District 88 agrees to sell land

Diocese buys

land for housing development

By KEVIN SWEENEY

Journal Editor

NEW ULM -- The District 88 Board of Education voted Thursday to sell a 10-acre tract of land to the Diocese of New Ulm.

The land, adjacent to the current Diocese housing subdivision development, will help expand the subdivision, one of the bigger housing expansions in New Ulm in recent years.

The board accepted the Diocese's offer to buy the land for $90,000. Superintendent Harold Remme told the board the offer is higher than the assessed value of the land, and represents "fair market value" for the property.

The land is not being used by the school district, and the district doesn't foresee any possible use for the land in the future.

In other real estate business, the board approved seeking city annexation of another plot of land, the Eagle Subdivision. The 49.7-acre property has been farmland. The New Ulm Soccer Association will begin leasing 20 acres for soccer fields, while the rest of the land is still being farmed, and could be used for FFA instruction purposes in the future.

Because the City of New Ulm is running utilities past the land to another subdivision, annexation would allow the city to connect electrical and water service to the property for the soccer association's use.

In other action, the board approved the plan for participation in the Cottonwood River Integration Collaborative (CRIC). The CRIC is a five-district collaborative including New Ulm, Cedar Mountain, Sleepy Eye, Springfield and St. James. It is a state-mandated program to bring districts with different levels of minority population together to develop diversity and cooperation in student and adult activities. The plan, which must be approved by all five districts, is to hire a part-time coordinator to work with the district in developing and initiating the program activities.

The CRIC's budget will be $320,000. District 88's share will be $62,000. Of that amount, 27 percent comes from local levies, and 73 percent comes from state aid.

Other board action included:

* Approval of an increase in school breakfast and lunch tickets for the coming year. The increase is the first in seven years, and is needed to keep the district's food fund from falling into a deficit. Breakfast ticket prices will go up 15 cents, to 90 cents, while lunch tickets will go up 10 cents, to $1.35 for grades K-6, $1.50 for grades 7-12, and $2.35 for adults.

* Approval of new hires for 2002-2003. Pauline Dicke was hired as a full-time ag instructor. Her position has been added to meet new enrollment in the program. Two new math teachers were hired to fill vacancies -- Steve Foley and Joshua Wallestad. Two guidance counselors were hired, Lynette Pawlek and Eric Stang. Kristi Schlangen Lindquist was hired as a .6 time German teacher to help meet new enrollment needs.

* Approval to post three vacancies to be filled next year -- a computer lab assistant for New Ulm High School; an autism educator for Jefferson Elementary School; and a district coordinator for Gifted and Talented.

* Awarding the contract for improvements to the district's computer networking system. The bid of Nexus Information Systems was accepted over the bid of Access Communications, Inc. Access submitted a lower bid, but examination of its bid showed that the Access bid didn't meet the specifications of the bid.

Nexus's bid was $123,691. The project will increase speed and capacity of the district's technology system that connects computers in all its buildings.