The January 26 Fillmore Central School Board meeting opened with the oath of office for returning board members Jim Love, Deb Ristau, and new board member Aaron Janssen.
The board officers for 2021 were set with Craig Britton as the chairperson, Jennifer Pickett as the vice-chairperson, Deb Ristau as the clerk, Shelly Topness as the vice-clerk, and Sue Sikkink as the treasurer. The annual salaries will remain the same as they were in 2020 with the chairperson receiving $1,440, the vice-chairperson, clerk, vice-clerk, and director each receiving $1,080, and the treasurer receiving $1,350. The pay rate for extra meetings will also remain the same at $25.
Ristau and Topness will serve on the Community Education Committee in 2021, Pickett on Continuing Education, Sikkink and Topness on Meet and Confer, Britton, Topness, and Sikkink on Negotiations; Janssen and Pickett on Policy, Sikkink on System Accountability, Ristau on Staff Development, Love, Pickett, and Britton on Vendor Negotiations; Britton, Janssen, and Love on Facility Focus; Sikkink, Ristau, and Britton on Budget; Love on Technology, Pickett on Curriculum/Calendar, and Janssen, Love, and Pickett on Vocational Studies. Ristau will serve as the MSBA liaison, Britton on the MSHSL/Three Rivers Conference, and Pickett on the Special Education Advisory Council.
The district’s official depositories will continue to be First SE Bank of Harmony, First State Bank of Fountain, F&M Community Bank of Preston, and MSDLAF or Minnesota School District Liquid Asset Fund. Knutson, Flynn, & Deans will be the official school district legal counsel. The official newspaper will be the Fillmore County Journal. The official stations for school closings will be KQYB, KFIL, KROC, KNXR, KTTC-TV, KAAL-TV, the Harmony and Preston local cable channels. KTTC-TV, the school website, the school Facebook page, and JMC messenger will be used to notify families of closures. Kathy Whalen, Darla Ebner, and former Superintendent Richard Keith had previously been approved to wire transfer funds and purchase CDs. The board approved a motion to replace Keith’s name with Superintendent Heath Olstad. The regular school board meetings will continue to be held on the fourth Tuesday of each month at 6:30 p.m. with the locations alternating between the elementary meeting room and the high school cafeteria. Notices will be posted in the elementary, district, and high school offices.
Superintendent Heath Olstad gave his report to the board. The wrestling season is underway as is One-Act Play, which is taking place virtually this year. Twelve juniors chose to take the PSAT test on January 26. Congratulations were extended to high school students Kaylee Arndt and Jeremy O’Connor for winning the 2020 ExCEL award.
Blaise Sass was approved as the head wrestling coach, Adam Daniels as the assistant wrestling coach, and Jason Hovey and Erik Bengtson as the volunteer wrestling coaches. The hours for paraprofessionals Kayla Carroll and Allison Braaten were increased to 6.76 hours each per student contact day. Brianna Dea was hired as a float aide in the One Block at a Time daycare and Shelby Ebner as a Title One long-term substitute. A leave request for coach Joe Cullen was approved as well as an FMLA request from Heather Shupe and maternity leave request from Samantha Weigert.
The board approved the Alternative Learning Program for the summer during an eight week period. Marsha Dowe-Indahl will teach the program and if more than five students sign up for each session, a paraprofessional will be hired as well.
The donations received during the fourth quarter of the year were approved and came to a total of just over $14,000. “We’re very thankful for all the donations we get at our school,” Craig Britton expressed.
An open enrollment request from a student for the 2021-22 school year was approved.
Superintendent Olstad asked the board to consider the possibility of creating a summer school program for students who need help progressing in school, noting that distance learning has been very trying for many students and families. Based on school policy, a number of 7th and 8th graders will have to repeat their grade next year and summer school would give them a chance to keep up with their grade level. Board member Jim Love mentioned that funding shouldn’t be an issue as Governor Walz announced earlier in the day that his budget will include $57.5 million of federal funds for summer school programming across Minnesota. The school board unanimously supported the creation of summer school at the high school.
A number of Fillmore Central staff have received their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine and more are scheduled to be vaccinated next week.
Superintendent Olstad noted that the change from an eight-period day to a four-period day was successful and asked the board to consider keeping it during the next year as well. The board will discuss it further at a future meeting.
The next Fillmore Central School Board meeting will be held on February 23 at 6:30 p.m. in the high school cafeteria.
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