Both the Becker and Big Lake School Boards held their re-organizational meetings earlier this week. Becker did so as a part of their regular meeting, while Big Lake scheduled a special meeting focused solely on reorganization, with a regular meeting to come later this month.
Big Lake Re-organizational Meeting
Amber Sixberry, Tony Scales, and Lori Kampa all took their oaths of office at the beginning of the meeting.
Tonya Reasoner was once again elected board chair, Scales was named as clerk, replacing Mark Hedstrom. Sixberry was once again named as treasurer.
Board members were assigned to their committees, and they named their official paper (Elk River Star News), legal services (Ratwik, Roszak & Maloney), and bank (Old National).
Becker Re-organizational Meeting
New and re-elected board members were all sworn into the Becker school board during last Tuesday’s meeting. Sarah Schafer and Cindy Graham are serving on the board for the first time, and Robinson won her reelection campaign back in November.
Aaron Jurek was elected to be the new board chair, Mark Swanson stepped into the role of vice-chair, Ryan Obermoller was elected to be the clerk, and Robinson was nominated to continue in her role as treasurer.
Jason Kindred and Lori Molus left the board after their terms expired at the end of 2020. Jurek, Swanson, and Obermoller will all continue to serve until 2022.
The board members went on to determine which members would cover which committees for the year of 2021.
Swanson Runs For MSBA Seat
Swanson will be running for a seat on the Minnesota School Board Association, district nine. This is the district with the largest number of schools. Swanson would run to represent Becker and the other schools in the district on the board. The former seat reached his term limit, leaving the position open.
Superintendent’s Report
Supt. Jeremy Schmidt gave a report on the changes coming to the school district in response to new guidelines from the governor’s office and the Minnesota Dept. of Health.
Bus drivers will no longer be made to quarantine when a student on his or her bus tests positive for COVID-19. The reasoning behind this is that the bus driver has very little contact with the students, apart from when they first get on and when they get off, and is not within six feet of the students for a prolonged period of time.
“[It’s] tremendous for us,” said Schmidt, citing the problems the schools have been having with staffing the drivers.”
Staff will be strongly encouraged, but not required, to wear both a face mask and a face shield when working in close proximity to others. This guideline is fairly controversial, as many leaders within school districts around the state feel that the preventive measures staff are currently taken seem to be working well to keep the students safe, and asking teachers and other staff to wear a mask as well would limit students’ ability to see their teachers’ faces. Becker Schools’ employees will be encouraged to do what they need to feel comfortable in this situation.
School activities began their winter season practices on Monday.
COVID-19 tests will be available to school staff members every other week. These tests will be available on a voluntary basis. The board members had a discussion about how different tests were acceptable and some were not, for the purposes of the school. School nurses will be able to receive the COVID-19 vaccination.
Upcoming Special Election
Finally, the board briefly discussed the special election coming up. The public will be given the chance to vote on whether to implement changes around the school campus to improve safety and functionality for staff and students.
