The Lanesboro School Board spent much of their May 14 meeting discussing the Lanesboro Child Care Center, the school’s daycare. During the public comment period, Lexi Burt returned to ask about the recent resignation of assistant director McKenzie Hanson who had been hired in April. Burt was concerned that the parents hadn’t been notified of the change. She also asked about support for the daycare, whether exit interviews had been done and what qualifications were needed to run a daycare.
Tamara DeGarmo asked for a policy to be implemented when people leave and shared some exit questions she suggested the school use. She declared, “We want people to be clamoring to get into the school! It’s important to get front line opinions.”
While the board does not respond to comment during the public input period, Superintendent Matt Schultz had been asked for more information about the daycare at the April meeting and presented a well researched report during the report section of the meeting.
Schultz reported that the daycare was at or near full capacity in infant, toddlers, and preschool daycare. The infant and toddler programs had seen an increase over the past few years and there was a decrease in the preschool numbers.
At this time the daycare needs one employee in preschool and the director, Ashley Gordon would like to hire another infant worker as well. Schultz shared that he meets with Gordon weekly to discuss needs at the facility.
Schultz went back as far as the 2020-2021 school year to look at the financials. That year the daycare received a $100,000 COVID grant from the state. In 2022-2023 the daycare had a deficit of $52,135; in 2023-2024 there was a deficit of $118,000. The school will transfer money from the general fund to cover the $169,135 deficits of the past two years this year.
In the past there had been an average deficit of $173,678 per year which the school had covered with funding from the general fund. In recent years the deficit has ranged from $85,000 to $120,000. Superintendent Schultz called that deficit “comfortable.” The school board supports the funding of the daycare.
Schultz commented, “We built a $2 million daycare center while lowering the deficit. We truly support the daycare.” When more space was added and more children were accepted, there was also a need for more staff.
Schultz went on to inform that in 1988 Lanesboro’s daycare was the first daycare which was run by a school in the state. The school does not bill the daycare for custodial service, maintenance, phones, etc.
The salaries of the daycare staff are increased by the same percentage as the teachers at the school; this year there was a 3% increase. Schultz checked with three other daycares locally and found the salaries at Lanesboro were comparable to theirs.
Schultz also looked at job postings for the state; 39 positions were available with an hourly pay rate of $15.06 and a high of $18.41. Once again, comparable (or lower) to Lanesboro. As school employees, the daycare staff is provided employee contributions to PERA (Public Employee Retirement Association) and 10 earned sick and safe days.
The turnover rate for daycare employees is high nationwide. Finding new staff presents issues across the board for all employees according to Schultz. The recent unemployment rate of Fillmore County was 0.6%.
Currently the school is looking for an assistant director. During the board meeting, Desirae Baker was hired for the daycare staff and` the retirements of longtime daycare personnel Karen Dahl and Dianne Perry were approved.
Board member Sarah Peterson asked Schultz for proactive things the school could do to retain daycare staff. Lucas Bergo suggested surveying the staff for ideas. Legally, the board is not able to be present at exit interviews, but a board meeting could be closed and Schultz could discuss the results of such interviews with the board.
Business Conducted
Business conducted by the board included:
•Hearing from Elementary Principal James Semmen that Everyday Math had been selected as the math curriculum and materials are available to the teachers over the summer;
•Accepted the resignation of Jody Peterson as dean of students;
•Approved EmpowerU Resilience and Mental Health training for seven more teachers;
•Approved the Lanesboro-St.Charles sharing agreement for both boys and girls soccer;
•Approved the revised budget for 2024-2025; Schultz commented that the budget was only off by $25,000 which he considered good for an $8 million budget;
•Approved annual membership in MSHL; without the membership, students would not be able to compete in state tournaments;
•Gratefully accepted donations totalling $15,015.