The Becker School Board met last week to discuss the Big Dog Challenge, classroom additions and stakeholder input amongst other items.

 

Supt. Stephen Malone opened by congratulating Assistant Supt. of Curriculum and Instruction  Jean Duffy,  who was named MASA 2018 Outstanding Central Office Administrator of the year. 

 

The 2019-20 calendar committee will meet April 11. The committee includes parents, teachers, a Local 284 representative, a transportation representative, the director of curriculum and instruction, the principals, students and a school board representative.

 

Malone mentioned the school has an exciting new application to their bus routing software that will benefit parents and students. This application is called “My Stop" and uses GPS technology to allow parents to track the location of their students’ bus on a mobile app using a phone or other mobile device. Malone says the app has been pilot tested for several months and will now be made available to all parents.

 

Representatives from the school district (superintendent, director of business services, director of facilities and grounds, director of activities) and members of the City of Becker (city administrator, BCC director, and streets supervisor) have met several times to examine ways the school can maximize the use of green space between the entities.

 

“We interviewed two consulting firms which would conduct an objective study to identify appropriate recreational, co-curricular, and MSHSL standards,” said Malone. “The study would also identify existing opportunities, deficiencies, and any potential to more efficiently use existing space and facilities.” 

 

Bids were received from two vendors: AJA ($28,500) and HKG ($79,000). 

 

Malone said the school district agrees to pay half of the low bid of $14,250. The City of Becker accepted the HKG bid because they believe it will provide more comprehensive information for the city’s long-term planning. Malone said he expects the study to be completed sometime this summer.

 

Malone said MDE recently revised the way graduation rates are calculated. The changes, he said, are a part of the state's transition to its approved plan under the new federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). Foreign exchange students are no longer counted in a school’s rate, and students who drop out at the high school where they spent the majority of their academic career are counted toward that high school’s rate. Using the new calculation, the Minnesota High School graduation rate is 82.7% and the Becker High School graduation rate is 91.6%.

 

Malone said the 2017 Big Dog Challenge teams have been busy. The teams have completed the design thinking process and developed MVPs (Minimum Viable Products).

 

The three ideas include Increased Recess Time (Ideator Jen Harmoning — team is Stacy Spindler and Anna Kunz the district innovation coordinator is Christine Glomski); Alice Training Program (Ideator is Maggie Maine — team is Chantel Boyer, Dale Christensen and Tom Ueker and the district innovation coordinator is Steve Malone); Outdoor Learning Space (Ideator Missy Olson — team is Jessica Warzecha and Brenda Holthaus and the district innovation coordinator is Joe Prom). 

 

Thirteen bids were received for the Becker Primary School classroom addition project. 

 

The project consists of a single story, four class room addition to the existing Becker Primary school. The project will also include minor remodeling of the existing school. Additionally, there will be sitework for minor grading, new utilities and relocated utilities. 

 

The low bid for the construction cost was from KUE Contractors, Inc. of Watkins in the amount of $1,149,370. Malone said ICS Consulting, Inc. of Blaine reviewed and confirmed that their bid is valid. 

 

The board voted to approve the contract with KUE Contractors for the aforementioned amount.

 

Pre-construction and submittals work related to the project is to commence immediately after receipt of the signed contract. The onsite work will begin on the premises no later than March 26. 

 

Participants in the stakeholder input process were identified as: all employees, all high school students, parents and community members.

 

The questions asked in the query were: 1). What is your expectation of the Becker School District?; 2). What are we doing well at Becker Schools?; 3). What could Becker Schools do better?

 

The timeline included the idea submission from the stakeholder groups during Feb. 20 and March 2. The ranking of the ideas occurred March 5-9. Data processing will occur during March 12-21 and the school board will rank the best of the best from March 22-30.

 

April 9, the school board will assign the top ideas from each of the stakeholder groups to an exit outcome area.

 

May 7, the school board will begin discussing 2018-19 goals, based on the data.

 

The next Becker School Board meeting is April 9 at 6:30 p.m.