GRAND FORKS – It was business as usual at Monday’s regularly-scheduled School Board meeting, which took place before
a special meeting review of Superintendent Terry Brenner’s conduct.
Actually, it was a lot of business: board members heard the latest data from a student substance use survey and a report from the new bus service provider, and signed off on a major bond sale, all in 93 minutes.
Here’s the roundup:
Rates of alcohol, cigarette and marijuana usage have continued to decline among Grand Forks middle and high school students.
The latest Grand Forks Youth Behavior Survey
shows students are using those substances at lower rates than in years previous, though usage rates climb for older students.
The biennial survey is funded by a federal Drug-Free Communities grant and conducted on opposite years of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey.
Associate Superintendent of Secondary Education Catherine Gillach presented the report.
Seven percent of eighth-, ninth- and 11th-graders reported consuming an alcoholic drink in the past 30 days, while 2.5% reported smoking all or part of a cigarette.
Both of those figures have declined since the survey was first conducted in 2018. That survey showed recent usage rates of 13.9% for alcohol and 6.1%, respectively.
Gillach noted 2024 had shown much lower completion rates than past years, with only about half of students filling out the spring survey.
She highlighted data showing more students perceived their peers as disapproving of alcohol, cigarette and marijuana use.
“Our peers and families make the biggest difference in the end,” she said.
Student perception of the risk of smoking marijuana has also grown by nearly 13 percentage points since 2018, to 72% of polled students. However, Gillach expressed concern about climbing usage rates as students aged and perceived less risk associated with substance use.
“That’s where our work comes, where the perception of risk (declines) and use increases as they get older,” she said.
She highlighted lower risk perception of marijuana among older students and also said she was concerned about student vape usage, highlighting a statistic showing 23% of 11th-graders did not think vapes were a little or not addictive at all.
“We know vapes are quite addictive, arguably more addictive than cigarettes,” she noted.
Valley Bus owner John McLaughlin said the district bus provider had a rough start to the 2023-24 school year but is optimistic about the coming year.
A last-minute shortfall of drivers meant the bus service relied on temp services to fill positions and Cities Area Transit to cover some of the bus service’s 23 routes at the outset of the school year.
McLaughlin compared the Fargo-based company’s expansion to Grand Forks – the company picked up a three-year service contract with Grand Forks Public Schools last April – to both a start-up company and a football team.
“It was a good learning year,” McLaughlin said. “I feel like a football coach where the team just went 6-6. Maybe 5-6.”
He said the bus service is set to be fully-staffed at the moment and discussed how the company had become more aggressive in advertising and recruiting for its positions.
School Board members were complimentary of McLaughlin, with board member Amber Flynn crediting McLaughlin for his “professionalism” addressing Valley’s uneven year.
Grand Forks Education Association Vice President Joe Drumm told the Herald he appreciated McLaughlin’s presentation and hoped the company would be able to maintain and add to its routes going forward.
“As a football coach, I appreciate having a bus to take us from point A to point B,” he quipped.
The School Board gave the final go-ahead to
shift $1.7 million in federal pandemic funds
away from completed HVAC upgrades at Benjamin Franklin Elementary School and toward addressing an operating deficit.
Building Fund dollars will instead cover the HVAC costs.
Overall spending figures remain the same for 2023-24.
“We’re not asking to spend more money, we’re asking to spend it out of a different pocket?” Lunn asked, to which Baumbach responded affirmatively.
Board members also signed off on the
issuance and sale of $52.8 million in general obligation bonds
to cover construction costs for Valley Middle School and the district’s central kitchen as well as an anticipated $18 million in safety and security upgrades to buildings across the district.
Baumbach said the school district received nine bids and a more favorable interest rate than projected with 3.73%.
“It was a very competitive market, which is what you like to see,” he said.
A $6.5 million bond sale to cover construction costs on the Career Impact Academy was meant to be included in the sale but must be subject to a 60-day protest period before those bonds can be issued, Baumbach said.
He expects the vote for the final sale of those bonds to take place in October.
In other news,
- Gateway Cenex will be the district’s gasoline provider for priority in-town refueling while Circle K Holiday got the bid for other in-town and out-of-town refueling,
board members signed off on Monday.
M&W Service, Inc & Fert-L-Lawn
will be the district’s snow removal provider for 2024-25.
Joshua Irvine covers K-12 and higher education as well as the Grand Forks County Commission for the Grand Forks Herald. He joined the Herald in October 2023.