The Becker School Board met on Monday to discuss changes to school policy and student activity groups.

Student Activities

The high school drama club premiered their play 10 Ways to Survive the Zombie Apocalypse Thursday (a story on opening night will appear in next week’s paper.) The show is held completely outdoors in an effort to follow COVID-19 guidelines. The final showing will be tonight (Saturday) at 7p.m., unless the weather caused any showing to be cancelled, in which case an extra showing will occur on Sunday, also at 7p.m.

In other news, the Minnesota State High School League (MSHSL) approved the return of football and volleyball for the fall sports season.

Spectators for all sports are required to wear masks, and there cannot be more than 250 spectators gathered at any event. The school has allotted for 150 home-team spectators and 100 away-team spectators at events. The school is also working on a way to stream games for spectators at home.

Superintendent Jeremy Schmidt encourages athletes to do their best to follow COVID-19 guidelines and keep themselves healthy. If even one student gets sick, the whole team might not be allowed to play.

Enrollment

Schmidt stated that enrollment was “a little wack” during October’s school board meeting. The enrollment numbers as of Oct. 1 were about 140 students under what the board had budgeted for the year.

Although the enrollment is less than ideal, Schmidt was willing to see the upside. Already, some students who started the year at homeschool are making their way back into the district after seeing the school’s reaction to the COVID situation, and seeing the numbers of cases in the area remain low.

COVID-19 Cases

Though the number of cases remain low, there has been a slow increase in the county. Schmidt predicted that these could be due to more widespread testing. The board hopes to eventually get all students — secondary students included — to be on-campus full time, but currently the number of COVID-19 cases in the county don’t allow them to do so.

The board will not be releasing COVID-19 numbers to the public. The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) gives the school numbers from two weeks past to use for their considerations, in order to make sure that confirmed cases only are considered, but of course that means the number is not current. Families interested in the current number of cases in the county can go to the MDH website at Health.State.mn.us.

Building Referendum Special Meeting

A special meeting was scheduled for Nov. 23 at 6 p.m. The board will hear a proposal for a potential building project. A survey with more information on the project as well as questions for district residents will be sent out within the next few weeks. Please see the press release from Becker Schools on page 10 for more information.

Policy Change for Fundraising

All fundraising projects typically need to be submitted by student groups by Sept. 15. However, the board introduced a second date to submit fundraising projects — Jan. 15. This is for groups that are active in the spring rather than in the fall, and may not have fundraising plans in place in the fall.

The board considered changing language in the policy to introduce more regulation to club fundraising. They also considered adding a ‘punishment’ of sorts to student groups that raised money for their club without approval — namely that those funds would be distributed evenly among all student groups.

Other Policy Changes

The board introduced a few other policy changes during the meeting.

The Minnesota School Boards Association updated their policy — and is requiring schools to do likewise — regarding tobacco. The policy, number 418, introduces new language discussing E-Cigs, and states that the school must put in place an educational program about tobacco use for students in grades 6-8.

Policy 516 updated the storage and disposal of controlled substances on campus, i.e. medication.

Finally, policy 601 introduced dyslexia testing for third grade students. This assessment will not give a medical diagnosis of dyslexia, but it can help educators identify students who are struggling so they can receive whatever help they may need.