VIRGINIA — ISD 2142 board members on Tuesday heard an overview of the district’s transportation operations, including ongoing efforts to manage costs across Minnesota’s largest geographic school district.
Transportation Director Kay Cornelius told the board the district covers about 4,200 square miles and logged approximately 1.4 million miles last year while operating 30 bus routes and 23 van routes.
Cornelius said the district continues to adjust routes based on changing enrollment patterns and staffing needs while trying to avoid adding additional transportation costs.
“Weather, distance, and road conditions create unique challenges that many other districts don’t have,” she said.
Cornelius outlined several measures the district has used in recent years to control transportation expenses, including reducing the number of bus routes, transitioning most of the district’s fleet to propane, salvaging usable parts from retired buses, and implementing new routing software to improve efficiency.
She said the district has reduced its routes from 46 to 30 over roughly the past decade while continuing to cover about the same number of miles.
Cornelius also noted the district recently received a federal propane rebate check totaling more than $39,000 and said the district has realized substantial savings by transitioning most of its fleet to propane.
The district is also preparing to replace its current bus communication system with handheld radios that Cornelius said should improve communication while reducing monthly costs.
Cornelius said transportation responsibilities extend beyond daily bus routes and include extracurricular transportation, special education transportation, vehicle maintenance, safety compliance, driver training, and coordination with outside vendors and school districts.
In a separate report, Director of Teaching and Learning Kristi Berlin said district staff continue to deal with a heavy assessment workload tied to state requirements. She also said the district is continuing efforts to secure additional career and technical education funding opportunities while preparing for new state mandates involving mental health instruction, computer science, and financial literacy.
Berlin also said the district’s projected enrollment is currently up by about 40 students, with Cherry seeing the largest influx of new students.
In other business, the board:
• Heard concerns for a second consecutive meeting from parents and students involved with the Cherry cheerleading program regarding the current coaching situation and again asking that the issue be addressed before the upcoming school year.
• Heard concerns for a second consecutive meeting from a parent of a North Woods boys basketball player who again asked the district to reopen the head coaching position to new applicants due to concerns about coaching during the past season.
• Heard from a parent of two North Woods girls hockey players participating in the cooperative agreement with Hibbing, who asked the district for clarification regarding the arrangement after the district received an unexpected bill of about $10,000 from Hibbing connected to the program. The parent asked the district to determine what level of support it could continue providing in order to preserve the opportunity for students through high school graduation.
• Heard a report from Northeast Range Principal John Vukmanich on activities at the school, including the return of junior varsity softball, regional music and art competitions, robotics team participation in national and world competitions, school marketing efforts, and year-end student activities.
• Approved filing dates for the upcoming school board election.
• Accepted the low insurance bid from the Minnesota Insurance Scholastic Trust totaling $659,100. Finance Director Kim Johnson said the amount represented a savings of about $18,000 compared to the current year.
• Hired Blake Scofield as a part time elementary computer science/STEAM teacher at North Woods.
• Accepted resignations from district Director of Facilities and Grounds Mike Vieau and Northeast Range speech coach Jennifer Kaufenberg.
• Terminated Jeanne Lagerquist as a long-term substitute bus driver at North Woods. Lagerquist will remain active as a district-wide substitute driver.