Photo by Wanda Hanson
The Lanesboro School Board heard details of the upcoming Small School Teaching Conference to be held on Wednesday, October 16 at Lanesboro Schools. Two break out sessions will be presented. Subjects such as artificial intelligence in schools, mental health and classroom management will be discussed by presenters. WSU will have an empathy session as one of the choices for participants. Once again, the National Rural Teacher of the Year will be a keynote speaker. This year, the National Rural Teacher of the Year again hails from Minnesota. Mellisa Oberg is a special education teacher from Cook County Schools in Grand Marais and is the first special education teacher to receive the award.
Superintendent Matt Schultz shared his work on the state legislative Teacher/Paraprofessional Compensation Work Group. The group meets every two weeks to discuss compensation. Schultz reported that they are currently in a learning phase as they explore the compensations for other professions compared to teachers.
Schultz is very concerned about the teaching profession. Not enough young people are choosing to go into teaching to keep schools supplied with qualified teachers in the future. He feels strongly that part of the reason for this is the low starting teacher salary. Schultz declared, “My biggest concern is that we won’t refill the teachers retiring!”
School Board Election
The school board election will take place during the general election on November 5. There are a total of six people who have thrown their hats into the ring for the three available board positions. The people who are officially on the ballot are Christine Troendle, Tamara DeGarmo, Sarah Peterson, Jennifer Kimball-Olson, Mark Holmen and Lucas Bergo. The three people who receive the most votes will win a seat on the board.
Steve Snyder reminisced about a previous election in which there was a tie for third seat; a coin was flipped at a meeting to determine the new board member. Snyder suggested it’d be a great solution if that were to happen again!
Donations
Once again the board gratefully accepted several donations. The scholarship fund received $3,128; a donor gave $100 for snacks at the elementary school; FFA received a donation of $158.39; an electric piano valued at $2,000 was also donated.
Reports
Superintendent Schultz reported on recent votes at MSHL; the first vote was regarding including ninth grade programs under the auspices of MSHL control. This would bring MSHL in line with other states’ rules. It also would include ninth graders under the coverage of MSHL Catastrophic Insurance policies.
Snyder asked why seventh and eighth graders weren’t included also. Schultz replied that if the underclassmen are playing on varsity or junior varsity they will be covered. This was only concerning ninth grade only teams.
A second “yes” vote from Lanesboro was regarding creating more accurate and consistent wording for MSHL policies.
In his superintendent report, Schultz shared that K-6 teachers had completed training for the new reading curriculum and were in the process of implementing the curriculum.
There have been many experiential learning opportunities at Lanesboro recently. A few examples were: Sharon Boyum will be taking third and foutth graders to attend the La Crosse Orchestra, high school students have been going on college visits and to Mayo Clinic. Some high school students will be traveling to Kasson for leadership training.
Schultz noted that title one has been expanded to improve diagnostics in math.
Board Chair and HVED representative Christine Troendle reported that the HVED board has been using their new centralized location in Winona for their board meetings. There has been no major progress in refurbishing the building as HVED further evaluates the precise scope of the project for both space and final expense.
Personnel
There were no retirements or resignations. Kira Nelson was hired as a paraprofessional at Lanesboro Schools.
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