"Where Olmsted County News Comes First"

Comments

Pine Island School’s new, and first, technology director made his inaugural state-of-the-school’s-technology report to the board at its Sept. 17 meeting.

Taylor Bauman, who started his job – and his inspection of the school’s tech system – in early August, told board members, “I keep finding things.”

Much of what he’s found is good. The server and network infrastructure meet student and staff needs; the new wireless installation works well and with better than expected coverage; the school’s ratio of approximately four students per computer “is a great ratio,” he told the board.

Some of those computers, though, have aged, right along with their one gigabyte memories, their Windows XP operating systems and their CRT monitors.

About those monitors: Bauman said it’s getting expensive to power and dispose of them and suggested they be replaced as the workstations are replaced.

“Overall,” he said, “Pine Island Public School technology is in a stable state.” But he recommended that the district look to cloud computing. Moving email, collaboration, instant messaging and more to the cloud, he said, could save money.

Board members thanked Bauman for his thorough report, and Superintendent Tammy Berg-Beniak appreciated it, too. “I like the way Taylor thinks about saving us money,” she said.

Middle school named a reward school

The Minnesota Dept. of Education has given reward school status to Pine Island Middle School. The highest-performing 15 percent of Title I schools in the state earn the “reward” classification. (Title I funding is federal aid for schools with at-risk and low-income students.)

Reward recognition comes via a new method of evaluating school performance, the Multiple Measurement Rating (MMR) system. MMR calculates proficiency, student growth, achievement gap reduction and, if applicable, graduation rates. Pine Island Middle School scored 95.42 percent.

Pine Island students – the middle schoolers in particular – achieved high scores on the 2012 Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment (MCA) reading and math tests.

“We are extremely proud of the improvement we showed last year,” said Berg-Beniak, “and are looking forward to more growth this year. Compliments to our staff.”

Pizza sales will continue

Berg-Beniak delivered good news regarding the food concessions compliance issue that had threatened to end pizza sales at athletic events.

At the start of the fall sports season when Pine Island School added pizza to its outdoor and indoor concessions menu, school officials believed conditions met Minnesota Dept. of Health (MDH) requirements.

As did the food inspector involved.

But soon afterwards, a different state food inspector informed board member John Champa that selling hot pizza at the concessions broke MDH rules. Champa brought this bad news to the Sept. 6 board meeting, and Berg-Beniak promised to look into the problem.

She did, and announced at the Sept. 17 meeting that hot pizza sales will continue.

She said she’d met with a food inspector who checked the concessions, pointed out a few required fixes and granted permission for pizza sales to carry on, on the condition the updates be carried out.

What’s more, other hot food choices can be added if Taher, Inc., the food service company that provides meals to the school, gets involved.

Concession workers could attend a Taher training class, Berg-Beniak said, and the school could use Taher’s license and then the state would allow the school to expand the menu.

(A good thing, too, said board member Rob Warneke who’d overheard a student gripe, “I’m tired of pizza. I’d rather have a hot dog.”)

New superintendent introduces new principal

Berg-Beniak introduced new K-8 Principal Jillynne Raymond who started her job Sept. 11. Raymond replaces the former K-8 principal, Superintendent Berg-Beniak.

The school also got a new gifted/talented teacher and coordinator when the board voted unanimously to hire Lindsey Reishus for the position.

Maximum property tax levy

The district has approved the maximum property tax levy, Berg-Beniak said. The total, $2,184,463 (down $117,594.41 from last year) is preliminary and subject to change. Look for the final figure in December.