Brent Olson, New R-P MSHS Principal

The Rushford-Peterson School Board accepted the resignation of MSHS Principal Jake Timm and hired new MSHS Principal Brent Olson at their regular board meeting May 18. Other new hires included Reading interventionist (K-8) Andrea Larson, LTS for kindergarten, Madelyn Haugen; assistant football coach, Dan Mlsna and assistant football coach, Jon Theuer.

Other resignations included Activities dDirector and Dean of Students Clay Olstad, Prom advisor, Christine Anderson; and Ag educator and FFA advisor, Courtney Thorman. Olstad will be returning to the elementary classroom. Superintendent Dr. Ben Bernard shared that he has received several applicants for the Ag position.

Policies that were presented for a second reading were approved with no changes or discussion. The wellness policy was updated with small changes and nothing that was substantive was changed.

A Supplemental Online Learning Policy was approved. Some students were taking online classes to replace core classes. The intent is to ensure that the students take classes that meet or exceed the Rushford-Peterson standards. For example, the R-P standards for an English class require speech as a part of the class. Some online classes do not include a speech component. R-P wants to ensure that students meet the acceptable requirements for graduation. Counselor Erin Thompson commented that students could potentially miss out on some standards if the school isn’t careful.

A key timeline requires students to sign up for the supplemental classes no later than 15 days before the classes begin at R-P.

Bids Acceptance

The board examined bids for milk, bread, gas, bus, snow and garbage removal. Pan-O-Gold and St.Charles Bakery bids were accepted for bread. The gas bid from Pam’s Corner was accepted as was the low bid for busing from Bernard Bus; busing will be $384,967 for daily busing in 2026-2027 and $398,895 for 2027-2028. The garbage bid from the current vendor LRS for a monthly charge of $763 was accepted.

The snow removal bid was tabled in order to ensure all bids were submitted. The milk bid was also tabled. The two milk bids submitted differed by quite a bit; the high bid was $6,542 more than the low bid, but students had not liked the milk in the past from that company. Samples from each company will be brought in for blind taste tests by students before a decision is made. Both snow removal and milk bids were tabled until the next meeting.

Admin Reports

Superintendent Bernard enthused about the fun activities and field trips at the end of the year including tasting samples, a color run and band and choir concerts. Bernard felt the fun activities were important for school culture.

Elementary Principal Angela Shepard shared that the fire department had come and helped with the color run after students had asked for more water and color last year. The color was doubled in amount as well. She shared a plethora of pictures of the color run, some of which had been taken with cameras and a GoPro purchased with a grant.

Shepard told the board that a summer school class field trip was being planned for August at the end of summer school.

Jake Timm gave his last report as R-P MSHS principal. Timm informed the board that concurrent enrollment classes were being offered with partnerships between R-P and MN State-SE, Riverland and WSU. Forty-eight college credits will be offered next year at R-P. Senior Awards scholarships totaled over $100,140 this year.

Timm recounted events recently held such as prom at Outback Ranch and the county-wide DARE graduation for sixth graders held at R-P.

Freshmen will be attending “Career Exploration Day” at businesses in the R-P area on May 27. Graduation at R-P will be held May 31 at 1:30 in the high school gym.

Clay Olstad informed the board that a total of 22 teams and 1,400 athletes participated in the True Team competition held at R-P. He commented that Track manager, Dale Moga was “just crunching it!”

HVED Board representative Nancy Snyder reminded the board members to put the August 26 HVED open house at the newly remodeled central facility in Winona on their calendars.