NRHEG School Board
By REED WALLER
Staff Writer
On April 9, 2019 residents in the NRHEG School District will have the opportunity to vote on a $9.1 million referendum.
Last fall the Facilities Task Force issued a mailing detailing the Facilities Plan and the potential tax impact for district taxpayers, and urged respondents to help prioritize the items and decide how much they were willing to spend.
There will be Open Houses, including a walkthrough, presentation and open discussion at the Ellendale Elementary on Monday, March 11, and at the New Richland Secondary site on Thursday, March 14, where questions can be raised and taxpayers may survey the current state of the facilities and where the improvements will be made.
Board Concern
At last week’s regular meeting of the NRHEG Board of Education, members expressed concern at the meeting that the district has not engaged enough with the public to get people talking about the referendum and asking questions.
“I was at a meeting of the Ellendale Lions Club and there were questions,” said Dan Schmidt. “It seems that many people are not comfortable asking questions, and we need to make the info more available.”
“It’s our duty to find more opportunities for the public to ask questions,” Chair Rick Schultz agreed.
Info on School Website
All the necessary details about the referendum and the Facilities Planning project is readily available on the NRHEG website at www.nrheg.k12.mn.us.
Administration Assistant Sue Kulseth showed the board how to navigate to where all the information is.
On the home page of the website is a button on the right marked “Referendum Information.” Click that and you will be brought to a page with a list of items and links to detailed analysis of the project, why we need it done, and how the money is to be spent. The entire 2017 proposal from ISG Architects is available for review, as well as locations of polling places and times. There is also a Tax Calculator where a visitor can compute the tax impact of the referendum on his own property.
REACH
Robin Eder and Brooke Krohn spoke to the board about the new REACH program for middle and high school students.
The program meets in the form of semi-regular classes, one for middle school and another for high school students, where they can discuss their issues together and make the school experience more successful.
“Students write their goals, and we look at them,” said Eder.
There are 40-some districts in Minnesota supporting the program, where students interact and develop social skills, learn how to deal with bullying situations, do brainstorming, explore outreach opportunities, and escape isolation.
“Many of the REACH participants are decent students with no particular issues, who just fall ‘under the radar,” Eder said, “not ‘frequent flyers’ who are working with guidance counselors and social workers.”
Currently NRHEG has 50 high school and 16 middle school students in the program.
Comments from students have included “It’s helped me get school under control,” “It takes the stress out of school,” “It’s an outlet to speak issues,” and “Helps you make goals for yourself.”
Special Ed Setting IV to join intermediate district
Director of Special Education Heather Harms presented a resolution for the Board to consider joining the Southwest Metro Intermediate District No. 288 (Shakopee, Jordan, and others.
Harms has made reports since July on the progress of expanding the services for special needs students.
“The objective,” Supt. Carlson has written, “continues to be to increase therapeutic services (Setting IV) to meet the increased demands of mental health and behavioural struggles of students in kindergarten through sixth grade.”
This situation is exacerbated by the loss of Minnesota Prairie funding.
Discussion has been going on between NRHEG, JWP, WEM and Waseca on the options of (1) continuing with the plan of forming a cooperative, (2) Joining an established cooperative (Waseca), or (3) Joining an Intermediate District.
Waseca already has a long waiting list, and negotiations to form a cooperative have bogged down. Although the intermediate district is distant, and already has 15 participating schools, staff would have immediate access to facilities and would have membership and a share of control.
The board must pass a resolution to apply for membership in Southwest Metro, which would then have to be approved by their board. Then we would need to provide a member of our school board to serve as our representative on the board of Southwest Metro, which holds meetings in Shakopee or Jordan.
“Does it always have to be the same member?” asked Schultz.
“We’ve asked, but haven’t heard back on that yet,” said Harms.
“If we get denied, would there be another option?” asked Rich Mueller.
If we’re denied, it would be back to the drawing board, according to Carlson.
“We’ll need to re-evaluate then. A lot of time has already been put into this, and we feel that it’s the best option.”
The resolution was passed and will be brought before Southwest Metro at their April 3 meeting.
Other business
Board members received certificates of thanks – and cookies from the students – for School Board Recognition Week.
Gayle Dummer, Speech/ Language Clinician, will be retiring at the end of the school year. Gayle has been teaching for 40 years and with NRHEG for 24 years.
The board went into closed session with the board’s legal counsel to discuss pending or threatened litigation by a staff member. No action was taken.