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Rushford-Peterson board directs administration to identify program and position reductions amid budget pressure; discusses coaching additions and routine bids
Summary
The board directed the superintendent to recommend program or position reductions to reduce expenditures, reviewed personnel actions and donations, and heard proposals to add a girls golf head coach and a junior-high baseball coach with estimated costs. The board also authorized procurement steps for milk, bread, gasoline and transportation bids.
The Rushford-Peterson School Board reviewed routine consent items and directed district administration to prepare recommendations for program and position reductions in response to the district’s stated financial condition.
Minutes include a resolution directing the superintendent and administration to consider discontinuing or curtailing programs and positions to reduce expenditures and to recommend which teachers’ contracts may be terminated or which teachers could be placed on unrequested leave of absence. The motion text appears in the meeting extract, but the member who introduced it is not named in the posted minutes.
On personnel and operational items, the board’s consent records from the recent meeting cycle list hires and leaves: new hires included Gabrielle Schwanke (MS/HS paraprofessional) and several coaching and support positions listed in the superintendent’s report; leaves and resignations were also recorded. The district reported donations totaling $19,961.32 from local boosters, the MSHSL Foundation, the Rushford American Legion and other contributors.
Activities Director and Dean of Students Clay Olstad reported increased participation in extracurricular sports and proposed adding a Head Girls Golf Coach at an estimated cost of $3,896 and a Junior High Baseball Coach at an estimated cost of $1,832. He also said existing funds would be reallocated to add assistant track positions (approx. $2,986) without increasing the overall budget. The proposals were presented as program staffing requests and budgeted costs; the minutes do not record final board action to hire or fund these specific positions at the Feb. 17 meeting.
The board also authorized the superintendent to advertise for bids for milk, bread and gasoline for the 2026–27 school year and to advertise for transportation bids or negotiate with Bernard Bus for 2026–28 transportation contracts. Those procurement authorizations are preliminary administrative steps to secure vendor pricing and, if needed, to prepare formal contract recommendations.
Other routine organizational actions recorded in the posted minutes from the Jan. 12 organizational meeting included the election of board officers, designation of Rushford State Bank and Merchants Bank as depositories, naming the Fillmore County Journal as the official newspaper, and delegating certain accounting duties to district business office staff.
