Highlights of the agenda discussions and votes for our regular school board meeting in the small group forum room at the OHS, beginning at 5:30pm. For Mission Moment, Mr. Elstad recognized an Owatonna community member who is an adult student earning a Life Long Learner award. She moved to the United States, came to Owatona, is working on her GED, obtained a driver’s license and US citizenship, and is now helping her daughter who is enrolled in an Owatonna Public School. Welcome to Minnesota and especially to Owatonna!!
Public Forum: a sophomore student at OHS introduced himself and a class project he is starting for the Options class. He will be taking photos and creating a farewell video for the OHS building. If interested, please contact him. His info can be found on the video recording of this meeting. Best wishes for this project, I would love to see the finished product!
OMS principal Julie Sullivan, along with 2 assistant principals, and 4 OMS students gave a convincing presentation explaining “Away for the Day,” the new cell phone rule at OMS. Student at OMS are not allowed to have their phone during the entire school day. The results from this change are astounding, and everyone spoke very highly of this change, even the students. The positive outcomes noted include: increased student engagement socially and in class, more learning and fun in the classroom, less nagging (to put phones away) and more learning and relationship building between teachers and students, less teasing and bullying among students because students cannot post things during or between classes, more respectful behaviors toward each other.
McKinley principal Justin Kiel, along with several McKinley teachers, gave a presentation about life at McKinley Elementary School. They stressed that learning is lifelong for students and staff (leadership teams, collaboration, power hours for teachers and all staff) as well as “voice matters.” This includes listening sessions and surveys. Lastly, having a safe/supportive/predictable school culture which includes partnering with parents, positive recognition, and family interactions is the third goal.
The enrollment report gives the number of students in each grade level at each school and numbers will be coded red if the class size is 3 more than the recommended number of students. This report is reviewed prior to the meeting and no concerns noted at the meeting as all classes are within the recommended size. Only a few classes had 1 more student than recommended. From my visit to Lincoln, I know that they are outgrowing their space and using the classroom pods for a few classes. This may need attention in the future if the class sizes are growing.
Mr. Elstad’s administrative report included an introduction of Dr. Sarah Knudsen, our new director of special services. He reported on his day at the capitol, learning more about upcoming legislative decisions: cross subsidies might increase (meaning we will be getting more state aid to cover costs of special education services, which will reduce the need for the district to cover the gap with its own funding); he also mentioned the impact of proposed mandates which will put a significant financial strain on the district (as well as most districts in the state). The district is partnering with Mayo Clinic to provide telehealth services to staff, hopefully reducing health care costs for everyone. He recognized our student board members for their success in the recent speech meet and also Hailey’s piano concerto performance last week. Well done students!
There were 5 votes required at this meeting, all passed 6-0 (Deborah Bandel was absent tonight). The previous meetings’ minutes and the personnel report were approved. The 2022-2023 revised and final budget was approved with minimal discussion. We had a detailed discussion at our work session one week ago for this. The Resolution Relating to the Termination and Non-Renewal of the Teaching Contract of Probationary Teachers was reviewed and approved. The generalized letter was given for our review before the board meeting and a list of employees this pertained to was given at the beginnings of the meeting. It was verified that these employees have been made aware of this decision prior to this meeting. As a board member, I know nothing about these particular employees and what brought them to this circumstance. The second reading of Policy Revisions was briefly reviewed and approved with no further questions or concerns. There were no major changes or updates and the full list of policies we reviewed can be found under the meeting notes on the district website. Our OHS Robotics team won the state competition and are traveling to Texas for the national competition, we simply had to approve an extended trip request. Lastly, we approved the list of gifts given to the district.
Not noted at this meeting but announced last Friday (and in the People’s Press 3/21/2023) was notice that our assistant superintendent Michelle Krell accepted a position as the Executive Director of the Minnesota Elementary School Principals’ Association (MESPA). She stated that she has loved working with Owatonna schools but couldn’t pass up the opportunity to do this work with MESPA. Best wishes to you, and thank you for your work in Owatonna!
Elizabeth for Owatonna Schools 