At request of Theisen’s, old middle school sale is tabled

   At the request of Theisen’s, the Monticello School Board voted to table approval of the old middle school property, during the board’s regular meeting Monday night.

   According to school superintendent Brian Jaeger, Theisen’s made the request after doing some additional cost analysis.

   Jaeger read a prepared statement, which read in part: “They asked the school board to hold off on the final approval of the proposal at this time. They wanted additional time to work through the costing and explore additional ways to cut costs to be able to make this deal work…We will continue to be in communication with Theisen’s as they navigate through this process. We hope to finalize this proposal very soon.”

   The board had passed a resolution at its March 27 meeting to sell the old middle school property to the home, farm and auto store company, for the cost of $100,000, which would have included having Theisen’s taking responsibility for removing asbestos from the 100-year-old building and tearing it down.

   Theisen’s had hoped to build a new store on the property within three years.

   Meanwhile, the district’s students and staff will get a reprieve from a potential June 8 last day of school, thanks to a proposal presented by Jaeger and approved by the board at the meeting.

   The district has had six snow days this school year, but if there are no others, it will be fewer than four hours short of the state-required 1,080 classroom hours to complete the school year.

   Jaeger proposed that the district add just one day, June 1 – with an early dismissal included – to finish up the required hours. Teachers and staff would need to stay for that full school day, and then return on Friday, June 2 to fulfill their requirements.

In other board business:

   • The board heard comments from Troy McDonald, who spoke on a couple of concerns relating to school safety: having automatic door locks installed in all district classrooms for use in the event of an active shooter situation, and hiring additional School Resource Officers so that each district school building has one.

   Jaeger responded to both of these concerns.

   “In our rooms the teachers use strip magnets,” Jaeger said. “They put them on the door, so the doors can open and close, but they’re always locked, so if they were to pull out the strip magnet, the door closes and it locks to the outside. So it’s very quick. Each of our levels have practiced this specific situation.”

   The district’s SRO is Dawn Graver, who alternates her time between the buildings.

   “I’m not even sure that the city at this point would have the ability to have a second resource officer at this point, or if we would have the ability to do that,” Jaeger said.

   • The board approved a 28E agreement with the City of Monticello for the School Resource Officer program for 2023-25.

   • The board approved a switch in health insurance providers from Wellmark to Health Partners.

   • The board approved a K-12 therapy dog program, which would not begin until the 2024-25 school year.

   • The board approved music and social studies curriculum adoption, at a cost of $53,010.89. The original cost was $152,448.88, but grants, donations and other sources reduced it; most notably a donation of $34,504.80 from the Monticello School District Foundation.

   • The board approved joining a Local Government Risk Pool for its natural gas contract. Participation locks in a price for the next school year, and allows the district to pay for it with the management fund rather than the general fund.

   • As part of the consent agenda, the board approved numerous personnel items:

   Resignation – Wyatt Spence as special education child specific associate at Carpenter.

   Appointments – Hanna Horsfield as high school science teacher, and Sydney Bailey as art teacher at Shannon and Carpenter.

   Also approved was the list of grade level Professional Learning Community leaders, including Kendra Kedley, Kim Koos, Liz Moon, Lindsay Ryan, Nicolette Wennekamp, Jenni Schauf, Brittany Ahrendsen, Laura Schmitt, Kelli Osterkamp, Wes Wilson, Kayla Schockemoehl, Todd Hospodarsky, Nancy Toenjes, Nick Thumma, Kathy Larson and Shannon Guyer.

   Also appointed were summer food service director Nick Thumma, and summer food service employees Gwen Guilford, Marsha Kraus, Marlys Murphy, Regina Engelbart and Stacy Appleby.