Big Lake’s recent School Board meeting kicked off with board members welcoming Ella Dotzler, the new student liaison, to her first board meeting. Dotzler will be acting as a representative of the student body, and has already made reports to the Big Lake City Council in this capacity. Board members agreed Dotzler seemed like a particularly smart young woman and look forward to working with her.

Big Lake Online

Current enrollment in Big Lake Online is at 529 students. Two teachers have been put in charge of coordinating the new online program: Dan Haley is in charge of coordinating the K-5 students, and Benji Hamrin is in charge of 6-12 students.

Haley and Hamrin have been trying very hard to answer all of the parents’ questions. Hamrin said that, at the peak, the two were receiving 200-300 emails per day with questions from families. Workbooks were distributed to online students.

Some high school students are using the program in order to pursue classes from other schools or work day jobs, taking care of their normal classwork in the evening or at night. Other students are using the online program only to take one or two classes that are not available normally, such as extra world language courses and AP classes.

Some classes will be added to the program throughout the school year in order to offer the same range of electives that students would normally get.

On average, middle school students will spend 3-4 hours per day in the program, and high school students will spend 4-5 hours per day. This may seem like a significant decrease, but this average doesn’t include breaks that a normal school day does, such as passing time and lunch periods. And, of course, this is only an average. Students taking more difficult classes may find themselves putting in more time, while students only taking one of two electives will not need to log in nearly as often.

Haley says that they plan to implement a program evaluation to determine the success of the program.

Assessment Day

Schools are required to offer the ACT once per year during school hours to all 11th grade students who wish to take it. Big Lake wanted to expand on this by also offering the Accuplacer test and the ASVAB and calling it “Assessment Day.” The school’s goal was to have every student take one of the three tests. Due to COVID-19, the ACT, and, with it, Assessment Day, had to be rescheduled. The new date is Oct. 6. The school will also be able to offer the ASVAB on that day, but not the Accuplacer test.

On that date, all high school students will be learning from home and only students taking the tests will be physically present at the school.

Food Service

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced that a waiver would be available for the continuation of free meals for students. USDA said funding for this program should be available through the end of the calendar year- however Angie Manuel, Director of Business Services for the school district, believes, after consultation with other business managers, that this money will not hold out that long, which could leave school districts on the hook to fund the program. Right now, the district is able to offer the meals through the end of October and then reevaluate the situation.

Despite the fact that families are not required to pay for meals at the moment, they are still being encouraged to apply for meal benefits through the school. If the funding does run out at the end of October, families could very suddenly be faced with a bill for student meals.

Big Lake Online students and, soon, secondary school hybrid students, will receive meal deliveries on Wednesdays. This day worked out since secondary students do not attend in-person on those days and so busses are available to make deliveries.

Financial Report

Enrollment as of the first day of school fell short of what the board had budgeted for by about 78 students. Among the students who didn’t return to Big Lake this year, 100 students moved out of the district, 61 switched to homeschooling, 35 transferred to other traditional school districts and charter schools, and 24 are pursuing other virtual academic programs.

Though some students left the school system, others joined. One aspect that helped the district keep some students was the implementation of Big Lake Online. The board hopes that some of the students who switched to homeschool will come back as the situation settles down.

The shortage of students is most likely due to parents keeping their kindergarten students at home for another year, and either homeschooling the kids or simply holding them back a year. COVID-19 caused a lot of uncertainty for parents, and some are taking a wait-and-see approach to their kids’ education. It is possible that next year’s kindergarten class will be much larger than usual as a result.

The loss in enrollment will cost the district about $700,000. As a result, the board is reviewing expenditures to find ways to save costs.

Most unexpected costs due to COVID-19 will be covered by CARES, CRF, and Sherburne County funding.