New officers take over school board helm

Oaths and officer selections were the first items of business Thursday night, Jan. 24, for Luverne School Board’s first meeting of 2019.
Board incumbents Katie Baustian, Eric Hartman and Jodi Bosch recited oaths of office administered by Superintendent Craig Oftedahl. They were re-elected to four-year terms last fall. 
Reva Sehr was also re-elected to another term on the board. She was not at Thursday’s meeting.
As per tradition, officer positions were rotated among the current members.
Previous vice-chairman Bosch moved to the chair position, and Hartman (previously treasurer) assumed the vice chair position for 2019.
Director Tim Jarchow took over as clerk and Sehr as treasurer for the board.
Baustian served two years as chairman.
The board decided not to switch offices in 2018 as they moved forward with the middle-high school remodeling and construction plans.
With construction set to begin within the next few weeks, Baustian moves to board director along with Shelley Sandbulte (previous clerk) and Colleen Deutsch.
In other business, the board:
•purchased a Thomas 71-passenger school bus for $95,613 (including trade-in) through the Minnesota State School Bus Cooperative Purchasing program.
•accepted the lower of two bids, $259,870, from Sheltertech of St. Paul for asbestos removal. The other bid ($787,500) was from Envirobate of Minneapolis.
•approved the seniority lists for custodial staff, paraprofessionals/food service/administrative assistants, ECFE/School Readiness/Discovery Time and alternative school along with the preliminary seniority list for licensed staff.
•granted medical leave to paraprofessional Lacey Sik from Jan. 1 until the end of the school year and a six-week medical leave for health instructor Kari Lais beginning Jan. 23.
•hired Judy Knutson as long-term paraprofessional substitute beginning Jan. 21, and Jodi Nelson as long-term health teacher substitute beginning Jan. 23.
•accepted the resignation of Shawn Kinsinger as paraprofessional effective Jan. 11.
Two work sessions are scheduled to take place Feb. 14 and March 14.
The next school board meeting is at 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 28.