Enrollment remains constant for Clearbrook-Gonvick

Enrollment figures for the Clearbrook-Gonvick School District remain constant for the 2015-2016 school year. Student count was 414 last year with the total district count this year at 417. Elementary total was 231 last year with a total of 220 this year. High School total last year was 183 and this year at 197. 

The board at their regular meeting on Monday, September 21 had Spotlight on Education from John Lavin. He is the Student Council Advisor and he reported that they will be starting the Big Bear and Little Bear help with sixth graders next month. They will work down to the lower grades for reading and working on math.  There are 25 students and they will also be teaming up with Impact Group which is led by Kathy Kjolhaug to work with as many students as they are able.

Principals report

Principal Jeff Burgess stated that the structure for the school for high school is formative assessment, informational text and reading strategies. For the elementary they are concentrating on the new reading series and Daily 5.

The district has not heard back on the Indian Education funds that the district applied for but they have met with the Native American Education Committee/JOM to decide on the way to apply funds. Two items would be to hire and Indian Education Coordinator and late bus for tutoring time.

The school has a change in the attendance requirement for course credit. A student who has accumulated more than twelve absences from any semester class or has accumulated more than six absences from any quarter class may, based upon course content, receive a “no credit for the course, subject to the review and appeal procedures.

The school is no longer a continuous improvement school as the scores from the MMR-Multiple Measurements Rating were better this year. The staff will continue to do some of the improvements that they set out from the continuous improvement plan.

Superintendent Report

They are working on setting up an account for the car project for Ross Faldets class that they plan to start next year. They are looking at how it would work and donations for the project would be put into that account.

The dust collection system is up and running in the shop. It has made a vast improvement and one portion of the elbow needs to be replaced in the venting system. 

The audit report is in progress and the auditor should be at the next meeting to report. Preliminary reports indicate a positive in the fund balance.

Teachers have presented a proposal on their contract on some language changes and salary updates which the board will have to schedule a meeting to resolve.

The ACT report that reflects the achievement of school graduates on the extent they are prepared for college-level work. The composite score for the district for 2015 was 23.3 and the state composite was 22.7.

Bills were approved with Stein’s Bus Service $39,535.58; Brady, Martz $8,000.00; Marco $6,682.35; Clearwater $2,697.00; Weibolt Electric $2,229.39; Garden Valley $1,203.51.

Superintendent Olson has combined information from the listening sessions that were held at the school. Board was to give available dates as to when they could meet to prioritize and see what direction the district would like to head.

New business

The board approved the hiring of Tasha Bakke for work in the kitchen, Charmain Baanco as SPED Para and Gwen Eck and long-term sub. The board approved the resignation of Tom Goebel in the kitchen and the FMLA leave for Frankie Scalzo to start January 5, 2015. 

The nursing contract with Clearwater County Nursing was approved at $6,651.00 from 8:30 to 3:009 Monday through Friday.

Also approved was the preliminary levy certification at the maximum at 19% with the referendum figured in.

The board was informed that there are parcels of land that the district has which are exempt from taxes. The 50 acres that the school sits on, 360 acres of forest land north east of the present school site; and 8.2 acres of school forest north of the Gonvick, which was donated by the Davids Family. The board will be developing a plan as to what to do with the forest area and what it can be used for. There has been one class that goes out to part of the land.