R-P School levy increased by 5.13%

Rushford-Peterson’s business manager, Toni Oian, presented a PowerPoint detailing the requirements and information about R-P’s budget for the truth in taxation meeting at the R-P School Board meeting December 19. While revenues for the general, community service, and debt service remained fairly stable, the food service fund decreased by 31.64% due to the COVID funding for the previous year. Total expenditures for the district rose by 0.32%. Most of the general fund expenditures (77.1%) are on salary, wages, and employee benefits.

R-P has voter approved levies as well; there is a building bond and an excess levy referendum.

Oian shared how the levy will be spent at R-P – 45.05% will go for the general fund, 3.24% will go to Community Education, and 51.71% will go to Debt Services.

After Oian’s presentation, the floor was opened to public comment. No comment was made by the attending public. Following the closure of the hearing, the board certified the total levy of $2.115,039.04; this resulted in a 5.13% increase in the levy.

Regular business

During the new business portion of the meeting, the board approved the general obligation school building bond payment of $2,128,100; this consisted of $1,655,000 of principal and $473,100 in interest.

Following the resignations of a kitchen/janitorial staffer, a coach, and a middle school English teacher for the following year, board member Jeff Michel asked whether people who resigned were given an exit interview. Michel commented, “We can’t lose good teachers.”

Superintendent Ben Bernard replied that such interviews hadn’t been a standard part of the process, but both he and chairman Chris Grindland agreed it would be a good thing to do.

The board continued in doing first and second readings of board policies. Dr. Bernard told the board that he does not make changes to the policies on his own. Changes that have been made by MSBA can be seen online. He stressed that he was most concerned about the content of the policies, but agreed to make some grammar changes as suggested by board member Joyce Iverson.

In his superintendent report, Bernard shared that 36 students were taking advantage of the activities meals provided by Rushford Foods and Norsland Lefse. Meals are delivered to the school office for students to pick up and take with them when they attend away sporting events and activities. This is part of an initiative to provide healthy meals for students and to keep business local.

Bernard thanked winter basketball and spring softball and baseball tournament sponsors – MiEnergy, AcenTek, and Farmers Win Coop for their support of the school.

Middle school/high school principal Jake Timm shared that career navigator MaryAnne Smith was working on a Career Speaker afternoon to be held Friday, February 18. Students were interviewed last fall about what types of CTE jobs and speakers they wanted to hear from.

A Career Exploration Day will once again be held this spring at Rushford businesses. Jen Hengel from RP Valley Chamber of Commerce will organize and lead this. Potentially, the experience could be expanded to take place over several days.

Mr. Timm happily reported that student grades and honor rolls were returning to prepandemic levels as life at school normalized.

As a final act of her eight year tenure on the R-P School Board, Joyce Iverson made the motion to adjourn the meeting. Iverson declared she’d enjoyed her time on the board and said she’d learned a lot. After the meeting, Iverson shared a tray of Christmas treats with everyone in attendance.

The organizational and next regular meeting of the Rushford-Peterson School Board will be January 23 at 6 p.m. in the school forum room. The public is welcome to attend; a public comment period is available early in the meeting.