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Serving Northern St. Louis County, Minnesota

Mad dash to open Northeast Range by Sept. 5

Melissa Roach
Posted 8/30/17

REGIONAL—Will the Northeast Range School be open for students on Tuesday? That’s been the question as contractors have worked to complete an extensive heating system replacement project this …

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Mad dash to open Northeast Range by Sept. 5

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REGIONAL—Will the Northeast Range School be open for students on Tuesday? That’s been the question as contractors have worked to complete an extensive heating system replacement project this summer.

But Project Manager Carl Clark, of Foster, Jacobs & Johnson, said he’s confident the work will be far enough along to open the doors to students.

“We took a hard, solid evaluation on Friday and determined that we can make it,” Clark told members of the St. Louis County School Board on Monday. “School will start as planned.”

Clark said he had talked with the fire marshal, who indicated he might bewilling to overlook some minor issues to help get the school open in time. “He said if he was a code purist, there were eight schools in the state that wouldn’t open on the first day of school, and Northeast Range would be one of them. It will be a mad dash to the end of the week, but day one, we will meet the indoor air quality compliance for adequate ventilation with open windows, and that meets the requirements.” Clark said some compromises will have to be made. “There are a couple of bathrooms that will not be done in the high school. Most classrooms that are needed will be available. There might be a couple of rooms that may or may not be done,” Clark said.

Board member Christine Taylor asked when the project will be “done, done.” Clark replied, “Christmas.” He also told the board, “We had a snafu with wall coverings having water between the plastic and tile. They thought it had dried, and the tiles curled. The tiles ended up being asbestos anyway, so we abated the rooms and will be getting new tiles. The contractor will be paying for that.” Clark reiterated, “It will be a mad dash. We’ve got the best contractors in the state on this project. They’ve been great.” The board reviewed and approved change orders presented to them by Clark totaling $90,593. Clark explained the change orders in regards to moving to sheet rock soffits “to give it more of an aesthetic look and more durability,” He said. “There will be more change orders as we get closer to finishing.” Board member Chris Koivisto said he was glad to see the contractors’ progress, but wondered if there was a reason why the district wasn’t using their own custodians to work the extra hours to get the school ready on time. Facilities and Grounds Director Tony Buccanero responded, “Basically I made the decision to use the money allocated to pay the people to work the normal hours, and we use our regular staff to oversee the third party clean-up. I can’t make a special preference for someone over anyone else. I am not authorizing any overtime hours.”

In other action, the board approved a letter recognition program for Iron Range Youth in Action (IRYA). The requirements for the letter recognition were drawn up by the students and advisors. The five requirements of the program include components of commitment, communication, community, service learning and reflection. Board members Chet Larson and Lynette Zupetz both felt “the kids would be getting well deserved recognition.” Member Christine Taylor expressed concern that there may be too many requirements in order to obtain the letter. Member Dan Manick noted that the students and IRYA advisors came up with the requirements. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m totally in favor of this…my concern is it seems too high a bar for students to obtain,” Taylor responded. “This seems excessive, extremely stringent standards, with the number of hours the student has to participate,” she added. Manick tried to reassured her, noting, “It really doesn’t take long for 80 hours of volunteering to add up.”

Superintendent Steve Sallee expressed his thoughts concerning the new federal Every Student Succeeds Act. “It shifts to local and state control, replacing No Child Left Behind. The big difference is how we will be measured. Before, it was more punitive, this will be more supportive. We used to have an opt-out for testing that wouldn’t be counted against us, now it will count against us, that will be part of the formula as well. Unfunded mandates is what it boils down to.”

He also noted the Minnesota Department of Education efforts in a statewide aim of a 90- percent graduation rate by 2021. The 2016 MN Report Card put out by the department shows St. Louis County School with an 89.9 percent graduation rate.

In other action, the board:

•Approved the Unpaid Meal Charges Policy. This is a new policy with the purpose to ensure students receive healthy meals through the district even if they have insufficient funds to pay for school meals, while ensuring the district maintains financial integrity. The school district may provide an alternate meal to a student who does not have funds to pay for the meal. The district will make efforts to collect unpaid meal charges.

•Approved Upper Lakes Food as the district food distributor.

•Approved hiring probationary teaching staff: Rachel Deibele-South Ridge, Jessica Williams-South Ridge, Jessica Arver-South Ridge, Nathaniel LeBeque-North Woods, Larrisa Harris-North Woods.

•Approved hiring of support staff: Leone Graf- Tower Soudan, Amanda Arntson-NE Range, Jennifer Eckstrom-South Ridge, Leah White-South Ridge, Larrisa Harris-North Woods, Jennifer Pallin- NE Range, Sandra Puhek-Cherry, Joel Knutson-North Woods.

•Approved an employee agreement for Aaron Kaufenberg for technology assistant.

•Approved hiring coaching staff: Julia Holien-North Woods, Jacob Carlson-South Ridge, Alissa Boyhtari-South Ridge.

•Approved resignations: Brooke Lund-NE Range, Melissa Morse-South Ridge, MyKayla Hoeft-South Ridge, Beth Sprouls-North Woods.