The ISD 200 school board approved the contract of the district’s second school resource officer (SRO) for the coming school year, even as second SRO Officer James Domeier isn’t expected to be full-time in the role until next year.
The delay of bringing Officer Domeier to schools comes due to two roles opening within the Hastings Police Department from an unanticipated retirement and officer leaving. Those vacancies require Officer Domeier to remain on regular police rotation until the roles are filled which expected to be November at the earliest.
Officer Domeier will be in the schools for the first two weeks in order to introduce himself to students but then will leave the SRO role until the vacancies are filled.
This delay comes in the form of rolling 30-day periods where the district does not pay for the second SRO if he does not work in the district for the full period. If, however, Officer Domeier works in the role for any time during that 30-day period, the district is on the hook for the full amount.
While this type of contract is common across districts, according to Superintendent Kristine Wehrkamp Herman, it left school board members scratching their heads on why they would pay for days of service they were not receiving.
“I don’t have the answer why you paid them if they’re not there,” said Wehrkamp Herman.
“Thirty days seems like a long time to pay for somebody not doing what you’re paying for,” said School Board Chair Carrie Tate.
Despite that frustration, student safety is at “forefront of everybody’s mind” in the wake of the mass shooting at Annunciation Catholic School last week in Minneapolis said Director Elaine Mikel-Mulder
Signs for the district’s relatively new ‘I Love U Guys’ emergency response protocol that was adopted last year can be seen on staff lanyards and on posters across the district. The protocol is built off of various levels of actions ranging from a hold, where students are cleared from hallways but educational programs are not disrupted, to evacuations to sheltering in place.
Pathways
High School Principal Scott Doran and Director of Teaching and Learning Andrew Hodges showcased a preview of where the Pathways program might lead in the future.
“We are already talking 26-27,” said Doran.
The first step of creating broad industry groups and listing classes offered at the high school within them has largely been completed and is showcased within the fall registration guide. These groups are: Arts and Communication, Health and Human Services, Business and Entrepreneurship, Science and Technology, and Engineering and Manufacturing.
One area that was noted as lacking within the groups was a dedicated computer science area. While the high school does offer a game design course, interest has been low enough where students haven’t been able to take it some years.
The high school is “very, very light when it comes to technology,” said Doran.
The next step after categorizing classes is to create sequences that run throughout these groups that would prepare students for future schooling or work in that area.
In particular, the availability of accreditation or certification within the high school is a goal. Doran highlighted ServSafe, OSHA 10-hour certification and nursing assistant certification as examples that students might be able to get within classes offered at the high school in the future.
A continued goal of the program is an expanded list of corporate collaborators. The program currently has a short list ranging from Allina Clinic to Delta Airlines, but the goal is to have “pages and pages” of companies that students would be able to contact and work with in some capacity across a number of industries, said Doran.
Mandated job shadowing or internships was another idea discussed at the meeting. While the district has no plans of making internships or job shadowing a requirement, in the future, “it’s not off the table,” said Doran.
Equity issues, especially those concerning transportation and availability after-school are hurdles to this requirement.
Hodges also highlighted the use of Xello, a program that offers various tools to students ranging from career inventory assessments that they take regularly to gauge interest across subjects to tools on building a portfolio and applying to colleges.
Data Requests
The board also approved a measure to mitigate future barrages of anonymous data requests that go unread by the requester.
Despite the issue being taken up by the Minnesota School Board Association last year, school districts still cannot require requesters to identify themselves outside of specific circumstances.
Instead, the board had the first reading for an amendment to Policy 722: Public Data Requests that allows the district to “suspend an ongoing response to a public data request if, after five business days, the requesting person does not appear to inspect requested data or collect copies of requested data that the school district has already prepared for that person,” according to the draft.
In recent years the district received several anonymous and later abandoned data requests including the July 2024 anonymous data request on the policy committee that encompassed more than 115,000 emails in addition to other notes and printouts.
From the monthly reports provided by Human Resources Director Cathy Moen at school board meetings, it is estimated that the district spent some $27,000 in legal fees on data requests in 2024, several of which went abandoned.
This new amendment would allow the district to stop work on data request if the requester does not come to inspect the data that they requested, thus saving the district potentially thousands of dollars.
Since the last board meeting, the district received only a single data request and Moen reported $1,499 in legal fees.