St. Michael-Albertville School Board Meets on Eve of Levy Vote

Senate Majority Leader Amy Koch (R-Buffalo) and local Legislator Rep. Joe McDonald will give a legislative update to the Board one night before this district hosts an operations levy vote that aims to fund school programming and technology through a hike in local tax dollars.

Tonight's 7 p.m. meeting, held in the district board room at St. Michael-Albertville Middle School West, marks the beginning of a busy and important week for the district.

A special meeting, closed to the public, will be held after the meeting to discuss two points. The first is a possible land sale on district-owned property between Wright County Road 116 and Wright County Road 135. Negotiations for the sale of that property have been ongoing this fall.

Also, the board will meet with district staff to discuss teacher contract negotiations, which were also started late this summer. Talks have started off well, according to Superintendent Jim Behle last month.

Tonight's regular agenda also includes an update from administrative staff on the role of retired superintendent Marcia Ziegler, who has be retained by the district for consultation work. Ziegler has been assisting the district with the teacher contract negotiations talks and was also on the front end of discussions for tomorrow night's election during her final months as superintendent.

In addition to the report from local legislators, Brad Lundell of "Schools for Equity and Education," or SEE, will report his findings to the district.

According to their website, SEE is "an association of 58 school districts throughout the state of Minnesota."

Its mission is to work "for greater equity and adequacy in public education funding."

Rural districts outside of the metro area make up the majority of the membership, including local districts such as Elk River, Monticello, Buffalo and Anoka-Henneping. A complete list can be found on the SEE site.