MURRAY COUNTY SCHOOL BOARD MET IN JULY

Murray County Central School Board met on Monday, July 11th. They approved the agenda and financials for the month. They also approved the resignation of Dee Ragan who had currently been on a leave, as well as setting the official depositary for the school district for FY23 to Minnwest Bank Slayton-Lake Wilson, State Bank of Chandler, and First National Bank Slayton.

Elementary Principal Patrick Freeman gave the Board the annual update on the 2022-2023 Literacy Plan which needs to be submitted to the state before the end of the month.

Welcome to Patrick Freeman as the new principal. Summer Enrichment programs have had good attendance and students and staff have been happy with it so far. Kindergarten Camp will happen a few times in July to prep them for kindergarten. There are 8 students taking advantage of the ESY Summer program. There are still openings for the Math Counts Position and Enrichment Coordinator position. There are also openings for Reading and Math Corp positions. Hoping to get this filled before the school year starts. Freeman had some new ideas for fundraising for the school trips throughout the year. He thought a possible color/fun run might be a nice change for the community. He is going to set up a meeting with the fundraising committee to discuss more options. They continue to get everything ready for the new year and he thanks everyone for the assistance as he transitions into his new role.

Jacob Scandrett gave the Board his update on the high school level. Things are moving along for the start of the new school year quickly approach ing. The Medical Terminology class has a new instructor. Emmie Lolkus will take over as the hospital instructor. There is still an opening for the Special Ed teacher position in the high school as well as some coaching positions. The MCC Summer Adventure program has started, and 25 students are participating in this following the theme of Gary Paulson’s book Hatchet.

Joe Meyer provided his update to the Board. He and Andy Berndt attended a technology leadership workshop with the SWWC Coop. The new MN Student Data Privacy Law has a lot of implications for the school and the school needs to come up with communication with the parents and students within the first 30 days of the school year. Every APP that is used by the school needs to be accounted for. Summer cleaning is moving along, and custodial staff has moved to West to work. A reminder that the time to file for the open school board positions is August 2-16. There will be 3 openings this year. The annual audit will happen the end of August into September.

Moving on to old business, the Board discussed the need to address the change in staffing affecting the graduation requirement for Phy. Ed/ Health Requirement – they need to consider a reduction of 0.5 credits for graduation in this area at this time. This was approved. The third and final reading of Policy 614 School District Testing Plan and Procedure and Policy 761 Meal Change were both approved.

New business included the 2022-2023 meal price changes. It was proposed to increase the prices by 30 cents; this was approved. They also approved the letter of engagement with Meulebroeck, Taubert & Co. for the district’s audit. They approved declaring a number of Dell Chromebooks, Dell Latitude Computers and 6th Generation IPads as surplus items. They also approved the trip requests for football to attend a team camp at DSU in July and Lost Timber for the team campout in August.

They next discussed and set the sub pay for teachers, paras and kitchen staff for the 2022-2023 year. Teachers was set at $130, Paraprofessionals set at Step 1 ($15.80), and Kitchen Staff set at $13. The annual Long-Term Facility Maintenance plan was approved for submission to the state.

Thank you to those who made donations in the last month. DHS 250.00 Lifeskills Grant, Found Innovations in Education 433.00 CEO Program, Murray County Future 500.00 Community Ed golf, American Legion Baseball 149.49 Baseball, American Legion 217.49 Softball, Coborn’s 32.37 ECFE, Karen Mather Larson 500.00 Scholarship, Music Boosters 8,540.00 Band Choir Trip, Jerry Braun 60.00 Athletics.

The next school board meeting will be August 8, 2022 at 6pm.