[Previous entry: "Crofton girls collect C1 stat title and unbeaten season"]
[Next entry: "Crofton priest becomes American citizen"]

03/15/2006: "Elementary principal resigns; school is praised"

The Crofton Board of Education sadly approved the resignation letter from elementary principal Tony Simons presented by Supt. Randy Anderson at the Monday, March 13, regular monthly meeting.
Simons has accepted a superintendent’s position at Elkton, SD, for the upcoming school year. He placed Elkton as being 15 miles southeast of Brookings. Simons is leaving the Crofton District after 17 years of service.
Rod Repenning of Bloomfield, was present at the meeting to read a letter of appreciation to the board members. He complimented the district on the efficient facilities, good leadership, inspirational staff and great community support.

“We never felt like we were outsiders,” Repenning said. Repenning and wife applied for option enrollment for their two children. The youngest will graduate this spring.
“It was a privilege to attend your school, not a right,” Repenning added.
The board then approved two more option enrollment students. The Sherry Schmidt family already has young children in the district and applied for a sibling to enter at the seventh grade level. The Roger Dather family applied for a spot in the kindergarten class.
The ESU 1 contract for services for the 2006-2007 school year was the next agenda item. The estimate for the upcoming year is $77,995.32, which is up from last year’s amount of $46,000. When questioned, Anderson pointed out the need for speech therapy services as the district’s speech pathologist Leslie Cain will retire. It also includes some padding in the event a homebound student would move into the district and there would be additional need. The service unit will only charge for services used by the district.
Both Simons and secondary principal Todd Strom reported successful parent-teacher conferences. The fourth quarter began this week and ITBS testing is just around the corner in April. The external site visit is April 27 and the target curriculum goals have been set for the next few years.
Strom added that a few students are diligently working to keep on track for graduation in May. Only 3-4 students who have had problems passing classes will need to return for another year in order to fulfill the required classes.
Five students will be traveling to the state speech meet in Kearney this Thursday.
A note of gratitude was expressed to Simons by Strom for being a mentor to him when he came to Crofton High School. Strom added they formed a partnership in guiding the educational values in the district and he was a leader and a valuable colleague.
Most school districts are waiting for the Educator Health Alliance to release its report on health care costs. Anderson expects a double-digit increase in health insurance expense. Board members and Anderson have attended meetings, which discuss the feasibility of health savings accounts. It will be a major item during staff negotiations this spring.
The Rural Community Schools meeting in Kearney will be soon as well as the area school superintendents meeting in Wayne. Both meetings will have valuable information Anderson hopes to use in planning the upcoming school year budget.
Estimates are still being gathered for the facility upgrade projects Anderson has cited for the board to consider. An expensive project, which will probably be completed soon, is the refinishing of the hardwood gym floor. The company is in the area, having just worked on the new floor at Cedar Catholic High School. They worked on the Norfolk High School gym floor last year. The cost will probably be $12,000 but will ensure the life of the gym floor for another 12-13 years.
“We will need to prioritize the projects and pick and choose from the list over the next 2-3 weeks, keeping in mind the strict budget restraints we are under,” Anderson said.
Discussion then followed about the recent news of the huge reduction in educational aid from the state. A decrease of $202,000 seen in Crofton is only one of the many reductions seen in several area schools. It is a result of decreasing enrollment occurring too often in Nebraska’s rural areas and increasing land values.
Anderson hopes the steps the board has taken, like offering early retirement in the elementary and secondary staff and not filling the positions vacated by retirements, will help with budgeting crunches. These decisions will decrease the salary needs of the district but careful planning will be needed for the long haul when setting the direction of the district. Hopefully these recent steps will help offset the losses.
In executive session, the board simply reviewed the staff and district needs but no decisions were made.
“We need to pay close attention to the economy of the school district,” Anderson said. “There is nothing we can do about the loss of funding so we move on.”