By Jenny Kirk The Murray County Central School Board held its regularly scheduled board meeting on Monday, July 17 in the school library.
After the board approved the agenda and minutes with no additions or changes, Business Director Lisa Rademacher fielded financial questions. Rademacher added that the cash flow ended about $200,000 more than projected. “That’s good,” she said.
Superintendent personnel recommendations included two-year certified staff contract renewals for principals Patrick Freeman and Jacob Scandrett as well as a one-year certified staff contract for elementary teacher Kari Carlson. Classified staff hires as paraprofessionals include Mersadies Buderus, Mary Hieb and Kelsey Sturges. There is also a lane change from masters to masters plus for certified staff Selina Ludolph.
Freeman then highlighted the 2023-24 literacy plan, stating that the biggest change is the shift from AimsWeb to Fastbridge as the district’s screening and progress monitoring system as well as transitioning to LETRS. “Our objectives and goals have stayed the same through K-3 for the most part,” he said “All of our goals will be done by Q Comp and PLC (professional learning communities). Those goals are typically centered around reading. Screenings occur three times a year.”
Freeman noted the different benchmarks within those screening tests and pointed out that the gap is shrinking between the low percentage of kids who are extreme or high risk to now not being as high of a risk. He added that he is excited to see the “upward pattern” of growth as LETRS is implemented.
With no further questions or comments, the board approved all of the above items as part of the consent agenda. Minnwest Bank of Slayton was designated as the district’s official depositories for fiscal year 24 and Minnwest Bank of Slayton and Lake Wilson, the State Bank of Chandler and the 1st National Bank of Slayton were designated as possible depositories for invested funds and minor checking accounts for fiscal year 2024.
Freeman’s elementary report included an enrollment update of 370, nine students below the beginning of the year. He said there was a great turnout for enrichment activities and gave a shoutout to the teachers and paras who were willing to put in the extra time for the students. “It’s been fun to see those different skills and different activities happen,” he said. “We’re pretty fortunate to have that this summer.”
On the curriculum side, Freeman said there is a change in science for K-5 students. “It’s more of a hands-on phenomena based learning.” The K-2 will do a modified version of it because their standards are a little bit modified, while it will be fully implemented in grades 3-4. The sixth grade will continue using Inspire Science by McGraw Hill, which is used by the high school.
The elementary will be conducting a Boosterthon Fun Run Fundraiser this year. Freeman said they haven’t done the fundraiser for a few years but still have a healthy fund balance. The dollars typically cover the cost for field trips, student enrichment activities and PBIS programs throughout the year. Updating some playground equipment is something they’d like to do this year as well.
Scandrett noted that the high school was still in need of a paraprofessional but had just hired a junior high volleyball coach. One of the biggest tasks last month was looking at the district’s handbook and matching new policy to the handbook. He noted that there were more than 50 changes . The principal conference he attended reviewed new policies and gave attendees ideas on how to prepare for the upcoming year.
Summer School wrapped up a few days early, on June 27. The district was recognized recently for its CEO program. The Star of Innovation Award for the implantation of the program also comes with $100.
Meyer gave a summer cleaning and floor waxing update, noting that the process is almost complete at the high school building and that the custodial staff had recently begun at the elementary school. Meyer said the initial negotiation meeting with the teachers was held on June 23, with the cooks/custodians meeting taking place on June 26. A meeting with transportation is scheduled for this week. They are still waiting on dates for the paraprofessionals, but a second meeting is already scheduled with the cooks/custodians for some time in August.
Meyer said Greg Scheitel from Southwest West Central Service Coop has been secured to fill the district’s parttime mental health/social worker position for the upcoming school year. The new position is paid for by the new student aid dollars from the state.
The current donation amount for the gym floor is just shy of $45,000, Meyer said, noting that the demolition and removal of the wood is complete but that the project is about three weeks behind schedule now.”
Meyer said the first volleyball match, which is slated for Aug. 24, will be held in the practice gym. And while the delay isn’t ideal, he is extremely grateful that the black material they were questioning was not asbestos. “We’d be talking about a lot of money (and time) for an abatement of that sort,” he said.
Enough food/lunch money donations came through this past year to cover the cost of all outstanding lunch accounts, so the account is zeroed out. Meyer said he hopes recipients will pay it forward sometime in the future. With the transition to free lunch beginning, the outstanding balances should be cut down quite a bit, but there are still opportunities for people to build up negative accounts through having seconds and so on.
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