Lanesboro Child Care Center’s Heidi Brown updated the Lanesboro school board on the daycare remodel. The project should be completed with all of the classrooms moved to their new locations by August 25. The staff and kids are eager to get into their new rooms. The daycare remodel will increase the capacity of the facility from 11 infants to 20, 14 toddlers to 25, and 35 preschoolers to 51. “We’re on track to filling to capacity,” Brown noted about current enrollment numbers.
Last month’s school board meeting agenda was approved with several minor changes noted where Dave Ruen’s name had been accidentally substituted for Dave Lawstuen’s.
Superintendent Matt Schultz reported that both sides of the gym bleachers passed inspection, along with the fire alarm system.
Industrial Arts instructor, Paul Cutting will be working with his class to build a new concession stand for the school during the first semester.
The new school bus was delivered in mid-August. Superintendent Schultz noted that the district is currently looking for substitute drivers and encouraged anyone interested to apply.
Three local farmers nominated Lanesboro Public Schools for a Monsanto grant, and Superintendent Schultz was happy to announce that the district had received the $25,000 grant which paid for Chromebooks for grades 7-12 and iPads for the younger grades.
The school board approved the hirings of Stena Lieb as the K-12 art teacher, Tony Johnson as a social studies/physical education teacher, and Dana Norby as a high school special education teacher. Superintendent Schultz informed the board that all of the teaching spots for the 2017-18 school year have now been filled. The certified and noncertified existing contracts were also approved.
James Semmen was approved as the football coach, Julie Schreiber as the volleyball coach, and Ellen Cullen as the cross-country coach.
The resignation of special education teacher Jim Gladis had been approved at the July meeting contingent on finding a replacement. As Dana Norby was hired to fill his position, the board approved Gladis’s resignation.
The board approved the second readings of policies 404 regarding employment background checks, 709 regarding students transportation safety, and 721 regarding uniform grant guidance.
The Hiawatha Valley Education District’s Restrictive Procedures for Lanesboro school during the 2017-18 school year were approved and remain the same as the previous year’s.
The district’s crisis management policy was approved by the board. It will be presented to the staff on the first workshop day. Each teacher, including daycare will be provided with an emergency plan kit which will include things such as flashlights, band-aids, and student lists. The kits will be contained in a backpack that can easily be grabbed on the way out the door in case of emergency.
Board member Dave Lawstuen updated the board on the Park Road project in board member Steve Snyder’s absence. Property owners in Lanesboro are responsible for paying 17.5% of the costs for street improvements that border their property. The school’s Facilities Committee noted that the road is critical to the school and so their consensus was that the district should pay 35% of the costs for street improvements for the road going from the south side of the city parking lot up to Fillmore Street to the Kirkwood intersection with the exception of the property line to the east of the road. At that section, the district would cover 17.5% of the costs. The 35% would cover both improvement cost responsibilities for both sides of the street instead of just one. The committee noted that the total costs were not to exceed $83,000, which is what the city engineer has estimated the school’s portion to be.
“Our partnership with the city is very important on this,” Lawstuen expressed.
Lanesboro City Administrator Michele Peterson was present at the school board meeting and agreed that it was beneficial for the school and city to work together to complete the Park Road project. She was optimistic that the council would approve the agreement with the school at their September 5 meeting, at which point construction would begin the following Monday.
The board thanked Snyder for all of the time he put into researching the Park Road project. “He represented our interests well,” Board chairman Dave Ruen said. The council approved the motion as recommended by the Facilities Committee.
The next school board meeting will be held on September 21 at 7 p.m.