Younger students expected back in classroom

Prekindergarten through second-grade students in the Esko school district will return to in-person learning effective Jan. 19, following both the recommendation of Gov. Tim Walz and a unanimous vote by the Esko school board Monday night.

The governor — a teacher for more than 20 years — announced last week that the state’s Safe Learning Plan had been updated to allow every elementary school across the state to return to in-person learning effective Jan. 18, as long as they can implement additional safety measures. Those include requiring staff to wear face masks and face shields at all times, along with providing testing for all staff with student contact every other week.

“I would like to recommend that we follow the governor’s guidance,” Fischer told the board during Monday’s regular board meeting, including the preschool students — who are at a separate site, so they aren’t included in the maximum of three grade levels permitted to start in-person classes at the same time.

Fischer plans to consult further with state, regional and county officials on Jan. 4 to take a closer look at Esko’s Covid-19 data. He will bring that information to the board at its Jan. 19 meeting to determine if and when to bring back students in grades 3-12, who are continuing with distance learning under the current plan.

“Quite honestly, I would really like an opportunity to bring back as many grade levels as we see appropriate at that time, either in person or hybrid,” the superintendent said. “That would be my goal. I think it’s always been our goal to bring our kids back on-site as soon as we can.”

The board voted unanimously to bring back prekindergarten through second-grade students as recommended, and look at other grades at their Jan. 18 meeting.

Also based on new guidelines from Gov. Walz and the Minnesota Department of Education, board members voted to allow varsity, JV and C-team winter sports team practices to resume Jan. 4. The board will likely allow other teams at the junior high and youth levels to resume play after its Jan. 19 meeting, depending on the rates of Covid-19 in the school district.

“Certainly delaying any of these groups could be frustrating to some people,” Fischer said. “I’d just like to have a chance to see how things are going with what we would bring back, considering we still don’t know after the holiday season what kind of case rates and spread rates we will have, that’s all.”

In other sports news, Esko golf will partner with Proctor to form a cooperative team. Previously, Esko partnered with Cloquet for golf, but when the state created additional classes for golf and Esko had no golfers in grades 9-12, Cloquet decided to go solo so its team would not have to play in a larger class. “We understood and accepted that, but now we have a few students who would like to play,” Fischer said, adding that activities director Chad Stoskopf supports the idea. Esko currently has eight students interested in golf, with hopes for more — there are no girls on the list yet — while Proctor has 16. They would practice at Grandview Golf Course, at no charge. The two teams would share costs for the team, which Fischer expected to be roughly $4,500, although transportation costs are still unknown at this point.

Also Monday, Esko board members:

• Reaffirmed the results of the November school board election, following a hand recount by the Carlton County Assessor’s office that came up with identical numbers. Sixteen votes separated the third- and fourth place candidates: Leona Johnson received the third-highest number of votes with 1,347 votes, followed by Mark C. Nyholm with 1,331 votes.

• The board set its organizational meeting for Jan. 6 at 6:30 p.m. The two new board members, Leona Johnson and Steve McConnell, will start then.

• Board members and staff shared thanks and praise for Nyholm and Julian “Bert” Bertogliat during the two members’ final meeting. Esko High School principal Greg Hexum calculated that Bertogliat has spent a total of 52 years with the school district.

• Hexum also praised Kris Krocka, who is retiring as the high school secretary. In addition to being the “ultimate organizer and the office guardian,” he said she was “absolutely magical with students who are having a tough day and may have been sent out of a class.”

“She has built relationships with a portion of our students for a long time … which I think makes her special and irreplaceable,” Hexum said.

The district will change the job to a 10-month position, but assess to make sure it’s working out, Fischer said.

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Esko levy to drop 15 percent

Property owners in the Esko school district will see a 15-percent decrease in their school district taxes next year. The 2020 (payable 2021) tax levy will be $2,096,399 — a decrease of $370,285 compared to last year’s levy.

Esko superintendent Aaron Fischer said the main reason for the decrease is money spent on asbestos removal (completed in 2017) is coming off the levy, to the tune of $323,445. Other decreases include more than $31,000 in debt service funds and $14,333 in the non-voter approved referendums category.

Fischer explained the most alarming part of the graphs and charts presented during Monday’s Truth in Taxation hearing: an apparent deficit of nearly $415,000, including $346,000 in the transportation fund.

“We had been saving money for a new bus garage starting about 12 years ago and built the new garage last year,” Fischer said, adding that they had set aside funds until they had enough to tackle the project and spend down the fund balance. The new bus garage is located in the Esko business park and was completed earlier this year.

The building construction fund also showed a deficit of $521,796 in the 2020-21 comparison of revenue and budget tables. Again, it’s not truly a deficit, Fischer said. What the tables didn’t show is the previous fund balance in that account, Fischer said, explaining that the district sold abatement bonds to pay for new parking lots at the football field and new bus garage. “We sold the bonds two years ago to generate the revenue, it’s just been expenses the last two years,” he said.

The $2,096,399 property tax levy payable next year will cover 13 percent of the Esko school district’s total budget of $16.1 million; the state pays 72 percent, and the federal government pays 4 percent. Other local sources pay approximately 11 percent of the annual budget.

Close to 69 percent of the budget goes to employee salaries and benefits; 10 percent goes to capital expenditures and 6 percent each goes to debt services and supplies and materials.

Three other Carlton County school districts adopted levy decreases for 2021, including Wrenshall (16.4 percent), Cromwell (11.7 percent) and Carlton (2.6 percent).

— Jana Peterson / Pine Knot News