By Chad Koenen

Publisher

While the official fall enrollment will not be known until students show up for the first day of school on Tuesday, Sept. 6, the Henning School District is expecting a fairly large increase in its 2022-23 enrollment.

During its regularly scheduled meeting on Monday night, the Henning School Board heard an enrollment update from Henning School Superintendent Melissa Sparks. She said  18 new students are expected to enroll in grades K-12 this fall. The district is also expecting 17 students in its 3-year-old program. 

If the enrollment projections hold steady, the Henning School District is planning for a K-12 enrollment of 362 students and another 42 students in the preschool program. At the end of the 2021-22 school year enrollment was 340 students in grades K-12. After graduating just 21 students last spring, the school district is expecting to have 31 students in kindergarten, in addition to the 18 new students who are expected to enroll in the school district.

The largest projected class in terms of enrollment, according to the report issued by Sparks, will be the freshman class with 38 students, while sixth grade has 37 students. The smallest grades will be fourth, 10th and 11th who have just 19 students each. 

Prior to the school board meeting, board members met with representatives from ICS about the upcoming school building levy. The representatives from ICS explained the referendum election process and the best ways to reach potential voters about the November referendum. 

In other news

• Accepted the resignations of Miranda Smith as a 3-year-old preschool paraprofessional, Matt Thorson as an assistant girls basketball coach and Ida Rogers as the junior high/c-squad girls basketball coach. 

• Approved the hiring of Stephanie Jossart as a preschool paraprofessional and Jasmine Lane as a part-time paraprofessional. 

• Accepted a donation from the Ottertail Lions Club for $4,000 as part of the adopt a classroom program. 

• Approved changing the adult lunch meal price from $4.50 to $4.95 per lunch. This is the required minimum meal charge for an adult lunch that is based on the current year’s state and federal reimbursement rates, plus the national average per meal value of the US Department of Agriculture Foods. 

• Approved setting the Truth in Taxation meeting on December 20 at 6:30 p.m. following the school board meeting. The regularly scheduled meeting was switched from the third Monday in December to the third Tuesday of December at 5:30 p.m. due to the school Christmas concert on Monday, Dec. 19. 

• Approved a resolution relating to the issuance of a school building bond and called for an election for a building operating levy in the fall.