Luverne theatrical wife-husband team Carol and Tim Ceynowa spent more than a year adapting the beloved children’s story, “Alice in Wonderland,” for the local stage.
The Green Earth Players bring the couple’s adaptation to the stage of the Palace Theatre in seven performances from Friday through Sunday, March 24-26, and from Thursday through Sunday, March 30 through April 2. All performances begin at 7:30 p.m. except for the Sunday performances, which begin at 2 p.m.
“Alice in Wonderland” is based on Lewis Carroll’s book of the same name.
The Ceynowas admit their version of the classic children’s story keeps Alice’s adventures on a funnier level.
“Lewis Carroll with his writing is very adult,” Carol said. “We didn’t want to go too dark in tone but stay whimsical.”
Tim indicated their adaption is “90 percent Carroll, 10 percent us.” They’ve added additional scenes and more characters to Carroll’s stories of a young Alice and the made-up adventures in Wonderland.
“It’s an interesting story on different levels,” Carol said. “One or two characters are nice to Alice, but everyone else is a bit too crazy.”
Several of the Green Earth Players portray more than one character in the play, and they sing popular songs from the ’60s.
“A lot of the songs are in the public domain and are ones Doris Day sang — a lot of songs from my generation,” Carol said.
During the early weeks of the GEP rehearsals, the local actors contributed to the Ceynowas’ adaptation with suggested dialogue changes, inclusion of dance elements, and whimsical songs created by Shawn Kinsinger and David Vis, who based the songs on Lewis Carroll's poems. The result is a fast-moving, 2-hour and 20-minute performance.
 “Alice in Wonderland” is the ninth GEP production that the Ceynowas have completed together. The most recent was the 2021 production, “The Game’s Afoot.” This is Carol’s 10th role as director.
The cast and character(s) of “Alice in Wonderland” include:
•Nicole Henrichs (Alice)
•Katie Walgrave (Queen of Hearts)
•Morgan Van Holland (Edith, Duchess, Rose)
•Tory Bohlke (Tea Lady, Petunia, Door 1)
•Terri Ebert (cook, Peony)
•Britton McKenzie (Tweedle Dee, Card 2, Swimmer)
•Jim Harsma (White Knight, March Hare, Swimmer)
•D.J. Luethje (Door Mouse, Poppy, Octopus)
•Shane Amborn (Knave of Hearts/executioner, Caterpillar, Swimmer, Wind)
•Trisha McKenzie (Butterfly)
•Berty Stearns (Sunflower, White Queen, Door 2)
•Chris Brown (Card 5, Jabberwocky, Mushroom, Swimmer)
•Casey McKenzie (JubJub Bird, Mad Hatter, Swimmer)
•David Vis (White Rabbit)
•Tim Ceynowa (King of Hearts)
•Cody Henrichs (Humpty Dumpty, Card 7, Swimmer)
•Xavier McKenzie (Tweedle Dumb, Page, Door 3)
•Carol Ceynowa (Clean-up Mouse, Fan Dancer)
•Shawn Kinsinger (Cheshire Cat)   
•Joseph Stearns (Mini-Me)
•Katrina Brown (Fan Dancer)
Ticket costs are $14 for adults and $7 for children.
Tickets can be purchased online at www.palacetheatre.us, at the Palace Theater Box Office, 104 E. Main St., Luverne, or call 507-283-4339.

The Minnesota Department of Education issued a favorable review and comment to the Hills-Beaver Creek School District to proceed with a $29.975 million bond referendum.
As a result of the favorable review, the district must receive a simple majority of positive votes on both questions in order for the bond referendum to pass.
The vote takes place Tuesday, April 11.
District officials are asking residents two questions:
•The first ballot question authorizes $26.5 million for the construction of a new 57,416-square-foot elementary school, demolition of the existing elementary school in Beaver Creek, and completion of improvements at the secondary school in Hills. No location for the new elementary school is specified in the information to the state. However, district officials are negotiating on additional property for the new elementary school in Beaver Creek. After several closed sessions, no purchase agreement has been reached on a 10- to 12-acre site.
•The second question authorizes $3.475 million to upgrade the Hugo Goehle gymnasium located on the former high school site in Hills, demolition of the remaining portion of the old high school, and updating the current bus garage facility and parking lot at the current secondary school, both in Hills.
Construction will take place in 2024 and 2025.
 
Proposal anticipates decline in student enrollment
The review by the state indicates a decline in student enrollment of 8 to 13 percent annually, beginning with the 2025-26 school year.
“If enrollment declines continue into the future and class sizes drop significantly below the status quo of slightly more than 20 students per grade, the district will likely face operational cost deficits prior to the competition of the debt service payments on the proposed bond issue which expires in 2046.
The district expects to reduce some of its operational costs through the construction of a new, more energy-efficient elementary school. 
The enrollment for the 2022-2023 school year at H-BC for kindergarten through 12th grade is 344 students.
 
