Caledonia Argus

Interim superintendent candidates to be interviewed Thursday

Posted: 6/25/02

By Shannon McKinney
Argus News Reporter

A special board meeting has been scheduled to interview the interim superintendent candidates Thursday, June 27, at 4:00 p.m. at the Caledonia Area Elementary media center.

The district has obtained a list of potential candidates who might be interested.

Board Chair Cheryl Whitesitt chose five who seemed to be very interested.

They include: Jim Tool of the Delano school district, Phil Lederman of the East Metro Integration District, Dennis Fogelson of Anoka-Hennepin District, Dennis Maasjo of Eagle View, South Dakota district and Greg East of Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

Current Superintendent Percy Lingen will end her service at this district on June 30, and begin work for International Falls on July 1.

Facilities use discussed

The Caledonia Youth Soccer Association will need to talk to ISD #299ís athletic director, Ken VanDenBoom about using soccer fields at the new school next year.

Nancy Messner and Gary Massman approached the school board Monday night, June 17, asking about using the soccer fields next year for its spring soccer program.

Massman said, ìThere was a verbal agreement that we would be able to use them. Do we need a written agreement to be able to use them?î

Messner noted that youth soccer and high school soccer have shared soccer space with each other when high school competes in the fall and youth soccer competes in the spring. She said, ìWe would like first chance at the soccer fields in the spring.î

Board member Barb Hurley said there may need to a policy put in place. Currently anyone wanting to use the facilities fills out a facilities use form.

Board member Chuck Schulte suggested discussing the schedule with VanDenBoom.

Nancy Runningen upgraded to full time

The board upgraded Nancy Runningen, community education director, to full time to be paid a salary of $54,095 which includes a benefit package. About $15,000 of her salary will be reimbursed through Title I dollars and other funds.

Her additional responsibilities include writing and maintaining Title I, II & V grants, and coordinating activities with the homeless liaison. She will also work as a testing coordinator for the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment for grades 3 and 5.

She will also be involved in facilities scheduling.

Air conditioning comes in at $490,000

The board approved taking funds from different sources to pay for installing air conditioning in the elementary retrofit.

The air conditioning was budgeted at $350,000, but bids came in almost $150,000 more than that at $490,000.

The source of money in question was whether the board wanted to take about $73,000 from the district contingency fund, which would leave $100,000 in that fund for eminent domain and Esch Drive issues or leave that alone and use about $83,000 from health and safety dollars, which eventually is levied on the taxpayers during the course of one year.

The board voted unanimously to use the health and safety dollars.

The remainder of the funds will come from general construction funds ($25,000) and about $42,000 from the elementary construction contingency fund.

Superintendent reviews four period day

Board members received a copy from Superintendent Percy Lingen of her review of the four period day.

Lingen conducted a comparison based on 600 students of the four period day and the eight period day.

She concluded that 16 more sections are needed to run a four block day. This means that 2.6 additional teachers are needed, which would cost approximately $91,000 based on the average salary of $35,000 annually.

In the review, she stated, ìThe four period day assumes few students have study hall and that there are no large study halls. An eight period day would eliminate early graduation only if all students had a study hall.î

She also stated that right now the only way to eliminate early graduation is to have students in a large study hall or raise the number of credits needed to graduate.

Board members did not comment on the written review.

Top of Page