School to be open to students to drop off supplies on September 5

By Chad Koenen

Publisher

An elaborate and expansive school building project is in its waning days at Henning School.

During its regularly scheduled meeting last Tuesday night, the Henning School Board heard that a large HVAC, remodeling and parking lot project should be completed as soon as this week. 

Henning School Superintendent Melissa Sparks said the cleaners are on location and all of the contractors will be finishing up their work over the next two weeks. Pending final occupancy approval from the state, the school district is on track to have the building open for staff to begin moving back in on August 29. 

The school board heard there are some projects that may need to be wrapped up over the Education Minnesota break in October due to a parts delay, but the project itself should be just about wrapped up by the time school starts on Monday, Sept. 9. 

Due to the construction project the school district will not host a traditional open house this fall, yet staff members will be available on Thursday, Sept. 5 from 1-7 p.m. to assist families with any registration needs prior to the start of the school year. The elementary classrooms will also be open for students to drop off their school supplies as well.

In other news

• Accepted a donation from First National Bank in Henning for the summer rec program for $906.75.

• Accepted the resignation of Tammy Cichy as health aide/administrative assistant.

• Accepted the hiring of Debbie Starry as health aide/administrative assistant, Megan Lutgens as a paraprofessional, Laurie Felt as a paraprofessional, Katie Dehmer as a paraprofessional, Kelly Ellenson as the 3’s preschool paraprofessional for one day a week, Gerardo Armendarz as a custodian and Bill Balfanz as a paraprofessional.

• Approved holding the annual Truth and Taxation meeting on Tuesday, Dec. 17 at 6 p.m.

• Heard the activities director report that said there are 17 Henning athletes in grades 9-12 participating in football this year with another 20 Henning students anticipated at the junior high level. There are also 24 girls in grades 9-12 out for volleyball with 25 junior high participants expected to join this year. There are no Henning students participating in cross country this year. 

• Heard the 3’s preschool has 22 students enrolled in school this fall, while the 4’s preschool has 19 students and kindergarten has 30 students. 

• Approved a new controlled access system for the doors at Henning School. The existing door system no longer works properly after a technology glitch last spring caused the school’s server to crash. The school district could either replace the server or move to a cloud-based system, which was about $6,000 less than the server. There are several new features with the new system that Sparks said will make the system more secure. The cost for the new door system will be $22,980 with a recurring cost of $80 per month for 36 months.