On Wednesday, January 21, the Kingsland School Board began their first meeting of the year with a presentation from teachers Angela Forland, fifth and sixth grade, and Tara Holmen, first grade, who spoke to the group about the new reading curriculum
Minnesota’s Reading to Ensure Academic Development (READ) Act was signed into law in 2023. The goal of the act is to have all children in the state reading at or above grade level every year.
Both teachers shared they have noticed a larger amount of time spent large group teaching, which involves a lot of repetition.
One similarity within the new and old curriculums is the gradual release of responsibility, which has the teacher model the information, then they practice as a class and finally students practice independently.
“It feels a little uncomfortable, but I’m learning to trust the process,” Holmen said of the new ways of teaching her students to read. “At the word level they are attacking it, but I’m waiting to see at the sentence level how they are going to do.”
Holmen noted the new curriculum has better visuals, which encourages better engagement from the students.
“It’s a return to direct instruction and phonics based instruction,” Superintendent Scott Klavetter noted.
When talking about her classroom curriculum, Forland said, “The grammar is built right into the lessons and is used weekly in their writing assignments. Every lesson starts with some activities that give the students a chance to share with the class or with partners. We just did a closed reading activity with the story we read this week. That is a skill that we’ve actually taught the high school to use with any of their science, history or any of those type of programs because closed reading gets them to really picture the walk-through first.”
“In primary grades it is learning to read and once you hit third grade it shifts to reading to learn,” Klavetter expressed.
Transportation Director
With the resignation of Transportation Director Sarah Clough and the still open position of activities director, Klavetter suggested the board consider merging the positions.
“There is a lot of collaboration and coordination that needs to happen between the transportation director and activity director with the amount of traveling we do for activities,” Klavetter noted.
While there has been interest in the new position, Klavetter warned the board the right person for the job may be in under contract with another school until the end of the year, so they are working on a plan to cover both positions temporarily.
Former Transportation director, Dusty Tart, will be the contact person for the bus routes and will keep up with the maintenance of the transportation vehicles.
Becky Bicknese, the Kingsland Community Education director, will take over the administration portion of the Transportation director position.
Klavetter will take over any other details pertaining to the position until it is filled.
Other Business
The board thanked Sharon and Dick Jahn for their $200 donation to the Band Boosters and their $200 donation to the drama club. They also thanked Julie Tart for her $50 donation to HOSA, Kingsland School Parents (KSP) for their $396.93 donation to the second grade field trip and High Prairie Wind Farms for their $1,000 donation to the elementary STEM classes.
After Head Basketball Coach Richard Kemper’s decision to resign, Klavetter told the board the remaining three coaches have taken over his duties for the remainder of the season. The district will post the job after the completion of this season.
Board member Brady Wolfgram noted the Minnesota State High School League (MSHSL) now oversees 50 different activities in Minnesota. “We are 18th in number of students in Minnesota compared to the U.S., but we are 10th in participants at 277,000 participants in MSHSL (this included only grades ninth though 12th).
Wolfgram shared the lawsuit against MSHSL and the state of Minnesota pertaining to Title IX, has been reviewed by the Court of Appeals, though at that time no decision was made. According to their press release on January 26, 2026, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights notified the Minnesota Department of Education and the MSHSL that it is referring the case to the U.S. Department of Justice for enforcement action.
A resolution directing Klavetter to make recommendations for adjustments in curriculum, programs and staff for the 2026-2027 school year was approved.
The board approved hiring Roberta Lentz as a long-term special education substitute through January.
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