Superintendent search for Kittson Central to start soon

By Anna Jauhola
The Kittson Central School Board will plan to begin its permanent superintendent search by the end of December.
During the regular meeting on Wednesday, Oct. 23, Interim Superintendent Wade Johnson said he’d been asked about the search several times already.
“I don’t know if that’s good or bad,” he joked.
He suggested the hiring committee put together an advertisement and plan by the end of December and post that advertisement just before the Minnesota School Board Association conference, which is in January.
“It’s a good time when people are looking for jobs,” Johnson said. “Then you can close it around Jan. 25 and start interviewing the first week in February, hire in the middle of February and you’d be ahead of everyone.”
The board agreed that as a good plan.
In other business, the board:
• Approved the annual audit report, which was presented by Amanda Scanson of BradyMartz and Associates. She said the district continues to do well with its financials, and there were the same findings – segregation of duties and auditor preparing financial statements – as material weaknesses. These are typical of small districts, she said. However, one finding was under Minnesota Legal Compliance, which was a collateral issue with a bank account. “During testing we did note there was a short period of seven days that collateral was not sufficient. And I believe Amanda (Younggren) has already worked with the bank and the bank has corrected their calculation,” Scanson said. “It sounded like they were using 100% instead of the 110% which the law requires.”
• Approved the financial report, which included $3,776 in donations – $3,000 from Shirley Rydberg for preschool, kindergarten and first grades; $420 from memorials in memory of John Money; and $356 from the summer dance recital.
• Approved a resolution to submit an application of Form A to the Minnesota State High School League. This application is to receive money back from sales tax collected by MSHSL in the form of grants, based on the district’s free and reduced meal numbers from the previous year. Although public schools all provide free meals now, there are still funding streams tied to the Free and Reduce Meal applications, so it’s important that families continue to fill those out, said Principal Jami Carr. This grant is usually a couple hundred dollars and helps with student athletic fees.
• Approved an annual resolution establishing combined polling precincts – one is at Hallock City Hall for the northern portion of towns and townships in the district, and the other is at the Kennedy Center for the southern portion of the district.
• Approved a READ Act Memorandum of Understanding for the teachers’ union for how they are paid regarding training. “They’re going to get $1,050 for 57 hours of training, which is about $21 per hour,” Johnson said. “It’s signed by the union already.”
• Hired Nick Johnson as the junior high girls basketball coach.
• Hired Kyle Spenst as the junior high boys basketball coach.
The next regular meeting is set for Wednesday, Nov. 13 at 7 p.m., and will include the canvassing meeting for the Nov. 5 General Election results.