All board members were present at the February 6 Chatfield School Board meeting, along with Superintendent Harris, Administrative Assistant Lorri Lowrey, Technology Integration Specialist Kristi Cook and student council members, Stephanie Bradt and Ben Muller.
Stephanie Bradt said the Snowball Dance was well attended with 132 students attending. The students are celebrating Snow Day dress up days this week as last week they were out of school for four days because of the weather.
High school teachers Nike DeBuhr and Zach Slowiak addressed the board concerning the new culture club that is being established. They had gone to a Jostens Renaissance workshop in November and came back with many ideas to implement at the high school. The major focus of this club is to have every student feel comfortable at school; an all-inclusive approach. They gave examples of what other schools had done to improve school culture. A retreat will be held next Monday, February 11 for the six members of each grade level who were chosen by staff. A wide array of students were asked to join to get a better perspective of how the high school can become a more welcoming place. The retreat will serve as the vehicle to set up action steps and mold ideas for the immediate future and an end of year goal.
Kristi Cook showed the board and visitors how the VR (Virtual Reality) headsets work. The district has a set of 30 that classrooms can check out and use. Students can visit places they are studying without even leaving their desks. Teachers were trained in how to use them and now are exploring how to use them in the classroom. Kristi said she is continuing to work with third and fourth grade classrooms on digital citizenship and safety. Board members asked if parents would benefit from knowing what their child is experiencing online and Kristi said she would be glad to hold a class for parents.
Randy Paulson, high school principal, congratulated the dance team on another successful year and the students who received honors. Larissa Martin received All-Conference and Brooklynn Johnson, Erin Spelhaug and Alexis Demorest received Honorable Mention All-Conference.
In the elementary school, Shane McBroom stated that the nine-week D.A.R.E (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) program started on Monday for the sixth graders, with Chatfield Police Officer Kevin Landorf as the facilitator. This program helps students become better decision makers and to be respectful and responsible. McBroom said that the NWEA (North West Evaluation Association) testing is finishing up and that MCA (Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments) testing will begin in April.
Supertindent Harris asked the board to think about MSBA Leadership Training and suggested a board retreat for this training. He attended a legislative forum where legislators were presented with ideas on school funding, specifically to assist schools with covering the excess SPED (Special Education) cost and to advocate for a stronger general education formula expectation guaranteed by law. Since the district has surpassed the three snow days built into the schedule, make up days are as follows: school will now be in session on Wednesday, March 6 (make up day #1), and Thursday, March 7 (make up day #2). Friday, March 8 will be the teacher training/workshop that was originally scheduled for Wednesday, March 6, and school will be in session on Monday, April 22 (make up day #3).
The consent agenda was approved by the board. Approved were the meeting minutes of the January 10 board meeting, the Class of 2020 raffle drawing and the posting for transportation quotes for school year 2019-2020 and 2020-2021. Also approved was the hiring of Jennifer Bradt as assistant cross-country coach.
Under New Business the annual payment to the City of Chatfield for CCTV streaming video was approved. The board then started the process of filling the board vacancy. Six people submitted applications for the interim position. Matt McMahon nominated F. Michael Tuohy and Amy Jeffers nominated Wendy Kirschner. McMahon and Jeffers stated why they felt they would be the best candidate. A roll call vote was held for nominee Tuohy with aye votes from Isensee, Backer, Priebe and McMahon, with Jeffers voting no. F. Michael Touhy will be the interim board member until the November election and Scott Backer read the resolution for filling the school board vacancy by appointment. Board members thanked all those who had applied and urged them to file for the position in the November election.
The meeting was adjourned. The next board meeting will be held on March 13 to allow the 30 day waiting period so that the new board member can begin serving his term at the March meeting.
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