On Monday, February 23, Gretchen Hudka presented the Kingsland School Board with an update on the Spring Valley-Wykoff Future Farmers of America (FFA).
In celebration of FFA Week, the group held several events including bowling, staff appreciation for the school, their Pancake Breakfast for the community, an all-day barnyard event, a member meal with food from Ody’s Country Meats and Catering and the Ag Olympics. The members also hosted a scavenger hunt, dress-up days and a coloring contest for the celebration.
The Dairy Foods team placed second at a recent competition and will advance to state in April. Isiah Williams became the first member in many years to participate in the poultry competition placing 34th out of 68.
Kristal Brogan, who teaches Ag, shared highlights from this semester.
The Metal Arts classes have been busy creating plaques for Kingsland teachers and numerous projects throughout the community.
The middle school classes have worked on projects for the nursing home, veterans home and around the school.
“Next year I got approved to teach Riverland’s Ag Business course, too, so we will add that in for the students,” Brogan shared. The class will count for college credits.
Superintendent Scott Klavetter expressed his appreciation for what Brogan and the Industrial Technology Department, taught by Cole Roeder, have integrated assignments with the needs of the community.
Strategic Planning
The Kingsland district will be working on their 2026-2031 Strategic Plan with the help of staff, students and the community.
According to Klavetter, the first step will be group listening sessions on March 30 beginning at 4:30 p.m. This would include a student group, administrator group, staff group, school board and community group.
“It’ll be a brainstorming of what is going well and areas for growth,” Klavetter explained. “We want as much community involvement as possible.”
After the sessions the information will be collected and reviewed for common themes, which will then be brought to the Strategic Planning Committee where they will build the ideas into actual goals.
The committee will be comprised of approximately 25 people consisting of board members, staff, students and community members. They will meet on April 22, May 6 and May 19 at 5:30 p.m. Each meeting is expected to last two hours.
A final meeting will be held for school board members to make any final touches.
SMEC
Dan Armagost and John Mark Dundas, of the Southern Minnesota Education Consortium (SMEC), presented the board with the fiscal year 2025 audit.
SMEC is a multi-purpose cooperative of school districts that work together to provide support for special education students. Currently, there are seven member districts within SMEC including Alden-Conger, Glenville-Emmons, Grand Meadow, LeRoy-Ostrander, Lyle, Southland and Kingsland.
It was noted the overall number of students went down slightly because SMEC lost space in one of the member districts for the level three program. Their capacity was reduced to make up for the loss.
According to Dundas they were able to “move a few things around” to make up for that capacity and to bring it back up.
“Revenues are up quite a bit, but that includes special education aid, which stands on the board of commissions to try to cut. We are mainly funded by state aid,” Dundas explained. “Our general fund revenues were up over our expenditures a little bit, but we are saving that excess revenue for our current storm shelter project or any future projects.”
Dudas noted SMEC will be making a $500,000 excess principle payment in August of this year.
“Based on preliminary estimates, that half a million dollar excess principle payment is going to save our member districts between $610,000 and $620,000,” Dundas said.
“It’s nice to have that money to pay down that bond. We all worked together to get the $500,000 principle payment that we are making. That is huge for us and I am very proud we were able to pull that together and get it done in such a short amount of time,” Armagost expressed. “We are always growing with our staffing and programing so we are doing the best we can do to serve your students.”
Other Business
The board thanked Sue Kolling for her donation of $292.85 to the Key Club.
Klavetter shared exterior construction on the school may begin in early May, if weather permits.
The board approved the fiscal year revised budget with no major changes.
Preschool fees will see an increase of 3% (rounded to the nearest five dollars). Registration fees and School Age Child Care (SACC) fees will remain the same.
The annual Wellness Report was approved.
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