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The Murray County Central School Board met for their regular meeting on Monday, April 14, 2025 with all board members present. After the Pledge of Allegiance, they went on to approve the minutes from the last meeting as well as, the financials for the month. Under Personnel Items, they have hired Melissa Kramer as a Long Term Sub (Certified Staff) and approved Brittney Gorter’s Leave of Absence. No one was present for Public Forum.
Elementary Principal Patrick Freeman began his principal’s report by stating that enrollment is down one from last month. The 5th and 6th Grade concert went well. MCA Testing has begun. He expects that Science and Reading will be completed before the break and Math will be completed after the break. Reading Coordinator Nancy Boerboom and other Literacy Committee members will be attending a workshop in Marshall on May 1st to update the Literacy Plan for next year, based on the READ Act changes. The final Book Fair will begin on April 28.
Kindergarten Round-up will take place on May 2. We currently have 50 students enrolled for Kindergarten next year and 5 in Junior Kindergarten.
Sara Zins has been hired for the open Special Ed position. She is presently working at MCC in an hourly part-time ECSE position. As she takes on a bigger role in Early Childhood Special Education, MCC is able to shift other Special Education teachers within the Elementary School.
Due to numbers, the 5th grade class will be 3 sections next year and the 4th grade class will be 2 sections. Erin Scandrett will move up to 5th grade.
Music: “Theresa Nysetvold will be teaching K-1 along with her librarian duties - we are including library time with this schedule, and the rest of the days of the week will be on music. Christie Gergen will then be staying at West, where she will teach 5-6 band and general music.”
K-6 students will have an Act of Kindness Assembly on May 7th. The Math Curriculum Committee has narrowed it down to 2 routes. One is K-6 and the other is K-2,3-6. Staff are currently trialing the curriculum with sample lessons and units and will make a decision in May with a plan to implement next school year.
High School Principal Jake Scandrett also gave his report. MCAs are underway and will continue through May 1. ACT’s were held at MCC on April 8th with 48 Juniors taking the test. With all this testing, the students have been encouraged to get a good night’s sleep and eat a healthy breakfast so they are able to do their best.
Prom planning is wrapping up. The events start with the Grand March at 6:00pm in the MCC Competition gym, followed by dinner and dance at the Iona Township Hall and Community Center until 11:00. Junior parents are planning many activities for the afterparty.
Mr. Scandrett gave a shoutout to Jr./Sr. Advisors, Christine Larson, Darla Bly, James Wajer and Lucas Freeman for their efforts in creating a great prom again this year! He has also reviewed policies and expectations with students and parents. End of year planning and Graduation Letters went out last week. Mr. Scandrett has been collecting data on cell phones in the classroom and so far it is “overwhelmingly supportive of restrictions for all 7-12 grade students”. Students registered for classes the week of the 31st. These are preliminary courses as we wait for the response back from the MDE regarding the 4-day week. This gives us insight about student interests and will aid us in building the master schedule at a later date.
The Superintendent’s report began with a Legislative Update. The deep cuts that will affect us include: Elimination of Q-Comp, Elimination of nonpublic student aid, Elimination of non-public transportation aid, Reduction of special education transportation reimbursements and Reduction of school library aid. We continue to advocate for increased expenditures and work to balance the budget to cover the present and new mandates that are passed on to us.
In regard to this year’s school calendar, we had 1 day off (forgiven) on Nov. 1, two early outs Dec. 19 & March 4, two late starts Feb. 18 & 19, and 1 ELearning day. Our last day with students will be on Wednesday, May 28 (this will be a half day) and the last day for staff on Thursday, May 29. We expect the 4-Day week decision from MDE will be to us by no later than Friday, April 25th.
Mental Health/Social Worker, Greg Scheitel reported that he worked with 533 students, both in larger groups and individually as well as 17 teachers.
James Wajer submitted his report. The Choir and Band participated in Large Group contests. Speech team held a parents night that was well attended. Knowledge Bowl has 3 teams going on to Regions. Spring Sports are up and running. He wished to thank all the winter coaches for their dedication and hard work. They went on to approve the 5th Grade Field Trip to Skate City and Pipestone Monument and 3rd Grade Field trip to the Skyzone and Sertoma Park in Sioux Falls. These are covered by the Elementary Fundraising events. They also approved the purchase of a number of instruments from Taylor Music for the band. (This is a 5 year agreement for larger instruments). Next, was the approval of bids for Bakery, Dairy, Spraying & Fertilizer (Boerboom), Lawn Mowing (Veldhuisen), and approved Blue Cross Blue Shield as the Health Insurance Provider for 25-26.
Two Drafts of the 25-26 calendar were presented, one for 4-day and one for 5-day. Both have been approved by the Teacher’s Union through a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU).
Finally, the board gratefully accepted the following donations: Brandi & Brian York Family, $500- TI84 Calculators; Murray County Dairy Assoc. $150 - Student Activities; Tyler Schreier Family, $3,000 - Tyler Schreier Scholarship; Minnwest Bank, $500 - Scholarship; Viola Larson Education Fund, $11,266.71- Scholarships; Rosemary LeTendre, $100 - Drama; Rosemary Le-Tendre, $100 - Music, Donna & Kent Johansen, $500 - Scholarship.
