MARSHALL - In collaboration with School Board Recognition Week, Marshall Superintendent Klint Willert handed out certificates and took the opportunity to thank each of the six board members in attendance at the Marshall School Board meeting Tuesday.
"You put in a tremendous amount of time and effort, so I thank you for your dedication," Willert said. "Thank you for the work you do. It's very admirable."
Willert also recognized Marty Brandl, Marshall High School math teacher, in the February Tiger Spotlight. Brandl goes above and beyond his classroom duties by putting user-friendly resource videos on You Tube, Willert said.
"Marty does an outstanding job incorporating technology into the classroom," Willert said. "He's had over 800,000 viewers worldwide. That comes directly out of our high school, which speaks to how important and valuable technology is."
Praise was also directed at Marshall Middle School students who packed food for hungry children throughout the world and to fundraising clubs, such as the M Club, which recently purchased a SMART Board for use in the athletic conference room.
"Several thousand meals were packed by our students," Willert said. "It was a great community building environment, with students working with our service organizations."
One item brought to the board's attention concerned the possible need for padding in the Marshall High School north gymnasium. A safety issue exists with the distance between the end line on the basketball court and the concrete walls on the south end of the north gym. According to industry standards, a minimum of 6 feet of landing space should exist, but with the court in question, there is only 3 feet between the end line and the wall. While padding spans 12 feet under the basket on each court, there is still 70 feet of exposed concrete wall along the end line.
"It's a concern our coaches have had for awhile," Willert said. "It was brought forward recently."
After discussion, the board approved a process that enables the district to borrow money through Aid Anticipation Certificates. Ehlers, Marshall's financial consultant, is leading the process, which Business Director Bruce Lamprecht projects to be completed by early April.
"Because of the cash flow that we're not getting from the state of Minnesota, this is something we feel we have to do," Lamprecht said. "We need this funding. We have to be able to pay our bills. If all goes as expected, we should have the dollars by April 11."
Willert pointed out that the Aid Anticipation Borrowing is a process that the district has used before, but this time, there is "real cost" involved because of the impact of the state shift.
The board also approved the bus transportation pilot program, using iris scanning, in three of the district's bus routes this spring.
"We'll try out three different routes that we have," Lamprecht said. "It's an iris scan, not a retina scan. If it's successful, we would look at starting the system sometime after the start of the school year, probably in September."