The Crookston School Board met on Monday in the Washington School gymnasium.
FACULTY SPEAKER AT GRADUATION
School Board member Marcia Meine started the meeting by asking Crookston High School Principal Matt Torgerson about rumors that a teacher wouldn’t be speaking at this year’s graduation ceremony. This was brought to the attention of the board in last month’s meeting when students brought it up in the public forum. Principal Torgerson wasn’t at least month’s meeting, but he was at the meeting on Monday and said that there will be a teacher speaking at graduation. “I think it was a miscommunication. I was out on medical leave so no one checked in with me before it had happened. There had been some conversations about the possibility of what we want our graduation to look like, and that happens every year,” said Principal Torgerson. “There are parts that have been traditional, parts that have been changed due to Covid that were kept afterwards but at no point was there a decision to made that we would not have a faculty speaker. In reality this morning, when I was talking with the counselor on what we had to do in the next couple of weeks to get ready for graduation, that was on the list to send out to the voting to our seniors so they can vote on which faculty speaker they are interested in.”
CONSENT AGENDA AND DONATIONS
The board approved the consent agenda, including the resignations from Carolyn Pavlish as Ag Instructor, Marita Kendig as a special education instructor, and Austin O’Hare as a science teacher at the high school. The board approved the list of spring coaches, which is listed at the bottom of this story.
The board also accepted over $36,000 in donations. The board received $24,080.12 from the Pirate Boosters going to football, girls hockey, boys hockey, dance, girls tennis, and volleyball. The Pirate Boosters also donated $2,250 to go towards baseball, wrestling, and boys soccer. The Pirate Boosters donated $2,500 to the Pirate Clay Target team. The Crookston Baseball Association donated $4,572.99 to the Pirate Baseball team, and Grove Mechanical donated $500 for the Crookston High School Metals class.
NON-RENEWAL OF TEACHERS REQUIRED BY THE STATE
The board approved the non-renewals of Kate Mulvey as EL instructor, Emma Morlan as a special education instructor, Katie Scott as a preschool instructor, Kristine Dickson as Elementary music instructor, Marianne Isaacs as a full-time substitute teacher, and Kabie Weisert as a full-time substitute teacher. The state requires school districts to non-renew teachers that don’t have the correct licensure. “This is standard for school districts this time of year. These teachers aren’t licensed in their particular field and licensed through the state with out of field permission,” said Superintendent Randy Bergquist. “We will readvertise the position because the state is saying we have to have it advertised for 60 days. If the teachers want to reapply, that’s great. Actually, all of them are working on their license in their certain area. The teachers are doing a great job, it is just something that is required by the state.”
DAYCARE AGREEMENT IN WASHINGTON SCHOOL
The main agenda includes the approval of a daycare agreement with Kendra Sinclair and Janelle Encinia. They will each rent a room on the north end of Washington School for $500 per month. “We are really short on daycares, and if the school district, the city, and the county can partner up together to provide daycare is going to be great and hopefully it will be long-lasting.”
2025-26 ACADEMIC CALENDAR
The board approved the 2025-26 school year academic year calendar. Next school year, the students and staff will get December 22, 2025, through January 2, 2026, off. There will be another change next year with no school on Halloween for a staff development day, and there will be no school on Friday, February 20 because the school will be hosting the Section 8A Individual wrestling tournament in the gym. The tournament has been held on a Saturday in the past, but the coaches wanted to move it to Friday. The school district made over $8,000 in concession revenue, which brought a lot of money into town. “In my personal opinion, we don’t get enough time with family, so we have two full weeks off for our students and staff and it will be a great opportunity for them to get some more family time in,” said Superintendent Bergquist. “In February, we will have February 16 off for Presidents Day and we will have February 20 off because we will continue with the wrestling tournament that we currently host.”
The board approved the Crookston High School/Middle School parking lot repair bid to ReitRock Paving for $53,322.60 to fix some dents left by the construction of the multi-use facility. The contractors will pay the district $17,000 to help with the repairs. “We have a local company that gave us a good bid and some of the companies that damaged it help offset the costs of this,” said Superintendent Bergquist. “I am excited about keeping it local, and so hopefully we will get it done sometime this summer.”
The next Crookston School Board meeting is scheduled for Monday, April 28 at 5:00 p.m. in the Crookston High School Choir/Orchestra room.
SPRING COACHES –
Boys Tennis –
Head Coach – Pat Janorshcke
Assistant – Robert Janorshcke
Junior High – Gannon Walsh
Softball –
Head Coach – Sunny Bowman
Assistant – Melissa Parkin
Junior High – Jennifer Ehlen
Baseball –
Head Coach – Ben Parkin
Assistants – Tyson Siegle and Cesar Espinosa
Junior High – Dan Halland and Jason Cassavant
Boys Track –
Head Coach – Austin O’Hare
Assistants – Kory Baril, Lon Boike, Garret Kollin (volunteer)
Girls Track –
Head Coach – Amy Boll
Assistant coaches – Madilyn Thomsen, Jasmine Brennan, and Shannon Dillabough (volunteer)
Boys Golf –
Head Coach – Steve Kofoed
Assistant – James Matthews
Girls Golf –
Head Coach – Cooper Freije
Assistant Coach – Marley Melbye
3 Act Play – Beth Carlson (head) and Allison Reinhart
Clay Target – Randy Prudhomme
Envirothon – Carolyn Pavlish
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