Recently hired Lanesboro Superintendent Matt Schultz was pleased to say that the 2016-17 school year was off to a great start. He has been enjoying working with the staff and wished to recognize transportation director Chad Wangen for the fantastic job he does handling the bus and van scheduling. Schultz spent some time observing Wangen at work and was impressed with how he stayed on top of the ever- changing needs of the students. “Everyone got to school and everyone got home and no one was late,” he remarked, amazed at how smoothly things ran. “If you see him, make sure you thank him for his hard work,” Schultz suggested to the board.
Hiawatha Valley Education District’s new executive director Deb Marcotte visited the board meeting to discuss the changes made to HVED during the 2015-16 school year and how they were implemented. She also spoke about the upcoming changes as well.
Several of the focuses of HVED are organization and communication, which will include monthly meetings and newsletters. A MTSS or Multi-Tiered System of Supports program was recently implemented as the new RTI. The MTSS will have a meeting in October and one in April to review and discuss what works for each school district partnered with HVED. A team of four will represent each school at the meetings. The team will include a general education teacher, a special education teacher, the school psychologist, and a building administrator. The goal is to have HVED and the districts it serves learn from each other.
Smaller school districts can be at a disadvantage, but when the districts join HVED, they become part of a 12,500 student district and have many more opportunities and options for their home students.
HVED piloted an online digital curriculum called Odysseyware last year and has making it available to all districts this year. The price per seat for the program is normally around $1,000 per seat, but thanks to the large reach that HVED has, it was able to negotiate a price closer to $400 a seat. The curriculum is for K-12 students and can be used by teachers for their classrooms. The program is adaptive and updated regularly. “We’re really doing good things,” Marcotte concluded, adding that she hopes to see HVED continue to serve school districts well.
The policy committee recently met to review the revised policies passed at the June and July board meetings. They also implemented a schedule for the board to use to continue reviewing and revising the school’s policies. “The goal is to look through every policy once every three years,” Superintendent Schultz said. They also discussed adding several more people to the committee and decided to select a teacher from the high school, one from the middle school, and one from elementary. The committee will meet again in January, 2017.
Monday, September 19 will be the school’s “fun night” for students, following the homecoming coronation. Local businesses have purchased prizes to be awarded that night.
The board conducted the second reading and passed the adoption of policies 533 and 616. The first reading of policies 401, 402, 406, and 412 were approved as well.
Superintendent Schultz met with Todd Melcher along with about 80 other area superintendents to discuss levying. Schultz estimated that 95% of Minnesota schools set the maximum levy. “You can always go down, but you can’t go up,” Schultz commented about the levy amount. The board passed the maximum levy.
Due to a volleyball game, the October board meeting was changed from the 13 to Monday the 17 at 7 p.m.