Three elementary teachers hired at CES

The Carrington School Board meeting on Tuesday, March 12 was a lot about staffing.

Administrators are working to fill open positions for the 2024-25 school year and put contracts in place for returning staff.

At Tuesday's meeting, the board offered new contracts to three elementary teachers.

Hayleigh LaBelle, who comes with six years of teaching experience, will teach Pre-K.

Kadyn Mehring will teach in the upper elementary grades and coach volleyball.

McKenzie Johnson will teach fourth grade. All three have either student-taught or been a substitute for the district in the past.

Nikki Braaten submitted her resignation from the fourth grade position, which was accepted earlier in the meeting. After starting her teaching career in her hometown and coaching alongside her father, Andy Braaten, Nikki has accepted a second grade position in Jamestown. She has taught at the district for seven years, and the board expressed their appreciation for her time at CES.

The board also approved the teaching contracts that will be offered to existing staff for the 2024-25 school year.

Superintendent Janelle Helm reported some key hires in ancillary staff. CPS has a new kitchen manager, Erin Sisson, and cook, John Erickson. Both will start in April so they can work under the current kitchen manager, Robin, and get acclimated to their new roles.

The district will be looking for new archery coaches, as both Greg Hoeckle and Karla Michaelson have resigned from those positions. Helm said she is also accepting applications for assistant football coach and high school social studies. The application period for the social studies position closes April 5.

The board completed their second bi-annual superintendent evaluation of Helm. The second-year superintendent scored 4.4 or higher in all categories and on all questions, garnering perfect 5s in many areas. Her lower marks came in regards to financial management, as she navigates and learns more about the budgeting process.

Board members noted that they had no concerns, especially with the strong mentorship on financial matters provided by veteran Business Manager Kimary Edland.

The financial report was overall favorable, with a $4.7 million general fund balance as of Feb. 29. Board members noted savings in heating and snow removal costs this mild winter.

Brady Martz and Associates will start doing audits for the school district, starting with the 2023-24 year. Schauer and Associates, the firm that conducted the district's audits for many years, is no longer offering the service. The cost of the 2022-23 audit was $23,500, and Edland said she expects that the audits done by Brady Martz will be done for a similar cost.

The process of updating a slough of district policies has begun. Board members took the first step Tuesday, namely to rescind all policies implemented prior to the 2021-22 school year. The policies will govern the district until new policies replace them in the coming months.

Patrons can expect several policies to be on the agenda of each school board meeting for some time as they work to update the entire policy manual.

President Joel Lemer said he expects it will take two or three years at minimum to review and adopt updated policies. According to Elementary Principal Jenna Helseth, East Central has been in the process of updating policies for at least five years.

March is Reading Month, and Helseth talked about the fun activities underway in the elementary. She will not get a pie in the face this year. Rather, Helseth will get taped to the wall if enough students meet their reading goals. Each student who reaches their individual goal will earn a piece of tape, and those who double their goal will get a second

All elementary students will visit the city library later this month as well.

Winners of this month's Cardinal Way Award were the third graders and Mr. Pazdernik's fifth graders. They were nominated by Mr. Heckle for behavior in physical education class.

High School Principal Connor Weber went over NWEA test results with the board. Carrington was in the 79th percentile for math (grades K-12) and the 65th percentile for English (grades K-12).

"Our math scores were just phenomenal," Weber said, with the eighth grade class scoring in the 81st percentile and seventh grade in the 78th.

Two years ago the district switched curriculum to Big Ideas, and Weber said he's received positive feedback about it from the staff. Carrington has traditionally scored well in math, and the test results show that the new curriculum is effective.

The next meeting is set for Tuesday, April 9 at 4 p.m.