School board

dissolves

agreement for

girls hockey

Interviews candidates for Babel's seat but makes no selection

By KREMENA TODOROVA

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM -- The District 88 Board of Education on Thursday dissolved a four-school cooperative sponsorship agreement for girls hockey, automatically restructuring it as a three-school arrangement.

The participating schools in the new group will be New Ulm Public Senior High, New Ulm Cathedral High and Sleepy Eye Public. Sleepy Eye St. Mary's is dropping out for lack of participants.

The implication of the arrangement is that the group of schools will continue competing in Class A events, rather than Class AA events. The latter involve larger schools.

The Minnesota State High School League changed the criteria for what-sized schools compete in what classes starting this year. The four-school agreement, if it had remained in place, would have just barely placed the group of New Ulm and Sleepy Eye schools in the larger-school class.

Officials said they did not feel that the change placing them among larger schools was fair. They felt that remaining in Class A would more adequately reflect realities at the area schools.

Placing schools in classes is based on combined enrollment in grades 10-12.

Extra-curricular

contracts

An item that is usually part of the non-controversial consent agenda provoked a lively discussion, after school board member Susan Nierengarten questioned the timing and other issues related to extra-curricular contracts.

Nierengarten said she felt that voting extra-curricular contracts late in the game, when the programs in question are well under way, was not fair to the board -- or to the coaches, club advisers or drama directors involved.

Nierengarten and other board members recalled that the board has previously asked administrators to submit the extra-curricular pay table for approval in a more timely manner.

Nierengarten also questioned the basis for contracting part-time photographers.

She said that the master contract calls for the photographers to take photos for both the year book -- a still valid obligation -- and a long-extinct high school newspaper. Because the high school paper is no longer part of the the job, the basis for the photographers' pay may no longer be valid, Nierengarten argued. She acknowledged, however, that the matter may need to be addressed at the level of contractual negotiations, rather as part of pay approvals.

Raising yet another concern, Nierengarten questioned the need for hiring two head FFA advisers, rather than an adviser and an assistant. She cited declining enrollment in ag programs -- which she stipulated could be mirrored by FFA membership.

As a result, the board unanimously approved Nierengarten's motion to approve all but the FFA contracts -- and revisit the FFA matter in a future meeting.

The extra curricular contracts range in value from $213 for building props for the Senior High play to $3,834 paid to the yearbook photographer.

Facility

improvement plan

The board approved a 10-year facility improvement plan, which budgets between $228,000 and $726,000 a year for capital improvements.

Superintendent Harold Remme cautioned that these numbers are just best guesses and will be changing on an annual basis depending on actual needs.

Board candidate

interviews

In an informal meeting immediately following the regular meeting, the board interviewed Dr. Marc Burkhart and Duane Hauser, candidates for the seat vacated as a result of the resignation of Tim Babel last month.

Because it did not structure the interviews as part of an official meeting, the board held no discussion and made no selection.

It decided to call a special meeting Tuesday, Oct. 14, to select Babel's replacement.

Burkhart and Hauser answered questions about what they see as the main role of a board member; what changes, if any, they would like implemented in the school curriculum; how they felt about past decisions of the board; how a board member can help increase student achievement; what personal strengths they would bring to the board; and what their priorities would be if programs need to be cut in the future.

Both candidates stressed that board members should serve as "a voice" for the community and prioritized spending on academics over extra-curricular activities.

But Hauser appeared more conservative on equipment spending and aspects of the curriculum, stressing the importance of "basics" (reading, writing and math) and indicating that some areas, such as those relating to sex education, should be a family, rather than a school, matter.

Burkhart, in turn, stressed the need for more challenging curriculum alternatives for students and cautioned of the danger of "teaching to the test." He also expressed the idea that the school board should be setting standards, rather than micro-managing educators.