NRHEG School Board
By REED WALLER
Staff Writer
Farewells
Monday, June 17 was the last NRHEG School Board meeting for departing superintendent Kevin Wellen and retiring high school principal Paul Cyr. Wellen is a 25-year education professional who is seeking a position elsewhere after six busy years with NRHEG, and Cyr has served NRHEG 26 years as math teacher, wrestling coach, middle school and high school principal.
Cyr will be meeting with incoming high school principal David Bunn July 1 through 3.
Construction in New Richland
The June meeting was held at the Ellendale Media Center, while the New Richland Media Center is being partially dismantled for the new cafeteria/commons area.
Wellen reported a lot of progress in the construction of the new area. At the time of the meeting, the brick wall for the commons was up, the old west wall of the cafeteria was down, and shoring for load bearing walls was going up. A small amount of unforeseen electrical work was reported and is being taken care of.The July and August board meetings will also be held in Ellendale, while construction in New Richland continues.
School business
Matt Groskreutz was approved for hire as bus mechanic, taking over for retiring Larry Crabtree.
Elementary teaching contracts, plus tenured and non-tenured contracts, were approved, including an elementary contract for Jennifer Bunn, at MA four years.
Resignations were accepted from Jodi Wayne, Laura Manthey, Ariel Miller, and Heather Carlson.
The position of Sign Language Interpreter was eliminated, and interpreter Jennifer Hoyt was terminated, the student requiring the service having graduated.
The 2013 senior class list was approved, 65 graduates.
Money matters
The letter of agreement for audit services from Eide Bailly for fiscal Year 2013 audit was approved, with a $300 increase from last year.
“We need two audits now,” explained Wellen. The additional accounting is necessary because of changes by the Federal government.
Dairy and bakery bids were approved from Dean Foods and Pan-O-Gold Baking Co. Pan-O-Gold was the only bidder for bakery this year, though bid requests were sent to six companies. The bread quote amounts to a three- to five-cent per loaf increase over last year.
A 10-cent per student increase in lunch prices was approved. This represents increases at the federally approved rate.
The Health and Safety budget for 2013-2014 was approved, at a total of $184,959. The high figure includes $150,000 for kitchen exhaust ventilation in connection with the remodeling, and $12,700 asbestos abatement for the kitchen/cafeteria area.
More pain in the pocketbook was produced by the school’s insurance premiums, this year totaling $130,051, which includes $78,718 for Workers Compensation.
“Workers Comp has gone up 30 percent,” Wellen told the board. “We had $200,000 in surgeries.”
High claims are also reflected in the $33,434 commercial property premium, with the district having collected so much for flooding and severe weather damage in recent years.
“We’re basically paying back all the savings we’ve had over the past few years. It was nice getting the money, but now we’re paying for all the claims we put in.”
Donations of $500 each were received from New Richland United Way and the City of Ellendale, for the Summer Recreation program.