By Lexi MooreHills-Beaver Creek Superintendent David Deragisch spoke to a Minnesota legislative committee on behalf of rural education.During their meeting on Monday night, Deragisch briefed H-BC School Board members on his recent trip to the Capitol.Deragisch had been asked by the Minnesota Rural Education Association to speak during a committee hearing on a policy bill that would replace sparsity aid with discretionary levies.The MREA is an association of 150 school districts located in non-metropolitan areas of Minnesota. These school districts make up about 40 percent of the state’s independent school districts.Sparsity aid is given to districts with schools in sparsely populated areas.If schools are eligible, additional revenue is given to the school by the state to meet the higher cost of operating a school with a smaller number of students.Discretionary levies rely on taxing local citizens and industry to meet the school’s needs.Deragisch’s concern is that by replacing the sparsity aid with discretionary levies H-BC "would be hitting the same people up."Currently H-BC gets transportation sparsity aid and aid based on the distance between the H-BC high school and the nearest public high school.Replacing this aid with a discretionary levy would mean more local taxes. Deragisch said he doesn’t like this solution because it hurts rural communities."We would be hurt by the discretionary levy because we do not have a big industry pool to draw from."Deragisch said he was pleased to get to voice his opinion on behalf of rural education."I thought the senators and representatives wanted to hear and understand what I had to say."School policy news:üH-BC board members approved the passing of policies 101, 104 and 204.Policy 101 reworded an item to state "school board" instead of the current wording "school district." The motion to approve the policy was made by Matt Larson, seconded by Gary Esselink.Policy 104 requires the board to review the school mission statement every five to seven years. No changes were made to the current mission statement, but it was decided it would be printed on more public documents. The motion to approve the policy was made by Lois Leuthold, seconded by Lloyd DeBoer.Policy 204 changed the mandates for printing school board minutes. Minutes of all board meetings must be given to any individual who asks for them. This must be done free of charge. The motion was made by Esselink, seconded by DeBoer.In other school news:üHills-Beaver Creek School Board members approved the 2005-2006 school calendar on Monday night.Students will return to school for the 2005-2006 school year on Sept. 1, 2005. The year will end on May 25, 2006, with graduation services on May 26.üStudent teacher Sara Cota will begin teaching in seventh- and eighth-grade English classes. Cota has been teaching in the elementary school for several months.üNow that the weather has warmed up, H-BC schools will be conducting fire drills. Minnesota schools are required to hold nine fire drills a year.As of Monday night, the H-BC High School has conducted six drills and the Elementary School has had five.üBoard members congratulated H-BC students Cassie Tilstra, Tyler Bush and Kale Wiertzema for signing letters of intent with Northwestern College in Orange City, IA.
