1/26/2024 Coffee with the Superintendent

Superintendent Elstad held an open discussion session on Friday January 26, 2024 at the district office on Bridge Street, 8:30-9:30am. 

First, he discussed the ongoing work regarding the elementary school attendance boundary lines, including an update from the first Input Team meeting that took place at OMS 1/23/2024. Mr. Elstad noted that the last time major school changes occurred was in the 2017-2018 school year when Willow Creek was officially closed and became McKinley school. Old McKinley became Washington Elementary, old Washington became the Owatonna Education Center, while Lincoln and Wilson schools stayed the same. New boundary lines are expected to be finalized in March with the additional decision for when those changes will take place (school year 2024-205 or fall 2025). He noted that when considering these new boundary lines, the design team can only consider what building plans are currently in place.  Speculation can occur for future housing and development, but the team can only rely on what is known at this time. There was some discussion about the minimal changes in diversity amongst the schools (demographics, special education needs, race/ethnicity, etc) despite new boundary lines. A community member noted that years ago, working as a teacher in Owatonna, a committee had considered a primary school for grades K-2 and an intermediate school for grades 3-5. This concept brought more balance to the schools, but was shot down pretty quickly by parents at the time. Mr. Elstad noted that this idea was considered but ultimately not brought to the table due to the more complicated nature of changing schools in this way, adding bussing, increased costs, moving teachers and supplies, longer time needed for transitioning, and taking away from the “neighborhood school” concept that families tend to prefer. Mr. Elstad also noted that a community member called him and discussed that while diversity is a good thing, he still desires for his children to go to a school where there are more students that have similar cultural appearances and values as they do. Noted. As people, it’s our human nature to be drawn toward others with similar values, interests, and commonalities.

Next, Mr. Elstad discussed the READ Act and the new phonics curriculum that our schools will be using. He mentioned a podcast called, “Sold a Story” https://features.apmreports.org/sold-a-story/, which explains how our nation veered away from phonics and started teaching reading differently, but how we need to go back to phonics teaching. Mainly, the new curriculum requires much additional teacher training and because of this, the school calendar will be revised to reflect this. Our winter reading assessments are either completed or almost completed and are already showing benefits of the phonics programs in place.

Thirdly, Superintendent Elstad noted that we have enhanced cybersecurity in process. About one year ago, the Rochester school district had a major breach of security and ransom request, which seemed to result from sharing too much information to the public. Therefore, the district is carefully sharing only pertinent information. If you have further questions, please contact Mr. Elstad.

Lastly, he reiterated that the district continues to develop our own “Grow Your Own” teacher development program for students, staff and community members through 3 different pathways. Chris Picha, our director of human services, is the one to contact for more details and information!

There were just a few questions by those in attendance. One was regarding the possible equipment issues for an industrial program at OHS. Mr. Elstad believes that this is regarding the backlog and back order of supplies for our robotics students. While equipment and supply orders were placed about 18 months ago, these things have been delayed and outside of the district’s control.

There was a question about student parking permits and Mr. Elstad noted that students no longer need to purchase these as the new high school has ample parking availability. One opinion stated by a community member was that we should continue to charge for parking permits so that we can bring in funding for the district.

Mr. Elstad noted that Wee Pals daycare https://weepalschildcarecenter.org/ approached the district requesting temporary space due to problems with their current location. They are working out the details yet, but we expect to be housing the Wee Pals daycare program at the Owatonna Education Center (OEC) beginning April 1st through November 30, 2024. He noted that OEC staff are on board and that this is a great benefit to the community to be able to help Wee Pals stay open and provide daycare for many families during their transition. 

The 1921 high school building will soon be taken down. The historic shield from the front of the building is currently being refurbished and will be placed at the new school upon completion.

The district is considering selling the district buildings on Bridge Street and Rose Street once the old C-plaza is fully remodeled for district offices. More to come once they have more information on this.

The next Coffee with the Superintendent will be March 1, 2024 at 8:30am at the district office on Bridge Street. 

Thanks all, have a great week!