Pictured: The concrete on the elementary playground being poured.

The Edgerton School board held their monthly meeting last week Tuesday. All board members were present.  This was the final meeting before the beginning of the 2022-23 school year and Superintendent Keith Buckridge reported on what staff still needs to be hired. 

The school did not find an additional social studies teacher. They plan to get by with the status quo. They are also still looking for someone to supervise the lunch room from around 10:45 to 12:34 each school day. The board decided to advertise this position at $18 and hour, which is an increase over the $15.50 they were offering. 

The reasoning was that it is difficult to find someone who wants to give up the middle of their day each day for only two hours of work.  

The school is also looking for an additional driver or ride-along person for a school car route that goes from Leota to Pipestone and back to school each morning and afternoon. 

The board accepted the resignation of Scot Beckering as a custodian. The school is looking for an evening custodian. They also need at least one more paraprofessional, possibly two. 

The board made note of the upcoming 2022 election. There are three spots on the board up for election and three people filed for those positions. Loren Gunnink and Ivan Vande Griend filed for their current seats. Julie Ruiter also filed for a seat, while long-time school board president Lon Anker did not file for re-election this year. 

Businesses administrator Dawn Sandbulte reported that she had contracted for propane for the schools needs. At $1.80 per gallon of propane, the cost to the district was going to be $81,000. The board 

Buckridge gave the boar an update on what he had found out about cyber liability coverage for the school. He had met with representatives from the SW/W Services Co-op. They recommended having a million dollar policy. The school currently has $50,000 in coverage which costs them $450 a year.  A million dollar policy would cost $2,500. A $500,000 policy would be about $700 less at $1,800. 

The board asked questions about what the policy would protect the district from, whether coverage was more for ransom-wear (when a hacker steals files and demands a ransom payment to get the data back) or if there was a security breach and personal data was lost. 

Keith said he would do more inquiring and get back to the board next month. He will also check with the other local school districts to see what level of coverage they have and how many times schools are using this insurance coverage to protect themselves. 

The summer projects are mostly complete. The concrete on the elementary playground has been poured. The grass area will be reseeded this year and next year – one half each year. New carpet was installed in a  couple of classrooms and some tile repair and painting was done in the new elementary wing. 

New scoreboards for baseball, softball, and football have been ordered but will not arrive until at least December. The posts and wiring for signs may be installed yet before the ground freezes. 

The schools new phone system will be installed during the Christmas break. 

The first day of school is Monday, August 29.