Upcoming referendum sessions planned
School officials plan two information sessions to inform voters on the two referendum questions and the projects included in the bond.
The first session takes place at the existing elementary school in Beaver Creek beginning at 7 p.m. Thursday, March 23.
The second session is at 7 p.m. Tuesday, March 28, at the Hugo-Goehle gymnasium in Hills. 
Representatives from the school district, project architects, construction managers and the district’s financial advisers will be available to answer questions.
At both information sessions, the public is invited to tour the facilities and the projects included in the long-term building maintenance improvement plan.
An information brochure was recently mailed to district residents explaining the projects involved in the bond referendum and where and how residents can vote. A copy is available online at www.hbcpatriots.com under the “2023 Referendum” tab. An impact calculator is also available for residents to gauge how the referendum may affect various property classifications.

Luverne High School students Brady Bork and Sarah Stegenga have found themselves in the national limelight after their promposal went viral at the Cardinal boys’ state hockey appearance.
The couple have been dating for three months and had discussed prom plans, but to be creative, Bork jotted a formal prom request on the tape wrapped around the blade of his spare stick. 
Ahead of the Class A quarterfinal between No. 2 Hermantown and unseeded Luverne, the Cardinal senior skated to the camera at the blue line and raised his stick, unveiling the prom proposal, "Hey Sarah, prom?"
The proposal hit social media, and Stegenga shortly thereafter responded on Twitter, “I am Sarah and I said yes!” The word was drawn in bubble letters on the blade of a taped hockey stick.
It was a sweet story amid the Cardinals’ brutal 6-0 loss in Wednesday’s game. 
The Luverne team skated to their season’s end the next day with a 7-3 loss to Alexandria in the consolation semifinals.
But the local players and fans were just happy to be part of the state hockey scene, and the Bork-Stegenga promposal kept circulating on social media and then among Twin Cities newspapers and TV news stations. 
“That’s a victory for the day,” head coach Phil Paquette later said after learning Sarah had said “yes.”
Long after the team and fan buses returned home, the promposal surfaced in new places online and in print.
“Almost every social media platform I use has been littered with pictures from it so it would’ve been hard to not pay attention,” Bork said.
Stegenga, too, has lost track of how many times their story circulated.
“I have really enjoyed them all, and how they’ve all shared different parts of the story,” she said. 
“The CBS story has been my favorite. I love that it had a focus on the actual game (the real reason we were all there), and how proud so many people are of Brady and his incredible hockey career.” 
The latest was Tuesday afternoon when ESPN interviewed the couple in a live online format.
For their part, Bork and Stegenga say they’re just happy to have been part of a light-hearted story and they’re looking to Luverne’s prom on April 29.
“It has been fun,” Bork said about the media attention. “If you have an idea that you like, go for it; it might just go viral.”
Stegenga agreed. “It’s been fun to experience a once-in-a-lifetime kind of fame,” she said. “If you ever get an experience like this, just take it all in and enjoy the moment.”

Luverne native Jim Brandenburg has received the Lifetime Achievement Award from his colleagues at the National Geographic magazine. 
In a March 9 social media post, Brandenburg said he was “humbled” and “surprised” by the announcement from his peers at The Photo Society.
“I have been so very fortunate over the years to have received some precious and treasured awards around the world,” Brandenburg said. “But this one is unique for me because it is from my peers — some of the finest photographic talent in the world.”
Comprised of 200 of National Geographic’s photographers, the society’s membership requires photographers to have done serious feature assignment work for the magazine.  
Only five others have received Nat Geo’s Lifetime Achievement Award.
Brandenburg reached out to the Star Herald Tuesday to say he credits his upbringing in the Luverne community for his career successes.
“I feel that growing up in Luverne was a crucial part of my ability to go out in the world and do the things that brought me to this place,” he said. 
“I feel so very fortunate to have come from the Rock County culture. I mention it often when doing presentations. … The old prairie farmer work ethic and the care and nurturing that I got looking back on my boyhood years stays with me.”
 
