It's now official. Fifth-grade students will be at Eagle View Elementary School this fall.
The decision was made at Monday's Pequot Lakes School Board meeting.
Principal Don Lenzen said he knows there are parents who will be happy to hear this, but moving the fifth grade to the middle school could happen the following school year.
Mike Nelson, a sixth-grade teacher at the middle school, will teach fifth grade at Eagle View this fall.
Amy LaBarre, principal at Crosslake Community School, will be the principal of curriculum and assessment for the Pequot Lakes School District, succeeding Lynn Couch, who is retiring at the end of this school year.
The board also approved a contract for Lorry Parrish, special education instructor.
Resignations were accepted from Brian Zitzow, bus driver; Kristina Yutrzenka, paraprofessional; and Suzanne McKibbon, special education instructor.
The board ratified the contract for 2007-09 of School Service Employees Local 284.
School budget
Business manager Rick Skogen presented an operating funds budget summary for the current fiscal year and a projection for the 2008-09 school year. He told the board that he hoped to keep the deficit under $100,000.
The transportation fund is over budget by $45,700, a result of the increasing fuel costs. He projected that the 2008-09 transportation fund is estimated at $745,720.
Skogen said he was hopeful that the Legislature would have school funding bills passed this month. He also projected that increasing energy costs will zero out any savings in improvements in the school's heating and cooling systems.
"The entire administrative team is working to consider ways to balance the budget," Skogen said. "The budget indicates no increase in general education aid for next year. We have 140 seniors leaving and 140 kindergartners arriving, but the kindergartners receive less state money than the high school students."
Skogen estimated all expenses will increase by 3 percent in 2008-09.
In other action, the board accepted the recommendation of Superintendent Rick Linnell to hire Garland Co. to assess the condition of the roof on the Pequot Lakes School building.
