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   Board Chair Marc Ruyak called the regular board meeting to order on Wed., Apr. 17 and accepted the following donations: $500 from Outing Chamber of Commerce for the senior class trip; $100 from Land O’ Lakes Marine for the senior class trip; $500 from Northland Lions for prom; $150 from Moose Willow Sportsman Club for the Trap club; $500 from Northland Lions for the senior class trip and $250 from Emily, Outing, Fifty Lakes Area Lions for the senior class trip.

   Elementary Principal/Activities Director Janessa Green presented her monthly reports beginning with the Activities Director report. Spring sports are underway and have the following student-athletes from Northland participating: 16 for softball; 12 for baseball; 13 for track and 9 for trap shooting. Green noted this is the first year Northland and Hill City are co-oping for trap shooting and with the late decision to co-op only one student from Hill City is participating due to the cost to participate and not being able to fund raise with the other participants. She is hopeful that next year there will be more participants as they will be included in any fundraising activities, which helps pay for shells and clay pigeons.

   Green then gave an update for volleyball by stating the Hill City school board approved the hire of Stacey Wake as head coach and interviews were held April 16 for junior varsity and junior high coaching postilions. Offers have been made to two individuals with one accepting and the other has not yet responded. Green mentioned Hill City’s board meets on Monday and is hopeful the hire of those individuals will be approved. It was noted there is still one more coaching position available which would be considered a floating coach which would assist where needed.

   An update from the April 15 Co-Op meeting held in Hill City reported the results of the surveys sent out to the boy’s basketball players. Green mentioned it was surprising the results with only one future senior from both schools, out of nine total, opposed co-oping and the majority of future juniors opposed the co-op. Therefore, with 48% of surveys voting no; 33% voting yes and 18% indifferent the recommendation is to remain separate for the 2024-2025 season and pursue co-oping for the 2025-2026 season.

   During the personnel portion of the meeting a request to add a Northland/Hill City Storm Activities Director for 2024-2025 was on the agenda. Green stated this request was a result from the co-op meeting and the need to have one person responsible for all activities/games. Due to all sports, save one, currently being co-oped the committee felt it would be more beneficial to have one person in charge. Both districts would post for the position and whichever district the person is hired in would then be the host school. The non-host school would then hire an assistant activities director to coordinate games and workers in that location. This request was approved unanimously.

   The board then discussed creating a team of staff and board members to examine how to maintain and increase enrollment numbers. One path the school is pursuing to maintain students is by offering new and different classes, which was reported to have positive interest from students at pre-enrollment. The final class schedule will be presented at the May board meeting, but at first look some classes have too many students wanting to enroll. Some quick ideas discussed on how to entice students from other districts were to offer a central bus pick-up to allow for transportation, advertise that the district has small classes and sports participation is not as crowded.

   In other Board action:

   • Approved the addition of the following positions: Junior High Student Leadership Advisor beginning 2024-2025 school year and Little Sand Learning Center Program Coordinator beginning 2024-2025 school year.

   • Approved an extended leave of absence without pay for Ken Grabinski from Nov. 5 - Dec. 2, 2024.

   • Accepted the following resignations: Kimmi Parent, paraprofessional effective Apr. 12; Zach Larson, transportation supervisor effective Apr. 26; Tichelle Pound, paraprofessional effective Apr. 30; Blair Conklin, bus driver effective Apr. 15 and Kate Decker, second grade teacher effective June 4.

   • Accepted the retirement of Jackie Kitchenhoff, science teacher effective end of 2023-2024 school year.

   • Approved a request from Jackie Kitchenoff to allow her to participate in the Post-Retirement Healthcare Savings Plan.

   • Approved the hire of the following: Cassey Casteel, 1.0 FTE special education teacher beginning 2024-2025 school year and Brad Huber, paraprofessional beginning 2024-2025 school year.

   • Approved the discontinuation of a 1.0 FTE elementary teaching position.

   • Heard from High School Principal/Superintendent Mary Yakibchuk on the effectiveness of her position and will discuss a possible new administration model at the next work session.

   The board has scheduled the following meetings: a work session, Wed., May 1 at 5:30 p.m. and the regular meeting, Wed., May 15 at 5:30 p.m. all meetings are held at Northland High School unless otherwise stated.

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