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Murray County Central School Board held their regular meeting on Monday, March 10. 2025. With all members present, they approved the agenda with no additions along with the minutes from the last meeting, the Financials and the Personnel items which included CERTIFIED STAFF: Tim Bobeldyk, Head Boys Track Coach; Dominick Damm, Head Girls Track Coach; Kate DeLong, Assistant Varsity Golf Coach; Kim DeLong, Head Golf Coach; Grant Harms, Math Masters (Elem.) Coach; Jason Wischnak, Assistant Girls Track Coach. CLASSIFIED STAFF: Mark Benda, JH Baseball Coach; Brian Christensen, Assistant Boys Track Coach; Paul Counter, Head Baseball Coach; Joel Herrig, Assistant Varsity Softball Coach; Emma Johnson, Assistant Varsity Softball Coach; Sophie Larson, JH Softball Coach; Scott Mansch, JH Baseball Coach; James Wajer, Assistant Varsity Baseball Coach; Elissa Wieneke, Head Softball Coach; Adam Baseball Winter, Pitching Coach. CERTIFIED STAFF LEAVE: Kate DeLong, Special Education Teacher 5/15/25 LOA; CLASSIFIED RESIGNATION/ RETIREMENT: Kari Mathiowetz, Paraprofessional 3/18/25 Resignation; Marcella Vogel, Paraprofessional 3/10/25 Resignation.
They have received a Desire to Negotiate Request from the food service representative. They next approved the Transportation Contract for those students who are attending Southwest Christian School to and from the Murray County Central School District boundary.
Elementary Principal Patrick Freeman began his report by thanking Monogram Meats, Almichs Market and Culligan for their donations for the 5th/6th Grade Activity night. He reported that the students had a lot of fun. Staff and students are busy preparing for the MCA testing that takes place in April/ May. A letter will be sent to parents with details. Internet Safety/Social Media Training will take place March 29 for students K-6. We currently have 50 students signed up for Kindergarten next year and 4 registered for Junior Kindergarten.
Secondary Principal Jake Scandrett thanked everyone who came to conferences. Spring numbers are typically down from fall and this was true this year, too. He also thanked everyone who supported the Coaches vs. Cancer event. He gave a big shout out to Mrs. Larson, Mr. Hartle and the Student Council for organizing this. Principal Scandrett has been meeting with staff to complete a rough draft of an 8 period day. He is also moving forward with a way to start registering now, even before we know which schedule we will have. The March 12th early out will be used to prepare for a possible 4 day week. They are also considering moving the cell phone ban to include 9th grade. Mental Health and Distraction Free Learning were major points in the discussion. As part of an annual training, Mental Health/Social Worker Greg Scheitel will be meeting with all AP classes to review internet safety and social media awareness.
Made possible through our Achievement and Integration collaborative, and funding from the MDE, we will again have some free summer college class opportunities for our students to explore. These courses will be offered in conjunction with SMSU and Minnesota West and taught at SMSU. ACT will be April 8th. MCA Testing happens from March 17-May 1.
Superintendent Joe Meyer gave his report next. The Minnesota budget has been adjusted downward amid significant near-term economic and fiscal uncertainty. Spending growth outpaces revenue growth projections for fiscal year 2029. Shifting policies at the federal level introduce significant uncertainty to the projections. The final FY26 will increase 2.74% which will be about $200 increase per Pupil Unit over the formula allowance in FY25. Our Mental Health/ Social Worker (Greg Scheitel) report includes 15 grade level Emily’s Hope group sessions, 3 T.E.A.M. group meetings, 42 student individual sessions, 23 teacher-requested consults,12 individual student sessions. Total 673 people supported. The completed 4-day school week application was submitted to MDE on Friday, February 21 with an answer expected by Friday, April 25th.
School Board Chairman Tony Clarke and Superintendent Meyer met with Fulda Superintendent Mike Pagel and Board Chair Doug Clarke on Friday, Feb. 21st. The discussion topic was “consolidation”. Fulda stated that they are at a spot now that they have to do something immediately regarding facilities and are moving forward with their bond election in May. The discussion was brought up about possibly sport sharing, if that would be an option. Looking at numbers it would move many of our sports to AA if we did that.
We had an early out and ELearning day at the beginning of March due to weather. The HITA sealed bid opening took place on Friday after school for our next year’s Health Insurance. The best and final bid opening will take place on Friday, March 14th.
Activities Director James Wajer gave his report. Boys Basketball ended being 10/8 in the Conference and finished 5th out of 10 in the Conference. Girls Basketball were 9/18 overall, 6/12 in the Conference and 7th out of 10 in the Conference. In Wrestling, we were section runner up, falling to JCC in the championship on Super Saturday. 9 of 13 wrestlers made the section meet, with 4 going on to State. Coach Nick Henning was named Section 3A Coach of the Year. At this time, Mr Wajer thanked all the sports workers who help to make it a good season, table workers, officials, ticket takers…Thank you! Senior High Knowledge Bowl had 3 teams place at sub-Regionals to qualify for Regionals. Team 1 took 4th, Team 2 took 6th and Team 6 took 8th. Varsity Speech has been doing well. Junior High Speech have had 3 meets. Track, Softball and Baseball started March 10th. Numbers in spring sports are looking good. First event is scheduled for March 27th.
The board next moved on to old business. Even if we go to a 4 day week, program and staff reductions need to still happen. Some suggestions the school has received include: cutting Mock Trial, Baseball Pitching Coach, reducing the number of games for basketball, and increasing fees, hosting tournaments, charging for softball and baseball games, increasing student activity fees (we are very low compared to area schools), absorbing the high school choir position and Mrs Opdahl’s position, changing the Community Ed position to a part time position. No decisions have been made -- but the Board is considering all options.
New Business: The board approved the 2nd Grade to go to the circus in Sioux Falls. They discussed the possible school calendar for 25/26. They presented 2 possible versions of a school calendar, one for 4-day and one for 5-day. They will discuss these more at the next meeting. They board went on to approve the SWWC Service Cooperative Contracts Summary. Next they approved to advertise, authorize a call for bids: dairy, bakery, publications and legal, mowing & trimming, spraying & fertilizing. Bids will be opened on April 9th and acted upon at the April School Board meeting. Next, they approved minor policy revisions. Achievement and Integration Budget was discussed and approved next.
Next was an LED lighting proposal from Ideal Energy. This is something brought about by the MN Clean Lighting Law which will go into effect for us in 2026. It bans the sale of most fluorescent light bulbs which we have in both schools. It applies to reducing the risk of toxic mercury from broken fluorescent lamps. It includes over 30% in Xcel Energy rebate incentives currently in place. If we do this project, we can take advantage of this with Capital dollars because it improves the building. It would pay for itself in 2.84 years. Annual saving after that would save over $22,000 per year. The board moved and approved this plan.
They are looking ahead at possibly adding air conditioning in phases to the pre-K –1 section of the building. There will be more information at the next meeting. Lastly, the board gratefully accepted the following donations: Elevated Welding Service, LLC 2,499.00* Ag Program – Square Wave 200 TIG Welder; Elevated Welding Service, LLC 3,000.00* Ag Program – Ellis Band Saw w/ Blades; 1st Presbyterian Church 50.00 Backpack Program; Fall Festival Folks 250.00 MCC Children’s Fund. They also received information for the Superintendent’s Evaluation which is coming up.
The next meeting will be April 14, 2025.
