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Without a pianist, we recited the Pledge of Allegiance and the Four Way Test and our invocation was offered by Pete Wasberg. Members were encouraged to turn in their peach money. Rotarians were also warned that maybe as soon as our following meeting there might be a fine for not wearing a Rotary emblem with their attire. Zach Stach stated that some club members will be needed to help with a clean-up at the Center for the Arts scheduled for Thursday, September 2nd, at 1:00 p.m. -- all you need to bring is gloves. Their were scooter bucks contributed by Brian Tjaden and Jamie Larson and brags by John MacFarlane thanking Service Food for its purchase of all our remaining peach lugs and Wally Cole for some good family time. Superintendent Jeff Drake was our speaker and he gave us an update regarding the upcoming school year. Students in all grades may attend in person five days a week this coming year, which was not the case last year for grades 7 through 12; virtual teaching will be available for all grades if parents are uncomfortable sending their children back to in-person learning. He acknowledged the elephant in the room is whether or not to require everyone to wear masks and stated that at this point the School Board is strongly recommending masks but they have not been mandated. Some schools are now going that route, and Jeff mentioned Moorhead just made the decision to mandate masks the prior Monday night, as have Minneapolis, St. Paul, Duluth, and Sartell, with Jeff expecting St. Cloud and Anoka-Hennepin to follow suit. We have roughly 2800 students and 425 staff members in our school district. There was a noticeable drop in school enrollment last year due to the pandemic and, in aggregate, students that were enrolled attended about one-third of the number of school days that is normal. The number of failing grades in the first semester last year jumped from an average of 60 to 650, so there was a needed increase in "credit recovery" this summer. The system's general fund is strong with a fund balance in excess of 20% when the minimum recommended amount is 8%. Lincoln School (the old Target building) will be put to use this year, with pre-school and early childhood classes full and 16 families on a waiting list; unfortunately the necessary staff could not be found to address this shortfall. There is a total of 89,000 square feet of useable space in the building, of which 36,000 square feet are still an "open canvas." There was some administrative restructuring after Dean Monke's retirement, with three new administrators: Mark Anderson from Winona for grades 9-12; Ivan Hirst from Roseau for grades 5-8 and Kristie Sullivan as director of curriculum. The District has been working on a strategic plan the past two years with five components: building character, providing core knowledge, creative problem solving, creating communicators and contributing citizens. The gifted and talented program is being reinstated and there will be a lot of emphasis this year on building relationships with the students. There was a question of Jeff about critical race theory and it was stated unequivocally that the District will not tolerate race shaming but recognizes the need to address our changing demographics and deal with diversity. He also stated a facility analysis is being conducted, and they are also trying to figure out how to cool both the hockey arena and Kennedy in the summer; an upgrade to bathrooms scheduled for this summer had to be delayed until next year because of contractor unavailability. The teacher's union prefers to conduct contract negotiations in the fall, so that will start soon. COVID also had many retired teachers take their names off the list of available substitute teachers and that will be an issue going forward. Finally, Jeff mentioned that the school district is working on a wonderful work-based learning program with the desire to build more connections between students and Fergus Falls employers and he said anyone interested in participating should reach out to Katherine Anderson at the District. |
