Barring any additional snow days school will get out May 25

By Chad Koenen

Publisher

Despite one of the snowiest winters in recent memory, students at Henning School will not need to make up additional school days at the end of the school year. 

During its regularly scheduled meeting on Tuesday night, the Henning School Board learned that the school district is currently at the state minimum of 165 student contact days. The school district already made up two snow days on April 3 and April 10. That means school will officially dismiss for the school year as regularly scheduled at noon on the Thursday prior to Memorial Day.

While students will not need to make up any more days of school, provided there are no more snow days before the end of May, staff members will need to make up two snow days. The Henning School Board approved having teachers, including paraprofessionals, to return to school on May 30 to make up one of those two days. The other day will be forgiven under a plan approved by the school board last week.

Henning School Superintendent Melissa Sparks said the plan is to have a staff training session on that day. She said some topics include the growing use of ChatGPT.

In other news

• Heard a presentation from members of the Henning trap team about their season and growth over recent years.

• Accepted donations totaling $3,977.03 for summer rec/swimming lessons from Nidaros Township, Building a Legacy, Markuson-Baer Insurance, Girard Township, Hormel Financial Service Corp; as well as summer rec t-shirt donations from Healthy Balance Chiropractic, Henning Publications, Karvonen Funeral and Cremation Services, First National Bank, Henning HOPE, Henning CHAT and AutoFix; father/daughter woodworking from American Heritage Girls and BPA Nationals from Henning HOPE and Ottertail Lions Club. 

• Accepted the resignations of Ida Rogers-Ferguson as social studies teacher, Ariel Eckel as food service director and Eli Hill as industrial arts teacher.

• Approved the hiring of Alison Christensen as a PM route bus driver. The move will make her a full-time bus driver.

• Approved the hiring of Gerardo Armenarez as a fitness center attendant and Chris Dague as junior varsity golf coach. 

• Approved the maternity leave of Christina Wohlwend. 

• Heard that 21 students have already registered for kindergarten in the fall. Henning Principal Thomas Williams said the school district continues to visit with potential students/families and predicts the incoming kindergarten class could be around 26 students in the fall.

• Heard that Henning Community Ed is looking for coaches this summer. The amount of coaches that will be hired will be based on the amount of children who register for community ed. The summer food program will also return this summer, which provides a free bag lunch to children during weekday mornings when summer rec is held. 

• Approved an hourly rate of $20 plus mileage for election judges for the special education. 

• Discussed organizing a door-to-door campaign to inform the public about the upcoming school building referendum. The school board said it will defer to the Henning School Referendum Supporter committee and will assist as needed.