The Hastings School Board held a special meeting to elect Elaine Mikel-Mulder as the new school board member. With a vote of 4-1, with Director Matt Bruns the nay vote and Director Philip Biermaier absent, Elaine Mikel-Mulder will be the next ISD 200 school board member.
The board must wait 30 days to allow time for a recall petition, with Mikel-Mulder expected to be sworn in in May.
At the work session following the special meeting, the school board laid out the framework for the district’s upcoming budget cuts and discussed the new student council policy.

Budget cuts
Director of Finance and Operations Jen Seubert discussed the proposed budget adjustments for the district which total $1.5 million. Currently the district is projected to overspend $2.4 million in the 2025-2026 budget. In order to bridge that gap, the district will be using $900,000 from the district’s fund balance rather than make the full $2.4 million worth of cuts.
Nearly half of the budget adjustments described by Seubert—some $725,000—affect changes in funding streams like savings from staffing costs allocated to long-term facilities maintenance, student support personnel aid, and literacy incentive aid restricted funds.
Other adjustments directly affect staffing including eliminating the unfilled night custodian position, restructuring the special education administration model, and building a non-licensed support staffing model study.
One adjustment Superintendent Dr. Tammy Champa highlighted was realigning the early childhood special education transportation schedule which is expected to save $223,510. Champa highlighted this change as a way to save the district money that wouldn’t affect the student experience, calling the change right-sizing.

Student Council Policy
Among the policies discussed at the meeting was a new policy for the district concerning the high school student council. According to the draft of the policy discussed at the meeting, the purpose of the new policy is “to identify the position and philosophy of the school district and school board related to the high school’s student council.”
The policy outlines that decisions made by the student council must be supported by relevant data and have the support of the student council advisors and the building principal. In addition, the policy provides veto power to the school board and superintendent for “any decision” made by the student council.
Vice Chair Jessica Dressley, who is also the Chair of the Policy committee, referenced several other districts with similar policies but said that the policy was a direct response to the student council’s 2024 change to homecoming: “it’s because of homecoming,” said Dressley.
Director Mark Zuzek called the policy a response to “longstanding traditions being changed.”
That change occurred in September 2024 in which the high school student council changed the building’s homecoming so that instead of a couple being elected homecoming king and queen, a single person would be elected “Raider Crown Winner.”
Due in part to how early homecoming was in the school year, many were unaware of this change, including school board members, until a Sept. 9 letter was released that detailed the changed only a week before the homecoming festivities were set to begin.
When describing the changes to coming, the letter said “One change this year is with regard to the selection and recognition of student ‘royalty.’ What has not changed is that the HHS student body will elect student peers who will be recognized at the pep fest and football game, and they will also vote on a student to be honored with a crown. What is different is that student royalty will not be selected specifically by gender. They will be presented as individuals, and a single student will receive the final crown.
“We are committed to an approach that is responsive, purposeful and informed. Our intent is to facilitate a process that is representative of all students at HHS, and to ensure balanced representation of students without requiring them to participate with a partner. This decision follows a multi-year review of our Homecoming practices and ongoing dialogue with our HHS student leaders and advisors. Student council officers engaged in research that included soliciting feedback from a number of surrounding school districts to seek context and best practice.”
At the Sept. 17, 2024 Community Collaboration Meeting, High School Principal Scott Doran explained the change further saying that the homecoming decision was built upon a previous student council decision regarding pep fests and students being uncomfortable being paired into couples.
Instead of walking with a partner, students would choose a “person of influence” in their lives who would walk with them before the student body. According to Doran, the change to homecoming to crown a single student rather than a couple was built in part off that decision and the discomfort cited by students of being paired into couples.
“A number of people are not comfortable being a forced couple in front of the public body, their student body and parents that are invited, so that’s one way they can address that,” said Doran at the meeting.
At that same meeting, several community members expressed their frustration and disagreement with the change in how widely it affected the student body, the change to longstanding tradition, and the lack of communication around the decision.
Doran apologized for the lack of communication saying, “The decision that came down from the student council happened very quickly this year. Usually, we have a least until the end of September, a couple weeks into October: 100% my fault not to communicate that the second the student body notified me.”
Doran, however, classified the decision as “a building decision,” and as such didn’t require oversight from the school board.
That point was echoed by Director Matt Bruns who said that the policy, “feels a lot like an overreach beyond governance into the building space and how that’s conducted.”
Chair Carrie Tate disagreed saying, “I am of the opinion that we move forward with the policy and the reason I say this is because I don’t see any harm in putting it in place,” said Tate.
While board members wouldn’t be specific on if the board would have vetoed the student council’s decision had this policy in place, Director Zuzek said that the policy would “describe the conversation that would have happened.”