School board to continue discussion for class options

By Chad Koenen

Publisher

The Henning School District will not explore additional cooperative opportunities with the Battle Lake School District for athletics and the annual spring musical, but academics and other fine arts programs may still be on the table.

During its regularly scheduled meeting last week, the Henning School Board spent over 30 minutes discussing a recent joint work session with the Battle Lake School Board, after Henning’s neighbor to the west, requested a meeting to explore additional pairing and sharing opportunities. 

One week after the meeting, Henning School Superintendent Melissa Sparks asked the Henning School Board how it would like to proceed after the joint work session. 

Henning School Board Chair Rod Thalmann said after the previous week’s work session, he broke down the numbers of participants in each sport for Henning and Battle Lake, as well as how many students would be out for athletics if the two schools were to pair in boys and girls basketball, as well as volleyball. Based on projections provided by the Battle Lake School District, Thalmann said the only year either school will struggle to field multiple senior-level teams will be next year for girls basketball in Battle Lake. Otherwise, he said the numbers of projected participants in grades 9-12 for girls basketball will range from 21 next year for Henning to as many as 33 by the year 2031-32 for Henning alone. 

“And believe it or not, it looks the same way for Battle Lake. They have almost the same amount of numbers for girls,” he said.

Boys basketball will continue to have around 35-40 students in grades 9-12 in Henning for the foreseeable future and volleyball will have around 30-35 students at the varsity level as well. 

“So my preference is at this point in time, I would rather us not do anything for collaborating with any sports,” he said. “With technology and other resources, I think after looking at stuff, I would only say that if it strongly benefits both (school districts) we go ahead and do it, but otherwise I think what we offer our students is good.”

While most of the school board members were not in favor of pairing for additional sports or activities due to the concerns over travel and expected participation numbers over the next 10 years, school board member Kim Haugen was not present at the meeting but has expressed hesitation in pairing for additional extracurricular activities, school board member Casey Johnson spoke favorably about having additional discussions to potentially expand the Otter Tail Central co-op for things like basketball and volleyball. 

“I would personally like to hear what they have to say. I would hope if we were ever in the same situation they would hear us out,” said Johnson.

Throughout the discussion, Johnson continued to push school board members to explore additional sports co-ops for boys and girls basketball, as well as volleyball. He said he has been told that 40-60 percent of elementary athletes quit an activity before they become a senior in high school. He cited that statistic as the basis for trying to get the school board to continue dialogue and potentially pair for all extracurricular sports, especially girls basketball. 

However, that statistic was not specifically related to Henning or Battle Lake, and activities director and boys basketball coach Randy Misegades said at the joint workshop with Battle Lake, that several Henning students came out for boys basketball for the first time this year at the senior high level. He also said the school district has seen a number of families open enroll into the Henning School District for athletic opportunities in recent years as well. 

As far as girls basketball, Misegades said at the joint workshop approximately two weeks ago that Henning is expecting to field at least two senior high level teams next year and potentially a C-squad, JV and varsity level team. This past year Henning School fielded just a varsity team, while keeping a majority of the seventh and eighth grade students at the junior high level. 

According to the figures presented by Battle Lake, if all of the participants stay out for athletics at the elementary level, there could be as many as 78 boys basketball players in grades 9-12 in less-than 10 years, while girls basketball would have 64 participants and volleyball would have 53 participants. 

Though a majority of the school board members said those numbers are strong and combining would take away opportunities from Henning and Battle Lake students who would no longer go out for a sport due to travel time and lack of opportunities to play, Johnson contended more participants would actually provide better opportunities for students by pushing one another in practice, even if they didn’t play in a game—a point some school board members disagreed with during the meeting.

Thalmann said having too many participants in each sport, especially if it is in a neighboring school district and resulted in traveling to another community, could discourage students from trying the sport and lead to them to not participate in the activity at all. 

“You are talking five starters on a basketball team and there are 70 girls out there to choose from for three basketball teams and that is the combination in four years and 55 boys. Then after that it is 67 boys and 68 boys…you are taking a lot of opportunities away from a lot of kids,” said Thalmann of combining programs. “Maybe good things will happen if we continue to have extra kids that come out for sports, or whatever if the programs are pushed a little harder, and the community gets behind it and (we) get some parents get involved. Maybe the numbers will increase.”

Henning School Board member Terry Oscarson said she has been receiving a number of phone calls from community members who are concerned about the potential sharing and pairing additions at Henning School. She said many of the taxpayers and parents she has spoken with are not in favor of additional co-ops at this time and encouraged the school board and administration to take a step back to visit with students and staff members to see what opportunities could become available for Henning students in-house. 

“I personally would like to tell to Battle Lake that we like that we are talking about this, but (we need to) go back to our drawing board and see what our kids need,” she said. “I am getting a lot of calls and concerns from parents in our community that they are not interested. I think we have to think about our downtown district, as well as our school and taxpayers and what I am hearing is they are not interested. That doesn’t mean we don’t look ahead and do some things with other schools, but I think we are doing it backwards to be perfectly honest. I think we need to talk to our teachers, our (education association), Mr. Williams, Mrs. Sparks, with area administrators, not just Battle Lake, but we should be looking at our education district.”

School board Matt Reinbold said he is not in favor of pairing in sports and also wasn’t completely on board with pairing on the educational side as well. He encouraged the administration and school board to visit with teachers to get their input first. He cautioned the school board that additional pairing with Battle Lake for things like extracurricular sports could lead to as many as 30-40 students on the outer edges of the school district to go elsewhere for school, which would be detrimental to the Henning School budget. 

