Northland School Board: Superintendent services will continue with Hill City

   At the May 5 work session, the board met and discussed the next options for superintendent services after voting in a special meeting to discontinue the agreement with Hill City. During this session the board was joined by their legal counsel and found out the agreement between the two schools for superintendent services was an automatically renewing contract and a 90 day written notice needed to be given by Apr. 30 of any given year if either school should choose to dissolve the agreement. Even though the schools were in negotiations, legal counsel stated the agreement could not be dissolved at the May 2 special meeting. Therefore, the board requested counsel reach out to Hill City on the schools behalf to discuss further options.

   Board chair Marc Ruyak gave an update on the Purchase of Services Agreement for Superintendent Services at the regular school board meeting on Thursday, May 19. Ruyak stated legal counsel for both schools have been in discussion concerning the agreement and Ruyak attended the last Hill City school board meeting. It was discussed at that meeting the two schools would remain in the current agreement for the length of one more year with all payment rates being the same of a 50/50 split. Hill City then requested if Northland would like to discontinue the agreement a letter be submitted to them by the April 30 cut off date. Hill City also mentioned they would proceed this year as if the agreement is going to be terminated and discuss amongst themselves on how to organize their administration without the sharing of a superintendent.

   Ruyak suggested the board hold a special work session in June for the purpose of drafting a letter to Hill City for discontinuation of Purchase of Services agreement for Superintendent services and to begin the discussion process of reorganizing the administration staff at Northland. Ruyak also suggested the board invite legal counsel to this meeting. A special work session was set for Tues., June 7 at 5:30 p.m.

   In the administration report updates Assistant Principal/Activities Director Janessa Green shared with the board that there was a good turn out for the Athletic, Academic, Awards banquet held this past week. There was a lot of recognition and awards given out during the banquet and the kitchen staff cooked the meal. It was stated it was nice to have this banquet again as it had been suspended due to Covid and plans are already underway for next years banquet. 

   Principal Mary Yakibchuk shared with the board during her update that the school has purchased a new health curriculum for both K-8 and 9-12. Along with this the Physical Education teachers are updating their units and purchasing some new equipment.

   Yakichuk also mentioned she is proposing creating a focus group to meet over the summer to brainstorm on how to address staff shortages and absences. It was stated this year has been full of challenges with a shortage of substitutes  and a large number of staff being absent either due to illness themselves or caring for a loved one. Currently the school has a couple of long-term substitutes on staff to fill in where necessary and that has been working great. Also, current staff has been stepping up when another staff member has been absent and helping out by either combining classes or using prep time to cover a class. It seems the shortage is an all over the state issue and may be linked to an effect from Covid, because most of the district’s substitutes were retired teachers and have decided to not return to substituting after Covid restrictions were lifted.

   In other business, the school board:

   • Recognized Beth Wilson for all her work on Prom; Kayleigh Horn for being named valedictorian and Alynza Welk for being named salutatorian

   • Certified the 2022 graduating class of seventeen students.

   • Awarded the bid for construction of the bus garage and bituminus paving/lighting to Hawk Construction in the amount of $1,821,900. Other bids for portions of this construction project were either not received or rejected. The board discussed re-bidding those portions of the project at a later date. 

   • Approved fall coaches, winter coaches, spring coaches and advisors for the 2022-2023 school year.

   • Was notified of a change in assignment for Lisa Barrett from 5th grade to SPED teacher.

   • Approved the hire of Izabella Bishop as 5th grade teacher with a start date of Aug. 26 and Frank Peterson as custodian with a start date of May 16.

   • Accepted the resignation of Isaiah Heinle, custodian, effective May 27.

   The board has scheduled the following meetings: special work session, Tues., June 7 at 5:30 p.m. and the regular meeting, Thurs., June 16 at 5:30 p.m., all meetings are held at Northland High School.