The Frauenkron family – Byron, Anna, Ethan and Elliot – were acknowledged as Hurricane Heroes at the October 3 Houston School Board meeting. Superintendent Mary Morem related that Ethan and Elliot helped pour concrete at the school and called her to come see the finished product late one night. The boys were busy power washing the concrete in the dark using headlights so the logo could be painted on it the following day! “You’re raising great humans!” Morem declared to their parents. Byron and Anna are always helping at the school as well.
Student representatives junior Grayden Beckman and senior Julia Carr joined the board for the meeting. Grayden shared the courses he was taking this fall as he introduced himself. He’s taking concurrent algebra which earns him both high school and college credits, PSEO sociology, and woodworking. He explained he wanted to explore all kinds of subjects; this is something Houston School makes easily possible.
Julia Carr served as student representative on the school board last year; she returns as an experienced member. Julia reported that community members should contact the school if they need any projects done on the upcoming Community Cleanup Day.
Superintendent Morem updated the board on current enrollment. MNVA enrollment is up more than 50 students from this time last year. The brick and mortar elementary enrollment is up as well; another teacher will be added for the second semester for grades one/two. The high school enrollment remains stable.
Hockey Agreement
The board approved most of the cooperative hockey agreement with La Crescent. Houston will pay a prorated amount based on their number of participants and an additional flat rate of $632.50 for each co-op sport athlete for the year 2024-2025. A 2% inflationary increase to the flat rate will begin in the 2026-2027 school year.
Not approved yet was the transportation plan for the single hockey player. Houston is unsure if they can transport the student at the needed 2:30 p.m. time. Parents of the hockey player both work in Winona and aren’t able to take every afternoon off to take him to La Crescent; this year, the student is not old enough to drive himself to practice.
The student’s father pointed out that they had been discussing hockey with Houston for several years. He was frustrated since it was now too late to open-enroll to La Crescent school.
Morem assured the family that she’d discuss transportation with La Crescent and find a solution. There is a possibility that a Houston van that goes to La Crosse already to pick up several students at the end of the day might be able to transport the hockey player to La Crescent. When a board member asked about the student missing a class, the parents shared that the principal at Houston had helped schedule classes; they had chosen an online physical education class that the student could complete with no issues.
AIPAC Compliance
Maggie Greenleaf, Houston’s American Indian Education Coordinator, addressed the board virtually. According to Greenleaf, there are 78 self-identified American Indians between MNVA and Houston School. $68,000 in funding is allotted to the school to help educate this population. For every student after the first 20, the school receives another $500. As a result, the school wants to identify all Native Americans attending the school.
A parent group called AIPAC will be started next year; this group will have smart goals and must meet the smart goals to remain compliant. The goals for this coming year are: to become compliant with the state, to establish AIPAC and to build community within the Native American students. At this point, three to five parents have already shown interest in the group. Greenleaf said she was hoping to have around 15 parents in the group ultimately.
Graduating American Indian students will be celebrated; retention of this segment of the student population has been difficult. A website will be built for the American Indian students.
Money received can be used for crafts, certain curriculum, field trips and college visits.The board will be asked to approve the plans for this year in November and for next year this spring.
Donations
The board accepted the following donations: $1,000 from Chemsolv, LLC. for the volleyball program, $100 from Mary Denver as a general donation, $300 from an anonymous donor for the elementary school afternoon milk break, $2,000 from Jonathan and Karen Hahn and $2,400 from Dubb IT for the high school sign, $2,844.81 from American Legion Post 423 for new basketball backboards and $5,000 from the American Legion Post423 for the D.C. trip. The board was once again very grateful for the great generosity of the community.