Budgets, Benefits and Big Checks Highlight Northfield School Board Meeting

Attendees of Monday's Northfield School Board meeting reacted with surprise and delight when Area Learning Center Director Pat Parlin announced that as many as 35 of its 66 students will graduate on June 1.

“What this reflects is how powerful the desire is on the part of these kids to get a diploma,” said Northfield Superintendent Chris Richardson. “In many cases, the kids we have here are kids who have struggled elsewhere. We are now only one of a few districts in the area to provide an ALC program.”

The teachers who make this happen are “pretty phenomenal folks,” he concluded.

This exchange came after two of those teachers, Darcy Seuer, social studies, and Burt Bemmels, math, presented their report about the ALC’s Professional Learning Community.

ALC staff chose to focus their PLC time on improving student attendance and helping students increase their Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments.

As they implemented their plan, student feedback showed that limited vocabulary was holding students back, Seuer said. So teachers worked to increase vocabulary by teaching students root words, thus helping them figure out the meaning from the context.

One of the ALC’s main challenges, Bemmels said, is its highly mobile population.

Numbers in each class can fluctuate wildly throughout a quarter. Great disparity in ability levels in a class poses a challenge as well. In one class, he said, he has one student doing third-grade level math and another doing pre-calculus.

Budget update

The board heard from Director of Business Services Stephanie Shawback, who presented an overview of the recent months-long program-based budgeting process the district undertook anticipating cuts in state funding.

With the Minnesota Legislature still deadlocked over a budget, the district must move ahead with the proposed budget in order to meet state law that a budget must be in place by June 30. Shawback said the $45.2 million budget is so cuts could be restored in the unlikely event that schools will receive more than flat funding once state lawmakers adopt a budget.

Richardson said that signs indicate that there will be no increases in education funding for the next five years, in spite of the fact that the cost of educating students will increase.

The board will cast its final vote on the 2011-12 budget at its June 13 meeting.

Self-funding insurance plans

Board members also voted to allow district officials to negotiate a self-funding insurance plan for the district. In essence, premium payments that are normally paid to a health insurance cooperative pool instead stays in the district and are held in a designated account. Employee claims will be paid out of this fund, rather than by the pool.

Matt Hillman, the district’s Director of Human Resources and Technology, said there were several key factors that prompted officials to look at this health insurance option. First is to try to stabilize premium rates.

Second, Hillmann said they estimate that the district’s actual claims have been less than expected. Had the district self-funded its insurance, Hillman estimates it could have built up a health insurance reserve of $1.8 million.

Another factor is that the district’s self-funded dental insurance program has been successful.

Officials anticipate that premium and benefit levels will remain the same next year if self-funding is approved.

An added benefit of self-funding, Hillman said, is that when people see that their behavior directly impacts their premiums, they tend to make more fiscally-responsible choices, such as calling a nurse line for advice rather than visiting an emergency room.

The board will vote on a proposal at its next meeting. If approved, the plan would take effect Sept. 1.

Board presented with big donation

The board heard a bit of good financial news from Rusty and Nancy Kluver. The two are farmers and Northfield School District employees who presented an oversized check for $2,500 for the Northfield School District Scholarship Fund for a student seeking a four-year degree in the sciences.

The Kluvers won the money for the community nonprofit organization of their choice from the “America’s Farmers Grow Communities” program, which is sponsored by Monsanto, a multinational corporation that sells chemicals and seeds to farmers.