Growing list of accolades
The recent honor joins a long and growing list of awards and recognitions the photographer from Luverne has amassed over his professional career.  
Twenty years ago he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the North American Nature Photography Association.
In 1991 he was awarded the Global 500 Environmental World Achievement Award through the United Nations for his work with the Wolf Ridge Environmental Learning Center, Nature Conservancy and others.
In 2001 Brandenburg was named a Nikon Legend Behind the Lens and in 2002 a Hasselblad Master by the Swedish camera maker. From 2005-08 he was a Canon Explorer of Light photographer.
In 2006 Jim Brandenburg was awarded with an honorary degree, Doctor of Humane Letters, by the University of Minnesota, Duluth. 
In 2009 Jim Brandenburg’s well-known image of the leaping Arctic wolf was named one of 100 most important photos in Canadian history and was included in the book, “100 Photos that Changed Canada.”
In 2010 Outdoor Photography Magazine included Brandenburg in its “40 Most Influential Nature Photographers.” 
Four of Brandenburg’s images were included in The Top Forty, a collection of “40 most important nature photographs of all time,” as compiled by the International League of Conservation Photographers.
 
From books and magazines to film
In sharing the news about his Lifetime Achievement Award, Brandenburg last week talked about some of his current projects in the works.
“I have evolved from the magazine assignment work and have returned to moving pictures, where I started when I was in my mid-20s,” Brandenburg said.
“My first assignment for National Geographic was with the TV division 50 years ago, “Strange Creatures of the Night,” a CBS pre-cable primetime television special. My last and largest NG magazine story was in 2016, “93 Days of Spring.”
Brandenburg was unable to attend his award ceremony in Washington, D.C., in late January because he was in Europe “deeply immersed” in two movie projects that he considers the largest and most complex” of his career.
One is a feature film about his life in nature produced by a prominent Cannes award-winning production company in Paris. The other is a large screen film that he created, wrote and is producing in Italy with a Bristol, UK, film crew. 
“The French film production company will feature Luverne and the Touch the Sky prairie as the place that completes the circle in my career. Coming home ... we will film the closing sequence there this late summer when the prairie is in full bloom.”
 
‘It takes a village’
Jim Brandenburg got his start in photography at age 14 with a $3 camera and image of a shy fox he captured in the Blue Mounds State Park. It was his first published photograph.
He graduated from Luverne High School in 1963 and studied art at the University of Minnesota, first in the Twin Cities, then in Duluth. 
He was a photojournalist at the Worthington Daily Globe and then at National Geographic, where he first freelanced and then became a contract photographer in 1978.
Through all his world travels and professional accomplishments, Brandenburg never forgot his roots.
In 1999 Brandenburg and his wife, Judy, and their family and supporters established Touch the Sky Prairie in northwestern Rock County through the Brandenburg Prairie Foundation. 
It’s within a mile of his home place and two miles from the place where his great-grandparents, Henry and Theresa Brandenburg, homesteaded and broke the virgin prairie sod at the turn of the century.
There are now more than 1,200 acres of the Northern Tallgrass Prairie National Wildlife Refuge in Touch the Sky Prairie, and the Brandenburg Gallery in Luverne sells the artist’s prints and books to support the prairie restoration.
From his home in Ely last week, the legendary nature photographer took a moment to reflect on where he’s been and how far he’s come.
“I am now back in a snowy Minnesota feeling extremely honored and a bit breathless contemplating it all,” Brandenburg said. 
“I am especially appreciative and beyond grateful for all the family and friends that helped pave the way. This is not possible without that kind of support.”
He said he hesitated to thank individuals, for fear of overlooking someone, but he mentioned several who influenced him in his early years who “took me under their wings and gave me gifts that I didn't appreciate at the time like I do now.” 
He mentioned Ralph Herreid, Fred Manfred, Al Winter “who provided inspiration and wisdom,” and his Aanenson and Brandenburg family that he was “lucky to be born into.”
He said he wished he was able to express gratitude that is deserved. “It certainly ‘takes a village,’” Brandenburg said. 
“And, of course, how lucky was I to have met that shy girl from Hardwick in art class in the 10th grade ... Judy has been my keel and patient advisor through all these years.”

