Audit shows fund balance healthy

All board members were in attendance in the band room with Chair Dawn VanKeulen leading the meeting via Zoom. Positive comments by the board included commendation for a nice Homecoming week amidst COVID restrictions, appreciation to the volunteers and the Hope Lutheran Endowment for the Turkey Meal Give-Away, and thanks to the National Honor Society for running a successful blood drive.
The main event of the evening was the audit. Marlene Verdoes, who has worked on the MPS audit since 1983, represented Hoffman & Brobst and gave the positive report. Once again the district has done a good job of managing the funds.
COVID has played a big part in the audit this year -- in some cases it was a positive effect and sometimes it was negative, but overall the district's fund balance is healthy.
Bids for property, liability, and auto insurance were discussed with HUB being granted the policy. HUB's bid for workmen's compensation was also accepted.
Principal Jennifer Mahan-Deitte recognized the staff during American Education Week.
She reported that all of the staff have done a great job in performing as teachers, paras, custodial, kitchen, and office personnel. The PLC's continue to be used to train and collaborate teachers. Recently, the paras had training during that time.
Mrs. Mahan-Deitte was excited to report there would be a Turkey Meal Give-Away on Nov. 25 for anyone in the community. The partner in this give-away is Hope Lutheran Church.
Principal Jeremy Frie reported that Homecoming were different this year, "but we made it as fun as possible under the conditions." He also stated that a COVID tracker has been added to the home page of the school website to keep people informed of the numbers in the school building. Digital Learning Days are ready to go. This is slightly different from Distance Learning and would be used in case of weather closings, for example.
As community director, Mr. Frie is hoping to have elementary programs running shortly after the first of the year. He asked the board for permission to hold some of the elementary practices on Sundays.
Superintendent Dan Deitte thanked the public school staff and the St. Edward staff for all that is being done to assist/teach/coach the community's young people. The band and choir will be moving back to the high school because the Legion building will be used for the wrestling program. Lyon County awarded the district $10,000 to help with COVID costs. This money may be used retroactively from last spring. The City of Minneota also awarded the school $2,000 to help with COVID costs.
Mr. Deitte also met with the new board members, Carmen Panka and Ryan Runia.
The District COVID-19 Coordinator, Barb Knutson, was presented to explain her duties and answer questions from the school board.
This is a huge job. Knutson contacts families with possible infections, creates daily reports of who is quarantining, dates of when people are able to come back to school, works with the Minnesota Department of Health, along with tracking students to see if there are close contacts.
The school calendar has been revises and reapproved. Due to Executive Order 20-94 and 20-95 the teachers are to have an additional 30 minutes of prep time daily to assist with preparing for distance leaning. Rather than giving this time daily, the district decided to add workdays to the calendar, and use every other PLC time as prep time.
For example, Jan. 4 was a regular school day and now it will be a teacher work day.
Since it is Minnesota, the snow removal bid was opened and accepted from Tolk Gravel. The cost will be $135 per hour with the loader and $95 per hour with the skid loader.
The Truth in Taxation meeting will be at 6:30 p.m. on Dec. 15, 2020, followed by the school board meeting.