The United South Central School Board received some good news at their meeting on Tuesday, March 19, when finance manager Stacie Whiteside led a review of the updated current budget.

“We are projecting a budget surplus of $624,525,” Whiteside said. “Some of the surplus will be used up with the purchase of some new playground equipment.”

Whiteside also presented a preliminary budget for fiscal year 2025.

“Right now we are projecting a $48,000 loss on a $15 million budget,” she commented. “I am not too concerned about that at this point.”

Also looking into next year, the Workforce Committee had a meeting to review the staffing proposal for the 2024-25 school year.

“In whole, this proposal is to keep our staff at the current level we have as we wrap up the 2023-24 school year,” board chairman Mike Schrader said. “Our enrollment is steady and very close to where it was when we started the school year.”

One major change proposed by the Workforce committee was the reduction of the day-to-day substitute position which was tied to ESSER (COVID-19) funds.

“Those funds end in September of this year,” superintendent Taylor Topinka noted. “Part of the READ Act is a push to add an interventionist to our staff, and our proposal includes this addition for 2024-25 as well.”

With the Workforce committee proposal in mind, the board passed a resolution eliminating the day-to-day substitute position due to the ending of ESSER funding.

Next, the board passed a resolution to not renew a probationary teacher, Todd Schmidtke Jr., whose position was eliminated due to the end of the ESSER funding.

Elementary principal Jennifer Taylor reported enrollment for grades K-6 was 370 students, which was down three students from the previous month. Meanwhile, the enrollment for grades 7-12 held steady at 337 students, according to high school principal Jen Bye, who also reported on some other happenings at the school.

“Last week our students in grades 7-10 participated in presentations from Faribault County probation officers and the Faribault County attorney on the dangers of posting sensitive or explicit posts about themselves or others online,” Bye commented. “The goal of the presentation was to educate and inform students. The team taught students about the legal implications they could face when posting to social media. USC is proud to be part of developing the first of this type of presentation in southern Minnesota.”

Bye mentioned that students from grades 11 and 12 will participate in the presentations during the first week of April.

During his report, Topinka talked about some of the things which will be happening during the summer months at USC.

“The gym floor will be refinished and the new playground equipment will be installed,” Topinka said. “We will also have three or four strategic planning sessions during the summer.”

Topinka also reported on the current legislative session going on in St. Paul.

“The legislature worked on a revision of the School Resources Officer law and it passed. It clears up some of the questions which the law they passed during the last session created,” he shared. “The legislature is also looking at establishing a new state-wide policy regarding the use of cellphones in school.”

Topinka also informed the board that the firm which has performed the district’s audits for many years contacted the school to tell them their company would no longer be offering that service.

“We have a bid from Abdo out of Mankato to do our audits. It is more than we are used to paying, but we have gotten by relatively cheap for a number of years,” Topinka explained.

The board approved a bid from Abdo for three years of service. The cost for 2024 will be $31,000, $32,550 for 2025 and $34,150 for 2026.

Band director Bjorn Hagen was also at the meeting to report on the trip the band and choir took to New Orleans.

“We had 50 kids and four adults on a 54 passenger bus, so it was full,” Hagen noted. “We had a good time and it was a good learning experience for the students.”

The board also voted to approve a bid from Schrader Enterprises for mowing and trimming of 36 acres of school property at an annual cost of $14,352. Fertilizing and spraying of the 36 acres will cost $2,760 per time and broadleaf spray only of the property will cost $2,024 per time. Chairman Schrader abstained from voting on the motion.

In other business, the board:

• Accepted the resignations of Nathan Goette from the Drug Free Communities program and paraprofessional Reine Klein.

• Approved the retirements of bus driver John Vee and Karen Robins who was the director of Curriculum and Instruction.