayers.”
APPROVE CHANGE TO POLICY 714 – FUND BALANCE
The board unanimously approved a change to Policy 714—Fund Balance. The policy change said the district will strive to maintain a minimum unassigned general fund balance of 15 percent of the annual budget’s 12 months of operating expenses. That is an increase from 10 percent in previous years. “The last time it was looked at was back in 2011. So maybe expenses weren’t as much then, when bills grew to be more expensive,” said Bruer. “We must have more money in the bank to pay our bills. So maybe this is the right time to change that fund balance policy to increase it to make sure we have about 15% so that we can make sure that over three months, we can pay all of our bills.”
TEACHER OVERLOAD AGREEMENT APPROVED
The school board approved the teacher overload agreement for this school year. The overload agreement provides more elective classes for kids that we normally would have to hire a teacher for,” said Superintendent Bruer. “I know that last spring, we made numerous cuts into the school’s programs. So we need to look at how we can add back some of those essential classes without spending a lot of money on four different teachers. We can have other teachers take an overload and have that elective within their classroom.”
POSSIBLE HOCKEY AND WRESTLING COOP WITH CLIMAX AND FISHER TABLED
A possible hockey and wrestling coop with Climax and Fisher was discussed, but after some discussion, it was tabled due to a lack of information, several questions, and the need for more information gathering. Crookston High School Boys Hockey Coach Josh Hardy spoke and said there is a family that farms and lives in the Climax School District that has been playing hockey in the Crookston youth program all the way up and the oldest boy will be a sophomore next year.
There was discussion about the coop with Fisher and Climax, concern over dissolving the girls’ coop to add more, and the problems that caused the last time they did it. It was stated that the East Grand Forks Green Wave and Sacred Heart Schools were discussing possibly becoming a coop in hockey. With all the questions, the board decided to table it. “The school board members will look for more information on how we can make this work and the pros and cons. We have to contact the other districts involved with our present co-op to see if it’s okay with them,” said Superintendent Bruer. “But the way it works is we dissolve the co-op agreement and each of them, and then you recreate a new agreement with each involved party.”
CYBER SECURITY GRANT GIVES THE DISTRICT
The Crookston School District recently received good news when they were awarded a $60,000 grant to help with cybersecurity costs. The money will be used to pay for the security cameras they previously approved, vape detectors, and other cybersecurity software within the district.
APPLYING FOR AN ELECTRIC BUS GRANT
Superintendent Bruer said the district will be applying for an electric bus grant. “We’re going to probably look in the neighborhood of $1.3 million for some of that because we’re going to look for two buses if we have this facility to hold it. That’s kind of what it comes down to,” said Bruer. The district will also use the grant money to upgrade the electric infrastructure at the bus garage to allow the charging of the buses. Bruer said the school buses would get up to 100 miles on a good day, and on colder days in the winter, the buses’ mileage would be down to 40 miles.
NORTHLAND COMMUNITY AND TECHNICAL COLLEGE PSEO CONTRACT
The board approved the contract for a post-secondary education opportunity with Northland Community and Technical College. The terms were the same as the University of Minnesota Crookston contract at $248.37 per credit. The rate is set by the state.
CONSENT AGENDA
The board approved Nesreen Alnissani’s resignation as a paraprofessional and Kory Baril as head girls basketball coach. The board approved the employment of Christina Carmen and Carmen Caputo as kitchen helpers at the high school, Enrique Keim as a custodian at the high school, John Koller as a part-time custodian at Highland School, and the employment agreements with Emma Morlan as a special ed teacher and Kathleen Mulvey as an ELL and Title teacher.
The board approved salary lane advancement requests for Kristin Funk, Megan Hanson, Sarah Pester, and the following donations –
-A donation of a CNC Mill from Northern Valley Machine, valued at $50,000, for the CT/Metals program at the high school.
-A donation of $1,341.16 from the Pirate Fine Arts Boosters for staff to attend the Communication and Theater Association of Minnesota conference
-$373.20 from the Crookston Baseball Association for the Junior High Baseball program
-$3,500 from the Crookston Youth Soccer Association for the Boys and Girls Soccer program
-$1,300 from the Crookston Police Benefit Association for the Walt Keller Memorial Scholarship
-Four trees in memory of Helmer Ardell Knudsvig to be placed by the High School Tennis courts
The next scheduled meeting is on Monday, October 27, at 5:00 p.m. in the Crookston High School Choir and Orchestra room.
