Over the past year, there has been a lot of discussion on where property lines lay between the Lanesboro Public School and the City of Lanesboro. At their February meeting, the Lanesboro City Council approved a motion to move forward with the park road project, the road that runs between the community center and school.
“We are looking to cost share the project with the school,” City Administrator Michele Peterson said while presenting the proposal to the school board at their regular February 16 meeting.
City engineer Brian Malm handed out copies of a map with the project proposal to the school board to review.
“There are lot of drainage issues with the road now,” Malm said. “That’s part of the reason for the deterioration on the road.”
The proposal included doing a reclaim and overlay on a portion of the road as the pavement has deteriorated to the point that putting new asphalt on it would cause it to fail almost immediately. Another section needs a full reconstruction, which includes replacing the gravel base and adding drain tile to deal with the drainage issues. “It’s more costly, but would provide better product in the end,” Malm added.
As the proposal is currently written, the cost for the city comes to $182,300 and the cost for the school is just over $100,000.
“We want to be good neighbors, but part of that includes knowing property lines and having fences,” Board member Dave Ruen pointed out. “We just need to get to the bottom of where the lines are and have a better idea of how to share the costs.”
“We all want to be financially responsible,” Peterson agreed.
Malm agreed but noted that the focus should really be on who the road serves and not so much on the property lines.
A topographic survey will be done before the project is started to establish property lines.
The board accepted a resignation from the district business manager Sally Ming effective May 15 with thanks for her time at the Lanesboro school. “She had a lot of nice things to say about the school district in her resignation letter,” Superintendent Matt Schultz noted.
Food Director Chad Rich showed off the new vegetable and meat slicer that the school purchased with funds from a Statewide Health Improvement Partnership or SHIP grant. With the help of SHIP Coordinator Brenda Pohlman, he was able to purchase new serving trays for the cafeteria last year and the slicer this year. He noted that the slicer is used several times a week and replaced the old one which was unsafe to use.
The spring coaches were approved with no changes from last year. A resignation was accepted from Track and Field coach Jared Pierce.
Superintendent Schultz noted that Minnesota is experiencing a shortage of special education teachers and have a significant number of teachers teaching on variances. “It can be hard to find teachers for general education as well,” he said. Another problem the education community is facing is that many teachers leave their career within their first five years, leaving a shortage of teachers.
The daycare expansion that was approved by the board last August has already been filled, and the daycare is currently over-enrolled. “We’re looking at options to expand the childcare center in 2017-18,” Superintendent Schultz said.
The next Lanesboro School Board meeting will be held on March 16, 2017.