By Aaron Vehling

Fiscal responsibility has paid off for the Rush City school district. The Minnesota Department of Educationís financial arm presented the district with the School Finance Award at the school boardís Thursday night meeting.

Laureen Frost, business manager of the district, accepted the award from Deb Firkus and Charles Speiker from the Department of Education.

ìRush City was one of the few schools that met every statutory requirement in the state,î Speiker said.

Superintendent James Redfield said in a phone interview Tuesday that the district received the award for a variety of reasons.

ìFirst off, one of the reasons is compliance with all state statutes and getting them in on time,î he said. Other reasons include a positive reserves and a positive fund balance, he said.

ìWe have policies to keep a positive balance as much as we can,î he said.
In addition, he added, the personnel go to different workshops as needed to address specific issues in the field.

In other school news:
ï Redfield introduced the idea of hiring a public relations consultant to help the district communicate better with the community.
Board member Gwen Goretsas questioned the idea.

ìI find it hard to believe we need to go to a third party,î she said. ìWe have enough resources internally where we could do just as much.î

Though it would only cost $200, board member Pat Behrendt agreed with Goretsas. ìItís only $200 but itís still $200,î she said. ìThere are things we can do ourselves.î

The discussion also turned toward the Web site, with which Behrendt took issue.

ìThe cute little graphics are really nice but the site is hopelessly out of date,î she said.

ï Redfield reported that the bus garage was very close to use.

ìI am hoping that the buses will be in the garage by Monday night (Feb. 28),î he said.
Behrendt was relieved.

ìWe wanted it done five weeks ago,î she said.

ï Redfield and Jacobson Elementary principal Vern Koepp shared with the board the ongoing struggle the elementary school is having with their boiler system. Koepp said that there have been problems consistently since the system was installed.

ìAt this point, we are just about through two heating seasons and problems still persist,î he said, adding that the system works fine when the outside temperature is in the 30s and 40s, but when the really cold days come about the system does not operate properly.

One problem is that the company that installed the system is no longer in business, Koepp said. A new company took over.
The district is looking into replacing the system as it is still under warranty.

ïRedfield told a story of how he recently ate lunch with elementary school students in their cafeteria.

He said that some boys sat down next to him and were talking when all of a sudden one of them approached him and asked, ìWhat do you do here? Are you a janitor?î

Top of Page

©ECM Post Review

6448 Main Street
North Branch, MN 55056
Telephone: 651-674-7025
Fax: 651-674-7026
E-mail: editor.postreview@ecm-inc.com