By MaryHelen Swanson

Through a cooperative effort of several school districts, girls in the Rush City School District will now have the opportunity to play hockey.
The school board last Thursday night approved a proposal with Pine City and Mora and possibly Isle.
The district is already co-oped with these districts for boys hockey.

Rush City will pay $600 per participant with parents paying anything above that cost.
The district will not provide transportation for the students to practices or games.
According to Activities Director Bob Schlagel, hockey came out on top as the most desired sport in a survey of students which is given every other year.

Schlagel told the board there are about eight girls interested now, some of them are already playing in Pine City youth hockey.
The Rush City School District also co-ops for gymnastics with Pine City and Hinckley.

Schlagel said it will be good for those students coming up to have the district co-oped in a program where they will be able to play hockey in high school.

After hearing the proposal, the school board voted unanimously to approve the co-op agreement.

Pool problems
Not so good was the news about the districtís aquatic center, the pool.
While the cool summer weather was more bearable for many area residents, it kept people away from the pool.
In fact, the pool was closed 28 of the 84 days it was to be open (33 percent of the time).
When admissions are down, so are revenues from concessions.

Additionally, before the pool ever opened there was a large cost incurred for a broken water line - $14,000.
However, Activities Director Schlagel told the school board that in spite of all this, revenues were at $93,000, although the budgeted number was $107,000.

Schlagel said there were $19,000 in revenue from swimming lessons, which shows that people are coming from many places to use the pool.
Right now the district is looking at a $47,000 deficit, half of which would be the responsibility of the city of Rush City, as it partners with the school district on the pool endeavor.

Realizing that half of $47,000 is a lot of money, the school board agreed to borrow money from the Unity Center trust fund for the major repair work last spring.
The intention is to pay the fund back in the coming year.

There was discussion about seeking help from the community for the deficit.
Schlagel reminded the board that the district is already asking for the communityís help for such things as the new ball fields.
In other business, the board

ï Learned that enrollment is going up, but they were interested in knowing why students are choosing open enrollment in other districts.
ï Hired Roger Keller as 8th-grade boys basketball coach, Andrea Schmidt as junior high gymnastics coach, Peter Umbreit as assistant wrestling coach and Mike Saari as ìCî girls basketball coach. They accepted the resignation of Michele Kirby as paraprofessional as the high school and as the 7th-grade girls basketball coach.

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