Cliff Buchan
News Editor

Come Tuesday, July 11, a vacant seat on the ISD 831 Board of Education could be filled.

The school board will meet in special session at 7 p.m. to interview the five candidates who applied for the seat left open by Keith Dunhamís resignation this spring.

Each of the five candidates will be asked a standard set of eight questions and allowed time to make opening and closing statements.

The five candidates are:

ïTim Garry, Forest Lake, a local Realtor with Coldwell Banker Burnet, community volunteer and former school teacher.

ïDavid Homyak, Forest Lake, a data architect for Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Minnesota based in Eagan.

ïDan Kieger, Lino Lakes, a self-employed home and business security business owner. He ran for the board in the fall of 2005.

ïJames P. Noll, Forest Lake, a recently retired industrial technology teacher in the Forest Lake Area School and a retired U.S. Army colonel with more than 30 years of military service. He was Minnesotaís highest ranking officer in the first Gulf War.

ïLinda Nanko-Yeager, a stay-at-home mom who has lived in Wyoming for 16 years. She is a community and public school volunteer who has a bachelor of science degree in chemistry from Carnegie-Mellon University.

The candidate selected by the board will serve the balance of Dunhamís four-year term that runs through the end of December 2007. The seat, under state election laws, will go on the ballot in November of next year.

Strategic plan

The school board at its regular meeting Thursday, June 29 also approved the framework and first phase of districtís strategic planning and OKís funding for the first year. The board action caps a multi-month process that drew some 150 district residents and school staff in preparing the plan.

The action last week came on two votes. The bulk of the plan found unanimous board support but one of the strategies and document language did not sit well with member Eric Langness who voted no in a 5-1 decision.

The adoption of the plan includes board ratification of a stated beliefs, mission of the school system, strategic goals and parameters. Some, but not all of identified strategies, were also approved.

As requested by the board, the full scope of plan implementation could cost the district more than $500,000, Superintendent Lynn Steenblock said last week.

Under the board action last week, the district will utilize a $50,000 grant for an anti-bullying program and $38,500 in funds from the current budget to take care of first-year tasks. A budget reallocation will be necessary to cover the expenses.

Steenblock said projects for additional years could cost in the area of $447,000.

Members of the planning group will continue to work on various aspects of the plan and the board will review additional components for approval next spring.

Initial planning steps for the committee commenced in late 2005 with the first large group session meeting in February. The full document first came to the board on June 1.

Langness took exception to Strategy 1 definitions that lumped the school board as a group as district leadership that would ìfully supportî a district-wide plan. Langness said he would not consent to such an approval.

Steenblock explained the fully supported language applied to the full boardís back of plans as a group and not necessarily the opinions of individual board members.

Other business

In other actions on June 29, the school board:

ïApproved a recommendation from Julie Ohman, director of community education, to set the school district population at 46,687. The figure is used to certify levy calculations for state aid funding for community education.

ïGranted the administration permission to seek new bids for food service equipment at Forest Lake High School. The district had hoped to do the work this summer but received no bids in June even though eight companies were contacted. The new bid process will include more time for contractors. Work will not take place now until the summer of 2007.

ïVoted to authorize ISD 831 participation in the MNTrust. Through the PMA Financial Network, which is a large pool of school districts, the district will be on line to achieve higher short-term interest income on deposit balances. Larry Martini, director of business affairs, recommended the move and said the greater interest income would be helpful. Martini said the board would not engage this year in any cash flow borrowing.

ïApproved two-year police liaison officer joint powers agreements with the city of Forest Lake to provide officers at Century and Southwest junior high schools, and Forest Lake High School. The school districtís total cost for the two positions over the two-year period starting July 1 is $127,951. The city of Forest Lakeís cost obligation is $42,649 over two years.

The JPA is yet to be ratified by the Forest Lake City Council. School funding will come from the Safe Schools levy that is designed for such purposes, Martini said.

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Forest Lake Times
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