School board resolves to bring ‘inequitable’ mascot rule to the Minnesota School Boards Association Delegate Assembly

At the school board meeting on Monday, Aug. 19, the school board members discussed th Minnesota School Boards Association (MSBA) Delegate Assembly MSBA and the resolutions that the school board have decided to bring to them.

The MSBA starts working on its legislative platform by taking resolutions from member districts to the delegate assembly. The assembly then prioritizes and identifies which resolutions or issues MSCA is going to support from the group.

Superintendent Matt Grose said they’ve been fortunate enough to have members serve on that delegate assembly and have a voice in that process. Pat Medure and David Marty are on the assembly representing Director District 11. During their workshops last week they were able to come up with two resolutions for the assembly. Grose said that both resolutions have “significant impacts to Grand Rapids area schools and also districts across the state.”

The first resolution for consideration revolves around Native American or American Indian mascots. In 2023 legislation was passed that prohibited the use of American Indian mascots of a variety of types and that included the Grand Rapids Thunderhawk. Grose said that the legislation was problematic from the start, “from a process standpoint there was no funding to implement it and as it turned out it was applied and implemented in an incredibly inconsistent manner across the state with some districts holding the same mascot being treated entirely differently.”

In the spring of 2024 there was an update to that law and districts were granted an additional year to make the change.

Grose reiterated that the resolution identified a lack of transparency in how districts were identified, a lack of consistency in how the law had been applied, and a lack of funding to make the necessary changes.

Grose said that the estimate for the work that they have to get done to make the changes on signs, banners, uniforms, and more is “north of a half a million dollars, upwards to $800,000.” Some schools in the state are estimating it to cost them more than one million dollars.

The resolution requests that the mascot decisions be left to local districts and local tribes to work together and that the state fund any changes that have to be made. This resolution was approved.

Director Pat Medure wanted to clarify that if this went through, the school board would have to take the $800,000 from the general fund, from the teaching and learning aspect portion to cover the unfunded state mandate. This was confirmed.

Director Dr. Malissa Bahr wanted to let the general public know just how unfair the legislation was applied across the state. One of the observations was that Brainerd and BOLD both have warriors with helmets, the same mascot. Apparently Brainerd was never notified and didn’t make the list while BOLD was on the list. BOLD asked for an exemption but was denied the exemption.

Bahr also brought up that Grand Rapids, the Thunderhawks, and that their exemption was denied, while Montevideo, the Thunder Hawks had no denial, Bahr mentioned “how inequitable this has been applied.”

Grose made sure to recognize that the school district “is not for disrespectful mascots of any kind” and that it’s about legislative issues with the variation of the law.

The second resolution they would like to bring to the MSBA is the allocation of seasonal recreational operating referendum levy dollars. In 2024 a bill was introduced called Seasonal Tax Based Replacement Aid that would have changed how operating referendum property taxes work in school districts.

Currently any referendum taxes collected on seasonal recreational property go to the state’s commercial and industrial levy instead of the money staying local. The amount collected last spring would not have changed the amount collected but what would change is where the money goes. The bill would have kept seasonal recreational property taxes the same and reduced the cost of an operating referendum local district. This would have reduced the 2023 referendum by just under 20% and it would reduce the cost of operating referendums already in place. Grose said that some neighbors would be reduced 23-30%. The resolution was approved.

In other business:

The minutes from the 8/6/24 school board meeting were approved as well as the July 2024 claims.The consent agenda included multiple replacement hires and three resignations. The consent agenda was approved.The head coaches listed for Grand Rapids and Bigfork were approved for the 2024-2025 seasons. Bigfork had 7 coaches and Grand Rapids had 23.The 2024-2025 ISD 318 handbooks were approved for Bigfork High School, the Digital Student Learning Initiative, EARLY EDge Parent Handbook, Education Support Paraprofessionals (ESP), Elementary schools, Grand Rapids Area Learning Center, Grand Rapids High School, ISDS 318 Coach & Advisor, ISD 318 Employees, the Itaskin Education Center, and Robert J. Elkington Middle School.The 2024-2025 school board goals were approved.

The Purchase Agreement with the City of Grand Rapids for the sale of the former ISD 318 Administration building was brought up. It was listed for sale in 2023 and it has been on the market for 330 days. Due to some zoning limitations, Grose mentioned that it wasn’t an option for some businesses that might have been interested in it. The closing date would be on or before October 31, 2024. The motion was approved to accept the resolution for the purchase agreement.

The 2024-2025 School Resource Officer contract was approved. They have gone down to one school resource officer. School board members asked about how we are going from two officers to one– and what that will look like. Grose mentioned that they had a meeting with many different people to hash it out and do the best that they can.

Another newsworthy event taking place was that in late July the school board was notified that someone had painted a pickleball court onto the Varsity tennis courts. The way it was painted makes the court unusable for tennis, taking away a home court, a practice court, a host court, and more. The individual(s) did not have permission to do so. Grose said the estimate is $15,000 to fix it because they have to resand down the court. That entire court was redone last year and the unique business service is booked out now for another year. The school board has filed a police report and consider it an act of vandalism.