School board votes not to accept pay

By John McLoone

With three new members to the Hastings School Board, the first meeting of 2022 was to set the slate of officers and conduct annual business.

Three new members took the oath of office at the onset of the meeting: Jessica Dressely, Mike Reis and Carrie Tate, as they kicked off fouryear terms having successfully won office in the November election.

After the new members were seated at the board table at Hastings Middle School in the Jan. 5 meeting, Tate made a pitch for the board chair position.

“I just want to say obviously I haven’t worked with you folks before, but I would be truly honored to be chair of the board,” she said. “I’m a good communicator. I’m respectful. I would appreciate the opportunity.”

Tate was nominated, as was Brian Davis, who is halfway through a four-year term. Davis was elected chair by a 43 vote. Board members Becky Beissel, Stephanie Malm, Lisa Hedin and Davis cast votes for him, with Tate, Dressely and Reis casting votes for Tate.

The vote was also 4-3 in favor of Malm over Tate for vice chair, with the same vote breakdown.

Beissel was elected board clerk, and Hedin was voted as treasurer.

Davis is working to put together board committee assignments and asked for input from board members.

District trademarks

Superintendent Dr. Robert McDowell said the district is seeking to trademark two school district logos: the iconic

Logos coutesy of Hastings School District Raider image over the script “H,” and the Hastings Public School – ISD 200 circle with the arched bridge in the center.

McDowell said formal action will come at a meeting in the near future to finalize the trademarks, which are being registered with the Minnesota Secretary of State to protect use of them.

“We were given legal advice that we should be in the process of trademarking our logos,” said McDowell. “The reason we want to get them approved and trademarked is that there are many, many people using our logos, and we didn’t want to be in a spot where somebody trademarks them first, and we have to pay to use our logos.”

There are other logos used for individual schools and sports teams that the district will also consider trademarking in the future.

“Other people are selling merchandise with our logo on it and are making money off of it,” said McDowell.

He said the district is working to set up an online merchandise store where the trademarked apparel can be sold.

“We don’t want to be in a position where we’re in competition where we’re selling the same or like merchandise,” he said.

Selling the logoed items will be a money-maker for the district.

“I think it will be an opportunity when we talk about budget adjustment stuff, we’ll be in a position to make some revenue, a different way than we are now,” said McDowell.

The trademark cost with the state is $50 each. The district needs to also have a discussion with sports teams that fundraise using district logos.

“It’s definitely something we should look and research a little bit,” said Davis.

“It will lead us to an interesting conversation. Selling that gear is a fundraiser for the sports, it’s a hockey fundraiser, it’s a baseball fundraiser. They change the look a little every year, because clearly you want a new one every year, don’t you?” Hedin joked.

McDowell said discussion to start with will just be with those two primary district logos and not the individual sports.

“This is really just to get these first two logos, which are the main logos, trademarked, so we’re not in a reverse situation where someone is saying, ‘You can’t use that,’” he said.

Travel and field trips

The school board held a spirited discussion on allowing student group travel, and the matter will be revisited at the Jan. 26 regular board meeting for a formal vote.

Because of COVID-19, the board and district has taken the stance that any student travel has to be in the contiguous United State and not international, because if there’s a virus outbreak, students, staff and chaperones could be stranded for an extended period of time. If they’re in “the lower 48,” travel back could at least be arranged by bus if there’s no flights available.

“We looked at this six months ago. Now we would be at a spot where we need to look at this again,” said McDowell.

He said that the issue needs periodic review because groups fundraise for travel starting a year in advance.

“International travel has a moratorium placed on it now. It really came out of the fact that the high school needs to plan trips. They’re planning them a year in advance,” said McDowell. “The band director, the world language teachers, they knew they could start planning their trips.

“This one gets a little tricky,” said Davis, explaining that groups contract with tour companies for international travel. If travel is cancelled and some of the trip money is forfeited, even if there are waivers in place, complaints are going to come to the district.

“Let’s say the French students want to go to France, and then France says, ‘No one is going to our country right now.’ You see the quandary,” said Davis. “I want these kids moving around as much as they can, but that’s why it got tricky.”

Reis doesn’t want to see the chance at international travel taken away from students.

“I’m against taking away those opportunities from the kids. I’m not in favor of limiting this on fear,” he said. “This could be the one and only chance they get to go to Spain…They’ve been through enough the last few years. We shouldn’t prevent them from trying to get back to normal.”

Davis replied, “If we could have assurances from our parents that they aren’t going to blame us if the tour company doesn’t give them their money back, I’m right there with you. If a family wants to send their child to France and France is open, I tend to agree with you Mike.”

Beissel said it could pose a legal issue for the district. “I think we should revisit it again in six months,” she said. All districts are faced with a similar decision. “Every district right now pretty much has a plan like this (domestic travel only) in place,” said McDowell. “We can bring it back (for discussion) the 26th.”

Reis said that if trips back are cancelled, students could do virtual learning.

“If we’re concerned they would be stranded for two weeks, they’ve done remote learning and that was acceptable for six months. If they had to do that for two weeks in Spain, I don’t think that would bother them,” said Reis.

It was pointed out that staff with other obligations and parents would be stranded as well.

“I think it’s a really good conversation,” said Davis. “We’ll do something in our general session this month.”

Board compensation

The board voted to forego accepting compensation for their positions against this year, as they did last year.

Reis was against that, noting that last year was the only year that’s been done, and there are other places the budget could be cut for such a nominal amount. In 2020, the board chair earned $4,750 and board members were paid $4,250.

Hedin explained that serving on the board isn’t about the money.

“I think taking no compensation for this position is somewhat about saving money. It’s a nominal amount of money saved. But it’s representing our individual commitment to service,” she said.

“Out of the past 50 years, how many years have not been compensated? Probably just the one,” said Reis.

Hedin responded, “I can’t speak to 50 years, but there was one year with no compensation. Correct.”

Tate and Dressely both said they didn’t know there was compensation available for the position when they ran for office, and Beissel and Malm said that’s how it was when they came on the board too.

Beissel said that the board took the stance last year to not accept pay because they were asking others for cuts as well.

“Last year, I really felt like it was unified with our staff. We’re cutting FTEs (full-time equivalent positions), we’re cutting programs. I really, truly felt a big difference last year. I felt like I was more committed to my duties here,” said Beissel.

Said Malm, “When we decided last year that we were going to cut our compensation, to me it made financial sense. It was a dedication to an organization, the district, the community. Yes, it’s pennies in the $60 million pot. To me it wasn’t about the compensation. It was about I’m doing this for the community. I’m doing it for the district, the students.”

Reis countered by asking if administration or “high profile teachers” took pay cuts as well.

“During this pandemic, our entire company took a 10 percent cut. That’s across the board. I would think that if we’re expected to be more about the community, wouldn’t we expect the district administration, teachers and staff then to voluntarily give back some money. My guess is no, they don’t want to,” said Reis. “You could pay us board members that amount, and if you don’t feel you need that full amount, donate it back.”

Davis called a vote on motions for zero pay for this year, and that measure passed.

“My preference is we vote on this at zero,” he said.