An interesting fact was brought up during the ISD #200 March Board Meeting report from the board’s facilities committee.
Committee chair Melissa Milner reported on a meeting held March 25 between committee members and City of Hastings officials as part of a Joint Powers Agreement between the two government bodies to “make maximum use of resources between the school district and the city,” according to the meeting notice. The groups meet quarterly.
In attendance were Millner, board director Mark Zuzek and Superintendent Dr. Tamara Champa from ISD #200 and City Administrator Dan Wietecha, Parks & Recreation Director Chris Jenkins and city councilmembers Dave Pemble and DawnMarie Vihrachoff.
“What we learned about was what they had done in the past, and the cool things that we’ve collaborated on as a community between the city and the school district. My takeaway from the meeting was it was kind of overwhelming, exciting,” reported Millner. “One of the things we discussed was how last year, for instance, there were only 207 live births in Hastings, so that definitely poses a problem as far as the population of the district.”
The two sides have to work to make Hastings attractive to families.
“How do we get young families excited to come into Hastings, and what do we do collaboratively? The overwhelming part was thinking about that. The exciting part was once the ideas started flowing,” said Millner. “We’ve got tons of positives, this community has so much to offer. It’s just a matter of working together.”
The Hwy. 61 construction project slated for 2026 on the city’s main artery will be a critical time for the community coming together.
“One of the big things is we know that Hwy. 61 is going to be under construction, and we don’t want any businesses to leave Hastings. How can we support those businesses and make sure that we’re telling people to help keep them alive? And what action steps can we take because if businesses leave Hastings, the community looks less exciting for young families.”
Coffee and Conversation – The Hastings School Board held its first Coffee and Conversation meeting March 20 in the Hastings High School Lecture Hall, and it was a big success. It’s an initiative of the board’s community collaboration committee. The purpose statement of the committee is that it “focuses on identifying avenues to continuously improve the district’s communication process for increased transparency and to better articulate the district’s goals with its stakeholders. The committee seeks opportunities for shared learning, knowledge, awareness, experience and growth to create a stronger, more united community.”
Director and committee chair Jenny Wiederholt Pine reported that there were about 50-50 attendees at the gathering.
“It was fantastic, really great dialog from the community,” she said.
Champa kicked the meeting off with an “expression of gratitude” for voters passing the technology levy in November. She then went through results of a survey of district residents and gave an update on the district.
Wiederholt-Pine said there were questions about off-year elections, which is something the board is going to tackle in coming months. When there is just a school district election, voting is all at Hastings polling places, and voters in other communities have expressed concern about having to travel to vote. The district has talked about switching to odd-year elections, meaning election costs are shared with other government bodies that have items on the ballot.
The Coffee and Conversation events will be held quarterly. Other board members echoed feelings of excitement over the event.
“I thought this was a great event,” said Philip Biermaier. “I don’t know how you can judge it, because it hasn’t been done in this type of forum. I think it was positive. It turned into the ‘Dr. Champa Show’ a little, but if that’s the worst thing we do is show off her talents, then we’re doing good.”
“I think this was very efficient, and all the feedback I got from the public was a thumbs up,” he said.
Matt Bruns commented, “What I found is it was a really good educational platform for the folks who were there. They had questions that the nerds who live in it, we were able to communicate what we know and then harvest micro and macro needs from the community or questions they have and then begin putting together answers. Some of them were on the spot, and some of them require work beyond that point. That seemed to be the role we were playing, providing an education where we could and breaking things down in terms that people understand and not using the lingo that has been adopted in education.”
“It brought parties together that probably were never in the same room and got some things going. It was a great event. I’m excited to move forward with them and do some tweaking to see if we can make it even better,” said Bruns.
