School Board evaluates superintendent, prepares for upcoming election

LAUREL — Sometimes, we’re our own worst critic.

Laurel-Concord-Coleridge School Board members recently completed the evaluation of Supt. Jeremy Christiansen and as a part of the evaluation process Christiansen also provided a self-evaluation.

Board President Carol Erwin said the board’s evaluation of Christiansen was very positive. On the evaluation, the board noted his timely and approachable communication style, his positive attitude, professionalism and strong people skills, among other positive attributes.

Christiansen - who has been the LCC superintendent for the last four years - gave himself a lower score compared with the score from the board members.

“In the past I had not done a selfassessment using the same tool and so that was implemented this year,” Christiansen said. “One of the things it did was a side by side comparison of the self-assessment versus the board assessment on the same indicators.”

Each member of the board also completed a self-assessment. The summary results were shared with each board member and the superintendent for review.

At a later date, the board will use that information in their discussion and development of goals for 2022.

The LCC board member makeup will change in the coming year.

The Board passed a resolution in February that would reduce the total number of board member positions from eight to seven following the general election in November 2022. The resolution stems from the general election in November 2020 when four of the nine members were up for re-election and only three chose to run and no one else ran.

“We only had three individuals elected for four positions,” Christiansen said.

At that point, the board made an intentional decision to reduce the number of members instead of going through the process to appoint someone to the board.

For the next election cycle, there will be four positions elected instead of five. The new terms would begin in January 2023 and run through December of 2026.

Incumbent board members must file for re-election on or before Feb. 15 while new candidates must file by March 1.

Jay Hall, Angela Johnson, Dan Kuhlman, Grant Settje and Scott Taylor all have expiring terms.

At its meeting last week, the board also reviewed school facility improvement project updates.

Building designs were shared with staff groups over a period of three days as the architects work toward completing construction documents by Jan. 28. The bidding phase is expected from Jan. 31- Feb. 25.

The construction manager team continues to work on the next budget revision that is expected in the coming week. And D.A. Davidson is working on proposals to share with the Board for issuance of additional bonds in January or February to take advantage of lower interest rates.

At its meeting last week, the school board also:

- Approved a teacher contract for Colbey Luebbe to teach Agriculture and serve as the * Knights of Columbus ranked #6 in the per school’s FFA sponsor partnered with beginning Statista to independently Jan. survey 1 and mor through the end of the current school year.

- Discussed school transportation including the new bus the school received earlier this month. Two school buses were traded and bus routes have been reassigned based on route length and accumulated mileage on buses. The district is waiting GNIZED FO on delivery of a Ford Transit van and also looking into purchasing another activity bus.

- Discussed school board meeting times for 2022. Generally the board meets on the second Monday evening of each calendar month and the location alternates between its Laurel and Coleridge campuses. However, with construction beginning next year, the board room at the Laurel building may be utilized for classroom purposes. There’s also a scheduling conflict for the February regular meeting time due to girls’ basketball subdistrict games. Christiansen proposed holding the February meeting earlier in the day - at 12:30 p.m. - at Coleridge with board members being lead on classroom visits by Middle School Student Council members.

- Discussed the 2021-22 annual audit completed by Dana Cole with each board member receiving a copy. Findings were overall very positive with no significant deficiencies noted.

- Heard a report from elementary, middle and high school principals regarding past and upcoming student activities; student assessments; and curriculum updates.

- Heard an update about reporting requirements for full-time teachers who also perform extra duty assignments. Many schools have been dissatisfied with these new reporting options that require hourly time and effort logs to be submitted monthly. School attorneys have worked out a policy solution in which the school can issue extra duty assignment letters and will no longer be required to do any additional record keeping.