Murray County Central School Board met on Monday, May 13th. Members present were Tony Clarke, Brent Miller, Sue Streff, Lauren Biegler, and Heather Hoekman. Absent was Robin Gilberston.
The Board reviewed and approved the agenda, reviewed the financial items for the month and received the superintendent personnel change recommendations. These include the contracts for certified staff: Payton Braun (ECSE), Kati Bobeldyk (Special Ed EYS), Kate De-Long (Special Ed EYS), Davina Ethridge (replace FT), Leisa Isder (SLP ESY), Megan Oslund (New Hire Secondary), and Sara Zins (ECSE). Marcus Engbarth (contract continuation), Lauren Risacher (leave of absence) and lane change for Jason Wischnak. Two resignations were received; Claressa Kent and Erin Scandrett. The Board also approved the 2024-2025 teacher contracts.
The Board received updates from the Elementary Principal, Secondary Principal and Superintendent.
Patrick Freeman, Elementary Principal started with his update. Student numbers for the next year are still down over last. Extended School Year services will be provided to a total of 37 students this year. Literacy LETRS training is moving along and teachers will be completing some training during the summer months. The PBIS celebration is this week and the all school picnic. Students will have a fun week. May 24th is the end of year and 6th grade recognition ceremony. This will be at 10am at the MCC Athletic Complex. Kindergarten Round-Up was successful. They anticipate there to be 53 Kindergartners and 14 Junior Kindergartners next year. Last day of school is May 24th it will be an early out for students.
Jacob Scandrett, Secondary Principal was next on the agenda. He expressed his thanks to all our teachers for Teacher Appreciation Week last week. MCA testing is complete. There are 34 students who are visiting Washington DC in grades 7-9. These students will be back on Tuesday, May 14th. The Grow Shed has been successfully providing lettuce to the lunch line this past month. Thank you again to Nobles Cooperative Electric. Staff will be having a AI training on May 15th. 7th grade orientation is May 22nd with a projected 55 students coming into 7th grade. Senior awards program is Friday May 24th at 8:30 am and Senior Walk day is Monday May 20th. Graduation is May 26th at 2pm. Last day of school is May 24th. Last day for teachers is May 28th.
Scandrett’s last item of discussion was the need for schedule changes in the future. This will include eventually some staff reductions as the student numbers are declining year over year, which results in less state funding for the district. Miller asked what the success rate was of the district advertising for more students to come into the district. Meyer explained they do some at Fair time but have not pushed the issue overlapping into the neighboring districts. Meyer mentioned there will need to be some hard looks at larger class sizes to help keep costs down. Also looking at options for different school day structure, stay with the 4 block, go back to the 7/8 period? Even looking at flexible schedule options out there. Nothing has been set or decided yet. Biegler asked how “if changing to a period schedule” this would effect graduation requirements. Scandrett explained that would need to be figured out. The Board, as a whole, agreed this is a stressful situation for the staff as it is the “unknown” of their livelihood. Freeman tipped his hat to Scandrett for being proactive in recognizing this need coming up and starting the hard conversations so the district isn’t rushed into a decision. Scandrett did say this will continue to change as they look at and analyze options.
Superintendent Joe Meyer provided an update. the legislature’s last day to finalize their work is May 20th. Things have slowed down considerably. Employee benefit enrollment closed on May 10th and Meyer reported that Shetek Dental will be included in their “in-network” providers. They are also working at getting property/casualty liability insurance rates. Trying to stay hopeful but several other districts have been reporting large rate jumps or being dropped completely. The rates for MCC over the last years have made large rate increases by 22% to 30%. Trying to stay hopeful for this next year. The new intercom system is scheduled to be installed the week of July 8th. They have begun talking FY25 budget and Katie Will will have those numbers for the June meeting. Meyer also suggested moving the July Board meeting to July 15th with the holiday.
Old business was to review the quotes for paving the lot across from the school. They received quotes from Duininck and Fuller Paving. Meyer asked for quotes with it being a 2 phase project. The lower bid came in from Fuller Paving for $143,615.75. The Board approved and accepted this low bid.
The item of new business was for the phone system. They received 3 quotes for this. The lowest option overall including setup cost, phone cost and monthly costs is with the SWWC which is a $7,407 install cost and then $282 per month for the first 3 years. The Board approved going with SWWC for the phone system.
The Board, lastly, accepted the donations and thanked those individuals and businesses. Murray County Farm Bureau $1,000, Miller Sellner $2,500, SMOC $545, Class of ‘61 $500, Box Tops for Education $27.70, Anonymous $45.
They approved appointing Joe Meyer as the designated official with authority for the MDE external user access recertification system. He needs this designation to log in and sign off on MDE systems.
The next school board meeting will be Monday, June 10th. The Board went into closed session.
