New PR firm recommended to take on levy referendum effort

by David Hill Editor The Board of Education for School District 564, Thief River Falls, approved a marketing agreement with DehlerPR following a discussion about what services the company would provide for the levy referendum in November. DehlerPR, is a public relations and marketing firm. It has worked with many school districts that were attempting a levy referendum. Supt. Chris Mills explained that DehlerPR is similar to Rapp, the public relations firm the District employed last year. Mills said the services would be similar, but he believed DehlerPR would follow through near the end by taking on more responsibility, and help the District develop a secondary plan. He also liked that different levels of service they could negotiate. In response to a question as to whether it was common for Districts to hire PR firms, Mills said it was fairly common. Some larger districts, like Eden Prairie, have five public relations people on staff. Ryan Walseth, chairman, said he thought the PR firm last year missed the mark on parents. He also suggested there may be duties staff could undertake that would reduce the cost. Wayne Nomeland, a member of the Board of Education, said he thought it was a lot of money, but he trusted Mills’ judgment. The total cost could be less than $26,000. Enrollment concerns Mills also talked about disappointing numbers from the Kindergarten Roundup held this spring. He said only 66 kids were registered. It was the lowest number registered since they started offering the Roundup. As a result, they are anticipating a class of 90 kindergarten students enrolling next fall. They were anticipating 110, so this would represent a significant decline in enrollment numbers. Early projects indicate the District could see 210 fewer students over the next four years. They could see a total enrollment of 1,580 students four years from now, and that’s without any other inputs, like busing and St. Bernard’s Catholic School offering middle school. (Enrollment is currently at 1,776.) Mills said they have some work to do regarding right sizing the staff to student ratio. He said they will be taking a closer look at the issue in June. Nomeland asked whether it had anything to do with an increase in home schooling. Mills said it has to do with a lot of things - parents having fewer kids, primarily. He said the number of students being homeschooled, students enrolled in online programs, and students enrolled in other schools have been relatively stable. Walseth said he thought the pre-school numbers would have been higher. Mills said the numbers may turn around. He said they won’t know for sure until next fall. Streaming Service Mills also talked about streaming services for District activities. Currently, Garden Valley provides streaming services that primarily cover basketball. Mills said coaches and others would like to see more activities being streamed. Mills said they’ve opened discussions with a firm called Hudl. Hudl is a product and service of Agile Sports Technologies, a Lincoln, Nebraska-based company. He noted there’s an opportunity for the District to bring in some additional revenue. Graduation The Board of Education congratulated students of the Lincoln High School Class of 2024. Graduation is at 6 p.m. on May 24 in the Ralph Engelstad Arena. A parade follows the ceremony. Dr. Greene The Board of Education also congratulated Dr. Tony Greene on being elected the Northern Division Middle School Principal of the Year. Greene is the principal of Franklin Middle School. Hired The Board of Education approved hiring of a number of individuals to fill summer positions. These positions include food service personnel, tarted services, Prowler Pride Camp and special education. Mills said he thought they had filled the summer positions relatively quickly. The Board of Education approved awarding tenure to the following staff: Andrea Volk, Carrie Anderson, Sharron Coffman, Dominic Kruse, Melinda Meyers, Richard Looker, Erin Wayne, Melora Bergee, Michelle Erickson and Lisa Hinrichs. The Board of Education rescinded a resolution on March 11 that placed Shawna Spears, a continuing contract/tenured teacher, on unrequested leave of absence at the end of the 2023-24 school year. The next meeting of the Board of Education will be at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, May 28 in the District Service Center board room.