Red Wing School Board briefs

District gets clean audit

Red Wing School District’s finances got a clean bill of health for 2011. Two representatives from CliftonLarsonAllen LLP presented the results of last year’s audit to the board Tuesday night. The firm found no internal deficiencies and called the audit a “clean report all around.”

“That’s something that I can’t say is very common,” Kim Hillberg, of CliftonLarsonAllen said. “It reflects very highly on the district’s financial staff.”

The board looked over a PowerPoint presentation showing the current states of the district’s various funds. That included the fund balance, which shows a more than $5 million balance due to the current referendum being in its peak years.

“Fund balance-wise, you’re sitting good,” Hillberg said.

Still, Board member Paul Kramp warned that the referendum will expire in two years.

“We don’t want to give the community a false sense of security,” he said. “We still have to maintain strong financial planning and be prepared… when that referendum does expire.”

High school program of studies approved

Current eighth-graders at Red Wing High School will need to take two more credits than their older peers to graduate. The board approved a program of studies for the 2012-13 school year that increases the total number of required credits from 28 to 30.

Other changes for the eighth- and ninth-grade program include:

• Decreasing ninth-grade civics from one full year to one semester; the second semester will be made up by a requirement that students take one semester of American government as seniors. Principal Beth Borgen said this will allow students to learn about how the U.S. government works closer to the time when they will be allowed to vote.

• A state mandate now requires all students to take three years of science. One year each of physical science and biology will be required, and students can choose from chemistry, physics or principles of engineering for their third year.

• Everyday linear algebra will be added as a math elective for eighth-graders.

For grades 10-12, there were only two changes, Borgen said, and both were new class offerings. They are media arts and digital electronics.

New technology plan goes through

Red Wing School Board approved the district’s new technology plan for 2013-15. Kevin Johnson, director of buildings, grounds and technology, said some of the issues the district is facing is moving to a website-based system — where all student and faculty documents will be available through a website — and working to support a bring-your-own-device system.

“The district can’t afford to buy every student devices,” Johnson said.

Also integrated into the plan are ways to get teachers and students using technology more as a tool for learning and less as a subject and or techniques. That includes integration of the National Educational Technology Standards, which focus on using technology to connect students with the global world.

“To increase student learning is the ultimate goal,” said Twin Bluff teacher Mike Pagel, who helped conduct a survey last spring asking how teachers use technology in their lessons.

Personnel changes

The board approved the following personnel changes:

Reassignment: Brehea Schnorenber, special education assistant at Twin Bluff, effective Dec. 23.

New hires: Janice Carter, special education assistant at the high school, effective Jan. 3; Michelle Anderson, special education assistant at Sunnyside, effective Jan. 3.

Resignation: Michelle Miller, education assistant at Burnside, effective Jan. 6.

Meeting watch

Tuesday’s meeting lasted about 3.5 hours before going into closed session to discuss the district’s labor negotiations strategy. All board members were present.

— Compiled by Sarah Gorvin, staff writer

Tags: red wing, school board, education