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Serving Northern St. Louis County, Minnesota

Hibbing to join Iron Range school collaborative

Marcus White
Posted 12/20/18

REGIONAL - The Hibbing School District is throwing its support behind a proposed collaboration agreement between several school districts across the Iron Range. At Tuesday evening’s meeting of the …

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Hibbing to join Iron Range school collaborative

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REGIONAL - The Hibbing School District is throwing its support behind a proposed collaboration agreement between several school districts across the Iron Range. At Tuesday evening’s meeting of the St. Louis County School Board, Superintendent Reggie Engebritson informed the school board the six districts involved in the plan will seek funds from the state Legislature to aid in the effort.

The agreement as it currently stands will include St. Louis County Schools, Mt. Iron-Buhl, Chisholm, Ely, Mesabi East, and Hibbing.

Beginning next year, Engebritson said the districts will begin working on an integrated bell schedule along with joint summer camps to be offered at the end of the current school year.

Engebritson added that the districts would be looking at how other areas of the school system could be affected, such as union contracts and transportation costs. She provided no details as to what those affects might be.

Currently, both St. Louis County Schools and Mt. Iron-Buhl already share payroll, nursing and transportation services as well as sharing Engebritson as superintendent of both districts.

The district’s Director of Teaching and Learning, Kristi Berlin, gave the board an update on the rollout of the Multitiered System of Support (MTSS) program through the state.

Berlin said the district is currently working on further integrating high school Special Ed students into core classrooms without having to remove them for special instruction.

She said students should be learning core subjects from the teachers who specialize in the topics.

MTSS works on a three-tiered system.

Tier one is core instruction. Tier two is lending extra support in the classroom where students may need some extra help. Tier three is providing extra instruction outside the classroom for those students who need it.

“The minute we pull those kids out of class, they are getting two levels of instruction and we can’t repair that gap,” Berlin said.

Board member Chet Larson asked how the schools would identify students going forward for tier three help.

“It’s when they are not on the same level as the rest of the class or they need help with behaviors to get to the same level as the rest of the class,” Berlin responded.

On top of special education, Berlin said the district plans to have teachers unify their teaching schedules by teaching the same topics at the same time in given subject areas.

“We want the teachers to do their thing,” Berlin said, “but we want to make sure there is a standard to it.”

She noted that some teachers would likely not be happy with the move.She added the district had originally planned to implement similar standards five years ago but did not enforce it as heavily as they plan to in the new year.

In other business, the board:

Held a second reading of a new proposed data practices policy.

Formally rehired coaching staff at South Ridge.

Approved meeting times and locations for the board through June of next year. Meeting times have been moved up an hour and meetings will now begin at 5 p.m. instead of 6 p.m. The first scheduled meeting of next year is Tuesday, Jan. 8 at the district office in Virginia.