By REED WALLER
Staff Writer
After some audio problems were worked out, the April meeting of the NRHEG Board of Education went live online Monday evening via YouTube Studio, under the management of Technology Coordinator Angie Aaseth and Dan Petsinger of Radio Link Internet.
The tables in the Secondary School Media Center were spread out for social distancing.
Physically present at the site were board chairman Rick Schultz and member Neil Schlaak, with Supt. Dale Carlson, Deb Bently, Administrative Assistant Sue Kulseth, and Business Manager Karla Christopherson.
Telepresent were members Dan Schmidt, Karen Flatness, Travis Routh, JoAnn Maloney, and Rich Mueller, as well as Elementary Principal Doug Anderson and Secondary Principal David Bunn. All votes were conducted by roll call.
Impact of the Lockdown
Before tackling the month’s agenda, Supt. Carlson took the time to thank all the district workers who do not have the option of telepresence: the construction people, the paraprofessionals and in-service employees who are on-site every day such as food service, maintenance, nurses, support, office staff and administration.
“We are going to be a lot better for this,” Bunn commented. “We are doing things we never tried before.”
In addition to the teleconferencing, Deb Bently reported that Power96 Radio was interested in continuing “NRHEG Senior Night” interviews to be broadcast.
Bently will continue to report on community efforts to support the school, staff, and students.
English teacher Mark Domeier reported that public speaking with distance learning has given his students an opportunity to try out new techniques using multimedia.
Donations
Donations were received from:
Jane Deckard (Shop Class Misc. Wood Projects); Karl & Tammy Proehl $200 AW AG LLC-Ellendale $200, Barta Machine-Warsaw $300, Channel Seed-Mike Denherder-Hollandale $500, Dave's Body Shop-Waseca $200, Dobberstein Backhoe, LLE-New Richland $250, Dufrense, Wayne & Assocs-Ellendale $250, Farmers State Bank-Albert Lea $150, L&D Ag-Hartland $250, Firemen's Relief Assoc-New Richland $500, Nitemare Drag Racing-Squaw Lake $100, Olson Excavating-Hartland $500, Raimann Farms-Hartland $250, Roesler Seeds-Minnesota Lake $100, Schlaak Trucking-New Richland $500, Sequoia Landscape Co-Ellendale $200, The SHOP of Waseca, LLC-Waseca $100, Slowinski Flooring-Austin $200, Southfork Seed-Dan Harguth-Waseca $200, Sportsman's Stop-Waseca $100, and TNT Body Shop-Hartland $250, all for the Clay Target team; Nokomis Wenonah LLC $5,976 donation; and 400 Distance Learning Bags from Bjorn Peterson.
Workforce
Resignations were accepted with thanks from Ashley Tolzman, Secondary Paraprofessional; Renee Moravec, Speech and Language Pathologist; Kari Olson, Secondary School teacher; and Terri Engel, Curriculum & Instruction Coordinator. Engel retired at the end of the previous school year.
Staffing Plan
“We are projecting little change in District-wide enrollment compared to the actual enrollment as of March 31, 2020,” said Carlson. There also will be no changes to the Bridges/ Kindergarten sections.
The district is anticipating an increase of about 19 in the Elementary and a decrease of about three students in the Secondary. This is about three students more than the last projection. The Kindergarten is close to capacity and there may need to be staffing adjustments.
Meanwhile the budget is going into their fourth year of deficit.
Reductions/changes to cut the deficit include cancelling courses with an enrollment of less that 12. These include courses in Art Education, Business Education, Family and Consumer Sciences, Science (College Chemistry) and Advanced Placement European History.
Exceptions are suggested for necessary courses with low enrollments: Ag Education, Calculus, Guitar, and College Physics.
The Curriculum and Instruction Coordinator position formerly occupied by Terry Engel has been reduced to 0.5 FTE, and the proposed plan has it further reduced to 0.2 FTE. Carlson expressed some concern that this will “reduce leadership and support services for staff” and that this will be temporary.
The cost savings of the reductions amount to about $20,000.
The staffing plan will be up for approval at the May meeting.
Budget
Christopherson pointed out that changes had occurred since the March budget work session: the Workman’s Comp estimate has gone way up, and items added to the Technology budget have swelled it by $26,000, while the proposed staffing reduction brings it down $20,000.
Christopherson also recommended that there be more budget planning, and that the board consider looking ahead several years, even with no planned increase in enrollment, to offset the continuing deficit problem.
The board will have until June to consider any changes.
Audit Bid
At the February meeting the Board approved an Audit Request for Proposal from several firms. Four bids were given, and the lowest bid was from Abdo, Eick & Meyers.
The board approved the recommendation to enter into a three-year agreement with Abdo, departing from their long association with Eide Bailly.
The next regular meeting of the NRHEG Board of Education will be held Monday, May 18 at the Elementary Media Center at 6:30 p.m.