School Board members talk issues

I first started at the Bemidji (Minn.) Pioneer as an intern in the summer of 1996. That would begin six years as a news reporter, sports reporter and copy editor for a small, six-day-per-week daily newspaper in northern Minnesota. I wrote a large range of stories from multiple beats, to features to sports, my favorite being the coverage of the Red Lake Reservation High School basketball team named the Warriors. Here is a collection of my stories from my time at the Pioneer.

Aug. 12, 1997

By Devlyn Brooks

Staff Writer

Sometimes it is important to just get together and talk.

At least, that is the consensus of the Bemidji School Board, which met Monday night for the first of several work sessions, designed to give the board more time than is allowable at regular business meetings to discuss complex issues, according to Superintendent Rollie Morud.

The board adopted the work session, scheduled through December, on a trial basis at its July meeting on a 4-to-2 vote. Board Chairman Jim Smalley and board member Neil Skogerboe voted against the plan, balking at the idea of an additional meeting the board would have to attend each month.

However, even after the initial work session lasted a half hour longer than scheduled, Smalley said he believes such meetings are important because the district is facing so many major decisions -- such as a general bond referendum, operating levy referendum and budget constraints. But, he said, the board will have to reevaluate the sessions next year.

"I hate the extra meeting sometimes, but I think it (also) could be very valuable," he said in an interview following the session. "We have so much on the table now, we need work sessions to solve these things. But if they aren't necessary, they'll probably be canceled."

Morud, who has described the meetings as vehicles to facilitate discussion, said the work sessions are not new by any means. The district formerly had man special meetings each year, even averaging close to two special meetings per month this past year. So, he said, he hopes the work session actually will reduce the number of board meetings per month by eliminating the need for several special meetings, and that they will not become just an additional meeting per month.

"It's difficult to make time for another meeting," he said after the work session, "but when the meeting is over, you feel good you found time to have it. The board members appreciate the difference in opinions that exist, and they were seeking an opportunity where they could be aired. The intent and the follow-up were very close this time."

At Monday's meeting, the board discussed the district's evaluation process of its superintendent, a possible self evaluation process for the board itself, a new public input process to be used at regular board meetings, the state's kindergarten through 12th grade education bill and a possible operating levy referendum.

Future board work sessions are scheduled for Sept. 8, Oct. 6, Nov. 3 and Dec. 1. All are to be held from 4 to 6 p.m., and are scheduled in addition to the board's monthly meeting held the third Monday of each month.

"It's a trial thing," Morud said, "and the board will have to reevaluate in December whether it wants to keep them."