Mark Hedstrom will be resigning from the school board after serving for eight years in order to begin serving on the Big Lake Twp Board instead.
Superintendent Truebenbach is running to be a board member for the Big Lake Chamber of Commerce. He hopes his position on the board will help him become more integrated in the community.
The December meeting will be held virtually on December 17 at 6:30 p.m. It will be preceded by the truth in taxation meeting at 6:00 p.m.
Students Encouraged to Reach Out
Ella Dotzler, student liaison, will be setting up an email address where students can contact her directly to let her know what is going on in the district. She hopes to raise awareness of her position as a student advocate and be able to streamline communication between the student body and the board.
Winter Sports and Activities Update
Big Lake’s fall sports have come to a close for the season. Big Lake was fortunate enough to only have to quarantine one team over the course of the season. The other teams were able to play as much as possible, until the recent shutdown by Governor Walz. Parents drove their students to events in order to prevent the necessity of quarantines from exposure on a bus ride, which helped to keep the activities going.
In-person activities for the winter sports season will be delayed until December 19, although there is speculation that there may be further delays, depending on what the COVID-19 numbers are. More information will be available at the December school board meeting.
The restrictions may change depending on the activity, as well. It’s also not known yet if the season’s end will be pushed back as well, or if it will remain the same. The MSHSL is working to make more information available to the schools.
The board discussed whether to pay winter coaches their full salary for the season, regardless of the situation that unfolds. In the spring, coaches were paid only 50% of their normal salary, since there were no spring sports. The reason for the difference is that the board saw the efforts that the coaches made last spring to work with the kids however possible. Also, it’s not known if there will or will not be a season, whereas the board knew early on last spring there would be no season. The board held off making a decision until more information becomes available.
COVID-19 Cases
One of the Big Lake Schools will be added to a list available on the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) which lists schools that have had five or more cases of COVID-19 in the building. Schools will remain on the list until they have been under five cases for two weeks. MDH is publishing this list in the spirit of transparency.