The Murray County Central School Board met on Monday, March 11th. The meeting agenda was approved and the financials for the month were reviewed as well.
Superintendent Joe Meyer presented the following personnel changes. Spring Coach contracts include: Tim Bobeldyk (Head Boys Track), Tim Cariveau (Asst Baseball), Dominick Damm (Head Girls Track), Kate DeLong (Asst Golf), Kim DeLong (Head Golf), MacKenzie DeLong (Asst Softball), Brian Christiansen (Asst Boys Track), Paul Counter (Head Baseball Coach), Joel Herrig (Asst Softball), Sophie Larson (Jr. High Softball), Scott Manch (Jr. High Softball), Elissa Wieneke (Head Softball). Also included for spring contracts were: Grant Harms (Elem. Math Masters), Isaac Harms (One Act Play), and Clayton Hartle (Secondary Science Teacher). Resignations received were: Stacey Baedke (School Counselor) and Bridget Prahm (Paraprofessional).
The 2023/2024 teacher contracts were also presented to the Board for approval.
Patrick Freeman, Elementary Principal provided the Board with an update from the last month. MCA testing is coming up. Preparing for those now with staff. The teachers will also be partaking in some Literacy training this next week, both Lexia Core 5 and LETRS Training. Nancy Boerboom is working on getting certified for LETRS training for the school district which will be helpful for future planning. Teachers will also be partaking in Internet Safety and Social Media training the end of the month. There are currently 49 students signed up for Kindergarten for next year and 13 for Junior Kindergarten. 3rd Quarter ends on March 22nd with report cards being emailed home on March 28th.
Jake Scandrett, Secondary Principal, also provided the Board an update. Spring Conferences were good. Summer School programing is currently being planned. They are again looking at ALC in Windom to provide credit recovery for students.
School Counselor, Greg Scheitel will be meeting with 7th & 8th grade students multiple times a month next year. He will be discussing a wide range of topics including relationships, emotional regulation, impulsive behavior and much more. The school will also provide Anti-Bullying and Social Media Awareness/Safety training per state requirements. The school is looking into doing a Cell Phone Ban for 7th and 8th graders next year, as research continues to show that behaviors are related to this. A survey of JH Teachers show they are in favor of this change. Many area schools are also looking to or already have made a change like this. Course registration has been completed for next year, Mr Scandrett will be reviewing these and finalizing the schedule. ACT testing will be offered to Juniors who have registered at MCC on March 26th and MCA testing will start April 3rd.
Meyer provided a Superintendent Update to the Board. He recently spent time at the capital and the vibe is not optimistic for this next legislative session. He doesn’t foresee any new money coming the school district’s way. He reminded us that a lot of spending happened last year and a need to fix some of the things from last year. There are over 225 bills currently introduced to the house and senate combined. The bills that are gaining traction include one that gives free milk to those who bring their own lunch, state academic health standards, mental health screening, the READ Act 2.0, requiring MSHSL coaches to have eating disorder training, expansion of LTFM uses for roof replacement, adding performance requirements into the Worlds Best Workforce report, expanding computer science in schools, a bill banning rainbow flag banning in schools, not counting MCA opt out students in results, adding bereavement and any accrued leave bank to the ESST qualifications. There is a lot going on and Meyer will keep the Board up to-date.
The trees have been removed on King Ave. and he is looking into some drainage tile for the SW corner, as the lot slopes to that corner. They will next get bids for gravel base and curb as well as asphalt surface. The ground settling was discussed.
The student support report from Scheitel was presented. The numbers continue to go up. The current phone system needs to be replaced and he will be meeting with Woodstock Communications and SWWC as well as already meeting with Bluepeak. There is hope this will end up being a savings to the district. They are also looking to update the intercom system at Central this summer and getting quotes for that. A quote was also gotten for tuck pointing on the east side of the high school. This would be for new caulking and sealing on the windows. The quote was $87,000 which was higher than he had anticipated. He will get some more quotes on this to get an idea of what they are dealing with.
Activities Director James Wajer provided a report which was read by Scandrett. Winter sports are all completed and he expressed a thank you to everyone for a successful season. Spring sports are showing good participant numbers with 9-12 Baseball having 21 and JH baseball also at 21, 9-12 Softball has 25 and JH Softball has 12, Boys Track has 33 participants and Girls Track has 23 and Boys Golf has 20 out and Girls Golf has 11. The first spring activity is scheduled for March 28th. The big thing about spring sports is there will be no spring sport student fees this year as they are being waived to utilize some ESSER Dollars the school has to spend before the end of the year. There are many requirements for these funds and Meyer was able to get it approved to cover the spring fees, which will also then include the spring coach contracts and transportation costs. This will allow the school to spend the money and help the general fund.
Moving on to old business, the Board had the second reading of the 606.5 Library Materials policy.
In new business, the Board was presented and approved the Achievement Integration Revenue FY 2025 Budget Worksheet that Meyer has to submit to the state every year. The 2nd grade also asked for approval to go out of state for their circus trip that they take each year. This was approved. They next approved the 2024/2025 SWWC contract for services $391,667.56. This was an increase from $360,580.79 from last year. Meyer explained that a lot of the increases in the contracts are due to student need, so there isn’t really anything that can be changed. The Board approved the new contract for Superintendent Joe Meyer for the next 3 years.
They next called for bids for Dairy, Bakery, and Official Publications. This was approved. They do a two year rotation for the mowing so that is in year two.
The last item was to thank those who made donations this last month: $5,070 MSHSL Foundation, $500 Minnwest Bank, $500 Slayton Fireman’s Relief, $200 Kathy Counter, $12,000 SW Health & Human Services.
The next school board meeting will be Monday, April 8th at 6pm.
