Nevis School Board has a new chairperson

There were two new faces at Monday night’s Nevis School Board meeting.

Aimee Plumley and Jennifer McNamee were elected to the board in November and began their four-year terms by taking the oath of office.

The board was also reorganized. Karrin Lindow was selected to chair the board. Tara Wolff was appointed vice chairperson, Maggie Stacey as clerk and Andy Lindow as treasurer.

Meetings will continue to be held the fourth Monday of the month at 7 p.m. in the school media center, with the exception of December when the meeting will be held the third Monday of the month so it doesn’t conflict with winter break.

If canceled due to inclement weather, the school board meeting will be rescheduled for the following day at the same time and place.

Two long-time staff at Nevis have announced their intent to retire.

Elementary AR and secretary Linda Hansen plans to retire at the end of the school year. “Linda has been a part of the fabric of Nevis Education for 26 years,” Superintendent Gregg Parks said. “She has done an amazing job of being the voice of the elementary on the phone and she will be missed.”

Technology coordinator Bud Kading also announced his intent to retire.

“Bud has been working his magic with the staff and students at Nevis since 1998,” Parks said. “The word irreplaceable comes to mind when you think of everything he does for us, most notably establishing the internet architecture for our school district to successfully adopt our 1:1 computing program. He will definitely be missed by both staff and students.”

The board also approved a work agreement with Mackenzy Warne for an educational assistant position at a rate of $15.94 per hour and changed the status of Scott Bischoff from half-time bus driver to full-time bus driver at an hourly wage of $22.37.

CenterNevis Public School is part of a cooperative with Park Rapids Schools, Walker-Hackensack-Akeley School, Laporte and Northland-Remer for Setting 4 services at the Up North Learning Center in Walker.

Parks explained that Setting 4 is the most restrictive environment provided by a public school district.

Students in instruction Setting 4 are in a public separate school facility for more than 50% of the school day. It is not a residential setting. Students with disabilities receiving services in Setting 4 are in need of more intensive special education and related services than can be provided in a less restrictive setting.

Nevis School’s portion of the total $405,000 annual lease is $85,000, which is invoiced quarterly.

The board approved the $85,000 cost for the 2022-23 school year.

In other business the board:

• Designated Citizens National Bank of Park Rapids, Northwoods Bank and the Minnesota Liquid Asset Fund as official depositories and Northwoods Press as the official newspaper.
• Selected Rupp, Anderson, Squires, Waldspurger & Mace P.A as the district’s legal counsel.
• Authorized the finance bookkeeper and payroll/employee benefits coordinator to make electronic fund transfers as required according to board policy.
• Heard that Nevis alumni Megan Lindow, a former student council president. gave a presentation about the student council’s involvement on the school board at the Minnesota School Board Association convention.
• Heard that the student council is planning to host a blood drive on March 3. 
• Heard that the district’s cash balance as of Dec. 31, 2022 was $2,133,512.

The next school board meeting will be at 7 p.m. Monday, Feb. 27 in the school media center.