Photo by Wanda Hanson
February 14 found the members of the Lanesboro School Board listening to Superintendent Matt Schultz present a proposed calendar for next school year. The calendar needs to be somewhat different next year. With the passage of the READ Act by the legislature, Lanesboro needs to build in additional teacher workshop days to train teachers in teaching reading.
At this point, elementary students are slated to have January 16 and 17 off. This would be at the same time as semester tests for the high school. There would be another two day training for elementary teachers on May 29 and 30; the last day of school for elementary students would be May 28.
Schultz still needs to schedule the dates with the training vendors. With 30,000 teachers across the state needing such training, there is a possibility Lanesboro may need to select different dates. As a result, Schultz was not able to present a finalized calendar yet, but he wanted to share the preliminary one.
Much of the READ training will be asynchronous with the teachers working on their own at their computers, but the synchronous training with the teachers meeting together needs to be completed during four daylong workshops. There will be no cost to the school for the staff training, except for allowing the necessary time.
“There’s a lot of concern around the state,” Schultz commented. At this time, most of the professional development is focused on the preK-grade 3 level. The older levels of training have not yet been approved. Teachers of reading for grades seven to 12 are slated for training next year.
The preliminary Lanesboro 2024-2025 academic calendar shows school scheduled to begin September 3 for students; the last day for grades 7-12 would be May 30. The elementary school will once again hold individual student/parent conferences September 3 and 4. October 16 will be the Small Schools Teacher Conference; following that will be the MEA break. Lanesboro is set to host Honors Music for 7-12 grades on November 4; other teachers will have a workshop day.
Superintendent’s Report
Superintendent Schultz once again used the strategic plan and its goals to guide his report on work being done at the school. The goal of identifying needs of students continues to be met by the full-time reading interventionist, Tara Honsey, who has been hired through the ADSIS (Alternative Delivery of Specialized Instructional Services) program.
Schultz shared that with the use of the Apptegy website, communication with parents and the community has been improved. A hiccup in the calendar on the app currently requires someone to go in manually to note cancellations since it doesn’t appear to refresh continually as expected. He hopes this will soon be rectified.
Several Lanesboro teachers attended a session on artificial intelligence at the October Conference. Additionally, one of the teachers has attended sessions on AI at Southeast Services Coop in Rochester.
Schultz explained the different tiers of teaching licenses now in use. Tier one is a teacher with extensive experience in a field, but no formal certification; tier two could be a student teacher who is working toward licensure; tier three is the first official license; tier four are the teachers who hold the next license. SPED continues to be the biggest challenge for schools since a school cannot receive state funding for teachers not licensed specifically in SPED.
Lanesboro School has once again completed and submitted an application to EPA for two electric buses. Another possible grant for electric buses was found and for which Schultz also applied.
Other Business
In other business, the board:
•Approved the hiring of Taylor Peterson as a paraprofessional and JoEllen Hamann as a cook;
•Approved the resignation of receptionist Shannon Goodman at the end of the 2024 school year;
•Rescheduled the board retreat to March 9 at 8 a.m. in the school library;
•Resolved to accept donations in the amount of $4,000 to the senior class trip and $1,540 for scholarships.The next regular Lanesboro School Board meeting will be March 13 at 7 p.m. in the forum room. The public is welcome to attend; a public input period is provided at tne beginning of the meeting.