Delano Herald Journal

Serving the communities of Delano, Loretto, Montrose, MN, and the surrounding area

HLWW approaches Lester Prairie about school pairing



The Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted school district has approached
the Lester Prairie district regarding pairing and sharing of districts.

Lester Prairie Board Member Barry Kyllo and Supt. James
Redfield told other board members Tuesday that they attended a meeting recently
with the HLWW school board chair, building committee chair, and superintendent.

“I wasn’t around in the 1980s when I think that was
the last time pairing was talked about, but I understand there were a lot
of bad feelings,” Kyllo said. “I didn’t get that sense this time.
I was impressed with the manner (the meeting) was done,” he said.

Kyllo told the board the HLWW district is going to build
a new high school and is working with a consultant on bonding and tax issues.

“They want the bonding referendum by this fall . .
. and they are going to do this regardless of what we do. Part of their
plan is to pull back the open enrollment kids,” Kyllo said. “If
they are successful, it will have ramifications in Lester Prairie,”
he said.

Presently, about 100 students are open enrolled from the
HLWW district to Lester Prairie.

Board Member Chet Hoernemann did not feel he had enough
information to make a decision. The board will have an informal retreat
on June 12 at Board Member Nancy Krull’s home. It was agreed to talk about
it more then.

“I think we should open communication with all schools
in the area that might cooperate,” Redfield said. “But the study
by Don Christensen also showed that people feed very strongly about having
a K-12 program here,” he said.

A letter from Athletic Director Bob Kuehl and several other
coaches requested the open gym program held during the summer be continued,
and as in previous years, at no charge.

The letter brought about two discussions.

First, Redfield said he was not happy that the letter circumvented
the community education board and himself, as community education director.

The second, said Hoernemann, community education liaison,
was that community ed lost $350 last year on the program.

Hoernemann said community ed wants the open gym program
to be self-supporting and, because it is free, one group comes in and dominates
the gym.

“When people pay, they are more responsible and community
ed has more control,” he said.

After some discussion, the board agreed with Kyllo that
“this is not school board business, it’s community ed business.”

The issue was turned over to Redfield, as director, to
decide if there should be an open gym program, and if so, to set a fee for
usage.

On another issue, the board agreed that if a teacher wanted
to use the school for some type of lesson during the summer, it would have
to be part of the community education program.

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