“I guess where I am at is the same thing I said last year. We have a potential, and it is a real number, that we could lose 30-40 kids. That’s $400,000 that we could lose that we cannot afford to lose. That’s my main reason for a no on the sports. Education wise I am not a no, but I would like to hear from our teachers (to hear what they say first),” he said. 

Reinbold went on to say he had a conversation with two people from Battle Lake, who he did not name, who said they would never be for additional pairing options if they lived in the Henning School District, but were in favor of it since they lived in the Battle Lake School District.

“I heard from two different, very respected Battle Lake community members that they are for it because it helps Battle Lake, but if they were from Henning, they would never consider this and that is kind of telling too,” he said. 

Board member Andy Eckhoff, who spoke in favor of some additional co-op and sharing options during the meeting, acknowledged that “if we are talking enrollment (sports) would probably hit us the most.” However, he spoke several times during the meeting about the benefits of pairing with Battle Lake wherever possible for things like the musical, fine arts and academics, especially at the college level courses. 

Oscarson pushed back a bit on the college level classes as she said Henning School District is already a member of the Freshwater Education District and encouraged the school administration to work with that organization to see if additional electives and educational opportunities could be made available for school districts across the region, without disrupting the school day for teachers within Henning to teach students online. 

“I think we need to look at our partners that we are already partnering with in Freshwater and figure some of that out,” she said.

Oscarson said a number of years ago when the talk of consolidation and partnerships took place with Battle Lake the Henning School District lost almost all of the students in the Almora area and southern part of the school district to Parkers Prairie, which had a significant impact on the school’s budget and enrollment. 

Henning Principal Thomas Williams said without additional compensation he didn’t think the Henning Education Association would be in favor of teaching students from another school district through a pairing or sharing agreement. He also acknowledged the teachers and education association were not consulted before the previous week’s joint work session, or whether the Henning teachers thought having students in two school districts would even be feasible.

Sparks said she has spoken with representatives from Freshwater Education District who said the type of educational opportunities being discussed with Battle Lake are not available within Freshwater Education District now, but it is something they are discussing for the future. She said that the discussions with Freshwater are in the same infinite stages as the discussions with Battle Lake, but that Freshwater Education District and a number of regional schools could be a viable option for additional learning opportunities moving forward. The Henning School District already receives a number of services from Freshwater Education District for everything from technology to special education. 

“What I am hearing that we are not interested in any (additional) sports with Battle Lake. No girls basketball, no boys basketball, no volleyball,” said Sparks in summing up the conversation of the board. “What I am hearing for academics is kind of a mixed bag. What I am hearing is we need to explore all our options, if we did anything, and it would need to be agreeable to our teachers and best for kids.”

Sparks said the consensus seemed to be Henning may be open to the possibility of having additional joint classes with Battle Lake, as well as other Freshwater Education District schools, but not until the 2027-28 school year at the earliest and only after speaking with staff members within the Henning School District first. 

When it came to the musical, Oscarson said she heard from a number of parents and community members that they did not want to pair with Battle Lake for a musical, even if that meant there would be one musical in the fall in Battle Lake and one in the spring in Henning. The comments she received were that Henning students would not go out for the musical in such large numbers as they have in the past if they knew a number of the parts wou

“I received a couple calls in regards to the musical and the people who spoke to me said that their children would not participate if it went far. They want it in their home gym. They want the big parts to go to their children, to our taxpayers, so I think in all honesty we should keep it the way it is,” she said. “I am just repeating what the people who talked to me said. I think we have to really take into consideration what our community is telling us. It’s not what we may not want, it is what they want.”

Thalmann agreed that additional travel time for things like the musical could have an adverse affect on participation and that Henning already has a large group of students who participate in the musical each year.

Williams said that he saw where the parents were coming from as currently all of the lead roles in the Henning musical go to Henning students, something that could change if the two schools paired for a musical in the spring and fall of each year. 

“To be fair to Terry’s side of it… if you leave it just Henning the Henning kids get all of the roles, the leads and everything. All of a sudden you get just an exceptional kid from Battle Lake to be in the Henning one, they might get the lead roles. No different than the quarterback being from this town or the other town, (but) just to be fair to Terry’s conversation you could have that,” he said. 

As far as speech, Oscarson expressed reservations about joining for speech and encouraged the Henning School District to look at ways to enhance

However, a majority of school board members said they would be interested in having further dialogue with Battle Lake concerning speech, as well as potentially adding a one-act play with Battle Lake, provided someone would be willing to travel to Henning to work with the students in person and not virtually for speech. 

In other news

• Accepted the resignation of Arica Burgess as agriculture education teacher and Karen Loock as kitchen staff.

• Acknowledged the activities report that stated the Henning Math League finished in second place at the section competition and missed advancing to state by one game. The report also highlighted the accomplishments of the boys and girls basketball teams, as well as Ava Rousu who advanced to state as a female wrestler for the first time in school history.

• Acknowledged the principal’s report that highlighted a number of activities from the students during Snow Week, as well as William Schwartz who was a Region 6A finalist for the AAA award.

• Accepted $3,479 in donations and scholarships for everything from summer rec to the musical, Pages for Purpose for the library and MSHSL Foundation grant. 

• Acknowledged the superintendent’s report that highlighted a current enrollment of 403 students in prek-12, as well as 361 students in grades K-12. Sparks also said she met with City of Henning Public Works Department and city engineerings to coordinate the upcoming parking lot and accessibility improvements at the city’s water and sewer work scheduled for School Ave. The school is currently awaiting further technical timelines from the city before officially awarding bids for the school’s portion of the project. The hope is improve ADA accessibility improvements and ensure it is aligned with the infrastructure project. 

• Approved hosting a work session on March 17 at 5:30 p.m., prior to the regular board meeting, to review the revised budget.