The December 16 Lanesboro School Board meeting opened with its annual Truth in Taxation meeting. The law requires the school to hold the meeting before setting the tax levy. Superintendent Matt Schultz reviewed the information with the board. The total revenues for last year were $5,673,116 and the expenditures were $5,691,342. The current year’s budget sits at $6,728,252 in revenue and $6,249,720 in expenditures. Schultz noted that the district was down about $40,000 from their usual compensatory income due to a reduction of families who filled out the paperwork for free/reduced lunches. All the meals at the school were free again this year and so many people didn’t turn in the application. There were no questions or comments from the public about the levy.
The final property tax levy amount was set at $1,094,933 with an increase of 1.01% from last year.
A construction bill from Market & Johnson was approved in the amount of $23,951.92 for the second half of the playground equipment.
The school is waiting for the lock company to return for some repairs and the PA system is still being worked on. The kitchen is nearly complete and just needs an eye wash system installed. The grant that was submitted for a drinking fountain in the cafeteria was denied, but as it is a needed addition, the school will go ahead and install it at a cost of approximately $3,000. The December 15 storm caused only minimal damage to the school facilities with one panel of plexiglass blowing off of the greenhouse.
Superintendent Schultz gave his report. The winter sports season is in full swing and volunteers are needed to help with keeping score, running the scoreboards, etc. The school now has a limited number of take-home COVID tests. More information on the test can be obtained by contacting the school’s Business Manager Julie Schreiber at (507) 467-2229. December 23 is a half day of school with a dismissal time of 11:32 a.m. Schultz encouraged anyone interested in driving school bus for the district to apply for their CDL before February 7 when a law change will require a class to be taken at a cost of $4,000-5,000 to the applicant before obtaining a CDL license.
Frankie Kohn was hired as the head volleyball coach and an FMLA leave request for Brooke Lea was approved.
Kali Lentz with Smith Schafer & Associates gave the 2020-2021 audit report. An unmodified clean opinion was issued. It was noted that the boys basketball and fifth grade trip student activity accounts had a negative balance at the end of the year and the Burro Brew student account had no activity during that same time frame. The 2021 school year saw an increase of 49 students over the previous year, bringing the enrollment total to 389.
Board policies 501, 502, and 514 were approved. $200 in scholarship donations were accepted.
Superintendent Schultz reviewed the World’s Best Workforce report with the board. The first goal in the report was to have all incoming kindergarten students ready for school with 90% of skills met in the readiness assessment and that goal was met. The second goal was that all third grade students would be reading at grade level and the third goal was for all students to be career and college ready. Neither of those goals were met, which Schultz felt was due in part to COVID. The fourth goal was to have 95% of students graduate. As 100% of the seniors graduated, the goal was met. The board approved the report.
The next Lanesboro School Board meeting was set for January 20, but due to scheduling conflicts with multiple sporting events that evening, it was changed to January 19 at 7 p.m.
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