“The Minnesota State High School League sponsors two premier individual awards, one specifically for juniors and one for seniors, so each member School of the league is able to nominate one male and one female Junior for what's called the Excel Award,” stated Activities Director Trent Hanson during the April 24 ISD 200 school board meeting. “And that stands for excellence specifically in educational leadership. Lucas Faas was our recipient of that Excel award.”
Lucas introduced himself and said he is the captain of the football team, basketball team and track team and is involved in peer helpers.
Next to be spotlighted was Noah Quigley who received the Triple A award. The award is given to seniors, a male and a female, who show excellence in athletics, academics and the arts.
“This award is selected by our administrative and counseling team. We work through all the profiles of students that are there. There are hundreds of local winners that then go to regional consideration, 32 statewide, received commendation, no one got that commendation as a AAA award winner. So, it’s pretty rad to have two kids from the same school and that really small group,” said Hanson who then asked Noah to introduce himself and talk about his involvement in sports, activities and leadership roles.
“Hastings wide, I'm the captain of three sports. I ski a lot in the winter, I do Nordic skiing and cross country and track and field, so distance sports. I show livestock over the school year in 4-H, and I am in NHS.” Lucas further explained he will be pursuing a career in biochemistry.
Skylar Little Soldier was next to be spotlighted for her athletic achievements.
“We like to bring in any of our state champions to the table, and Skyler was the individual state champion at her weight class and girls wrestling this year, which marks the third consecutive year that she's been not only the sectional individual champion in her weight class, but the state champion in her weight class,” Hanson announced. “She ushered in the era of girls wrestling in high school three years ago, the first time it was a sanctioned event and has won the title every year she's been in it, which is obviously unprecedented and benchmark setting, which is pretty rad.”
Skylar was also named the Athena winner as the outstanding individual female student athlete at the high school. She and her family attended an event to celebrate this accomplishment held at the River Center in St. Paul.
“The next day, she was in Hinkley,” said Hanson. “The Minnesota American Indian Association also recognized her as one of two female high school athletes of the year. She's been on the circuit, shaking hands and signing autographs. We’re really proud of her. So, I'll give her the mic for questions a little bit about maybe what you're doing next year.”
“Well, I'm Skylar Little Soldier,” she said. “The state tournament was outstanding this year. The numbers were over 1,000 for girl wrestlers in Minnesota and the high school league. Next year I plan to attend Grand Valley State University to major in Pre-pharmacy and continue my wrestling career.”
Superintendent Tamara Champa announced the Spring Employees of the Semester were Casey Likes, Kristina Cook, Dirk Wassink, Kayla Burr, Anthony Laturno and Emily Kendall. Casey Likes, Third Party Billing Specialist, and Trent Hanson, Hastings Middle School Principal spoke at this time.
Likes spoke about her time in the district, “I started in the district seven or eight years ago, started out in Foodservice, subbing in different areas also working at Kennedy Elementary in the computer labs and secretarial stuff. And then I came over to the dark side, [she chuckled] and started working at the district office and I have been there ever since I started off in the copy center in the district office and then moved into finance and now, I'm working for special services doing third party billing.”
Champa quipped, she didn’t know how she felt about the “dark side” but said Likes “just lights up the room and has a positive attitude that is contagious all the time.”
Spring Employee and newly pronounced Employee of the Year Trent Hanson then spoke about his work journey in the district. “When I started teaching, 20 of my 26 years in public education were here in Hastings, starting the fall of 98 as a teacher. I started coaching actually two years before that so 13 years of coaching and 11 years of teaching all at the high school, Health and Physical Education. I launched, at the time, brand new strength training classes that didn't exist in that era. I spent six years in South Washington, my first administrative run as an AD and AP and I was blessed to come back in 2015 so I have been in an administrative role since. Did a little bit of Assistant Principal work and mostly Athletics and Activities work with little Middle School Principals sprinkled in so that’s where we are at.”
Following the student and staff accolades, public comment session was heard. “I will note this is the first time we've had public comment during the meeting and televised since August of 2021. So, this is a new change,” stated Chair Carrie Tate. She went on to explain the protocol of this the public comment section. There is a 30 second sign to alert the speaker to the time remaining as well as a timer to signal the end time. Speakers must state their name for the record and refrain from using this time to criticize or complain about any specific employee by name.
“Please be aware that the school board is interested in hearing comments from the public and will listen carefully, but it's not obligated to respond or debate in the setting,” said Tate. “And we request the speakers be respectful comments by any others made will be ruled out of order and those not abiding by this may potentially be asked to leave.”
(Previously, public comment sessions were held prior to the meeting in the Media Center at which time, two board members listened at these sessions then reported back during the regular board meeting. Late last year, a policy change was made to have public comment at 5:45 p.m. in front of the entire school board but prior to the board meeting, so comments were not broadcast on the Hastings Community TV feed.)
Former School Board Chair and Lisa Hedin spoke at this time. “I made a public data request after not getting that information from an email request or a previous ask at a business meeting. What I discovered though, is when I came to get that data for the first quarter (I only wanted the summative number, I don't want any of the details are required redaction or additional legal fees) is that to date, we've only received bills going into January. That indicated to me that previous reports by the board have either been misunderstood or disingenuous. There have been two data practices reports both in January and March indicating about $5,000 in legal fees associated with public data requests and then a number of requests have been reported. I think what's not been clear is that the legal fees are not associated with the date of requests that have been documented and numbered in the meeting. I think it's important for the board to understand it and the public to understand that those legal fees are associated with requests that happened in 2023 - quite some time ago. So, there's a gap and I anticipate I'll come back and when I received that first quarter information that January through March information and speak to that since it doesn't seem like it's going to get reported out in business meetings. I'm just going to ask that the board states commitment to financial responsibility, transparency and clear communication be turned into practice, because I don't think that that's been the case, quite honestly.”
“And then on a completely different note,” she concluded. “I just want to take this opportunity to thank the community for the support that was provided for the staff recognition event last week. It couldn't have been done without just a wide range of both individual business and volunteer members and support. It was a great event and I think it's important that it be recognized. So, thank you very much.”
