The following board members were present at the February 5, 2020, Chatfield School Board meeting: Amy Jeffers, Lanny Isensee, Katie Priebe, Matt McMahon and Rick Lowrey. Scott Backer was absent. Also present were Superintendent Ed Harris, Principals Shane McBroom and Randy Paulson, Krista O’Connor, business manager; Lorri Lowrey, administrative assistant, and student senate representatives, Brynn Irish and Lexie Novotny.
Under school board reports, Matt McMahon reported that negotiations with teachers have gone very well with both parties having good discussions. The negotiations committee and the teachers have reached a tentative agreement with an increase of 1.73% for each year of the two year contract. Lanny Isensee stated that he was glad that this was accomplished because we have great teachers and want to retain them. Barb Jeffers discussed the fundraising possibilities that were brought up at the community education committee meeting. The committee is looking for an annual fundraiser to help keep costs affordable for the early childhood programs.
Student senate representatives, Brynn Irish and Lexie Novotny, told the board about the upcoming Snow Week celebration the week of February 10-14 with dress up days for each day and the dance on February 15. The student senate will also be selling Valentine cookies as a fundraiser.
Randy Paulson, high school principal, congratulated three athletes who were recognized in the last two weeks. Broden Hobbs for getting the KTTC “Play of the Week,” Reid Johnson for scoring over 1,000 career points in basketball, and Cael Bartels for getting his 100 wins in wrestling. On Thursday, the Delta team and the Chatfield One Act Play have teamed up to present an assembly. The One Act Play students were not able to attend their competition because of illness so they will present it to the student body. To further develop the school’s SLAM (Students Learning Advance Manufacturing) program, Lyle Dietz, a retired industrial mechanical engineer, will be able to be certified by Minnesota State College Southeast as an instructor to work with Tim Willette in the production engineering class. Lastly, Minnesota State College Southeast, Chatfield and Cannon Falls are working on a “Future Ready CTE Collaborative project Fund Grant.” The $60,000 grant would help with instructor, training and student field trip costs for both Chatfield and Cannon Falls and is through the Southeast Service Coop.
Elementary principal, Shane McBroom, stated that the sixth graders have started their DARE program with Officer Kevin Landorf. He went on to recognize parent volunteers for their help with Math Wizards and Academic Triathlon competitions. Without them it would be very difficult to sponsor these activities. The students at the elementary have completed their NWEA winter benchmark testing for this year.
Ed Harris, superintendent, reported that the January 22 budget meeting had looked at long range plans but that another meeting was necessary to look at further details of budget reduction for next year. It was decided that February 19 would work for the next budget meeting. Plans are now being drawn up for the outside storage shed that will replace the shed that had to be removed for the new pool. In a few weeks, contractors will be given the specifics and can bid on the project. The monies for the shed are from the construction fund and were reserved until this project could be completed; which will be this summer. This project will close out the construction fund.
Under the consent agenda the January, 8, 2020, meeting minutes were approved along with the special meeting minutes from January, 22, 2020. Also approved were the Class of 2021 raffle and the yearbook fundraiser(s).
All the policies under the second Reading of District Policies were approved including the new policy, “798- Donations for Negative Student Food Service Accounts” that was added to establish criteria as to how to distribute donations.
Under action items, the board approved the annual $5,000 CCTV streaming payment to the City of Chatfield and the 2020-2021 School Calendar. The calendar will be much the same as last year’s with the exception of the moving of one staff development from January to February.
The meeting was adjourned. The next meeting will be held on Wednesday, March 4 in the high school forum room.
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