by Dennis Dalman
news@thenewsleaders.com
Michelle Meyer was elected as the new chairman of the Sartell-St. Stephen School Board during the first meeting of the new board, which met for the first time Jan. 7. Meyer had served on the board in previous years before being elected to a two-year replacement term last November.
The Sartell Newsleader was again selected as the “official newspaper” by the school board.
The board also decided to add a non-voting student member to the board make-up. That student will be selected and announced later. Many Minnesota school boards have traditionally included a student liaison member.
The newly organized board is comprised of four newly elected board members, as well as two incumbents. The new ones, elected in the Nov. 6 general election, are Meyer, Jason Nies, Krista Laurich Durrwachter and Pam Raden. The incumbents are Mary McCabe and Dan Riordan.
At the Jan. 7 organizational meeting, besides naming Meyer as chair, the board also elected McCabe as vice chair. Jason Nies was elected as clerk-treasurer, which the board combined into one position rather than two as before.
Other actions at the board’s organizational meeting included the following:
The board decided to schedule upcoming school board meetings at 6 p.m. on the third Monday of every month.
Board members set salaries, which are $3,200 per year for the board chair and clerk-treasurer and $2,800 for the four board directors (members). Those amounts are unchanged from last year’s salaries.
The board did, however, decide to decrease the compensatory payments by $50-$100 per category for special meetings other than regularly scheduled school-board meetings. Members from now on will receive $50 for meetings lasting one-to-two hours, $100 for meetings lasting two-to-four hours, $150 for meetings lasting four-to-six hours and $400 for meetings that exceed six hours. On rare meetings that would last longer than eight hours, members would receive $500 for their time.
The board members agreed to serve on the following committees:
Laurich Durrwachter: negotiations, finance and operations.
McCabe: policy, finance and operations.
Meyer: curriculum, instruction and assessment.
Nies: finance and operations, technology.
Raden: legislative network, curriculum, instruction and assessment, operations and technology.
Riordan: Benton-Stearns Education District liaison, policy.