Notice of delinquent taxes
STATE OF MINNESOTA DISTRICT COURT
 
COUNTY OF ROCK             FIFTH JUDICIAL DISTRICT
 
TO: ALL PERSONS WITH A LEGAL INTEREST IN THE PARCELS OF REAL PROPERTY DESCRIBED IN THE FOLLOWING DELINQUENT TAX LIST
A list of real property in Rock County on which delinquent property taxes  and penalties are due has been filed with the District Court Administrator of Rock County. This list is  published to inform all persons that the listed property is subject to forfeiture because of delinquent taxes.
The property owner, taxpayer, or other interested person must either pay the tax and penalty, plus interest and costs, or file a written objection with the district court administrator. The objection must be filed by April 19, 2023, stating the reason why the tax or penalty is not due on the property. If no objection is filed, a court judgment 
will be entered against the property for the unpaid tax, penalty, interest and costs.
For property under court judgment, the period of redemption begins on May 8, 2023.  The period of redemption means the time within which taxes must be paid to avoid losing the property through forfeiture. The period of redemption is three years, with a handful of exceptions. The redemption period is one year for most properties located in a targeted neighborhood, as defined in the Minnesota laws, and for municipal solid waste disposal facilities. The redemption period is five weeks for certain abandoned or vacant properties.
  You may also enter into a confession of judgment as an alternative method to paying off the delinquent tax amount and avoiding forfeiture. This allows you to pay the delinquent balance in equal annual installments with a down payment due at the time you confess judgment. The length of the installment plan varies: 5 years 
for commercial-industrial/public utility property; 10 years for all other properties.
If you have homesteaded property, you may be eligible for a Senior Citizen’s Property Tax Deferral, which enables seniors to pay just 3% of their total household
income and allow remaining amounts to become a lien on the property that may be
deferred for later payment (perhaps upon eventual sale of the property).
It should also be noted by property homesteaders that you are ineligible to
receive the Property Tax Refund while you owe delinquent property tax.
To determine how much interest and costs must be added to pay the tax in full, contact the Rock County Auditor-Treasurer’s Office, Rock County Courthouse, 204 East Brown St, PO Box 509, Luverne, Minnesota 56156-0509. You may also contact the Auditor-Treasurer at (507) 283-5060 or ashley.kurtz@co.rock.mn.us.
 
/s/ Natalie Reisch
District Court Administrator       Fifth Judicial District
Date: February 10, 2023
 
District Court Seal
                  (03-16)
***** See attachment for list*****
STATE OF MINNESOTA
COUNTY OF ROCK            
Ashley Kurtz, being duly sworn, deposes, and says that she is the Auditor-Treasurer of the county of Rock; that she has examined the foregoing list, 
and knows the contents thereof; and that the same is true and correct.
 
(Official Seal)
 
/s/ Ashley Kurtz, Auditor-Treasurer
Subscribed and sworn to before me this 10th day of February, 2023.
 
(Notary Seal)
/s/ Vanessa J. Luettel
Notary Public, Nobles County, Minnesota                   
(03-16)

Notice of delinquent taxes
STATE OF MINNESOTA DISTRICT COURT
 
COUNTY OF ROCK             FIFTH JUDICIAL DISTRICT
 
TO: ALL PERSONS WITH A LEGAL INTEREST IN THE PARCELS OF REAL PROPERTY DESCRIBED IN THE FOLLOWING DELINQUENT TAX LIST
A list of real property in Rock County on which delinquent property taxes  and penalties are due has been filed with the District Court Administrator of Rock County. This list is  published to inform all persons that the listed property is subject to forfeiture because of delinquent taxes.
The property owner, taxpayer, or other interested person must either pay the tax and penalty, plus interest and costs, or file a written objection with the district court administrator. The objection must be filed by April 19, 2023, stating the reason why the tax or penalty is not due on the property. If no objection is filed, a court judgment 
will be entered against the property for the unpaid tax, penalty, interest and costs.
For property under court judgment, the period of redemption begins on May 8, 2023.  The period of redemption means the time within which taxes must be paid to avoid losing the property through forfeiture. The period of redemption is three years, with a handful of exceptions. The redemption period is one year for most properties located in a targeted neighborhood, as defined in the Minnesota laws, and for municipal solid waste disposal facilities. The redemption period is five weeks for certain abandoned or vacant properties.
  You may also enter into a confession of judgment as an alternative method to paying off the delinquent tax amount and avoiding forfeiture. This allows you to pay the delinquent balance in equal annual installments with a down payment due at the time you confess judgment. The length of the installment plan varies: 5 years 
for commercial-industrial/public utility property; 10 years for all other properties.
If you have homesteaded property, you may be eligible for a Senior Citizen’s Property Tax Deferral, which enables seniors to pay just 3% of their total household
income and allow remaining amounts to become a lien on the property that may be
deferred for later payment (perhaps upon eventual sale of the property).
It should also be noted by property homesteaders that you are ineligible to
receive the Property Tax Refund while you owe delinquent property tax.
To determine how much interest and costs must be added to pay the tax in full, contact the Rock County Auditor-Treasurer’s Office, Rock County Courthouse, 204 East Brown St, PO Box 509, Luverne, Minnesota 56156-0509. You may also contact the Auditor-Treasurer at (507) 283-5060 or ashley.kurtz@co.rock.mn.us.
 
/s/ Natalie Reisch
District Court Administrator       Fifth Judicial District
Date: February 10, 2023
 
District Court Seal
                  (03-16)

Rock County Planning and
 Zoning hearing set for March 27
Notice of Public Hearing for Conditional Use Permit
Pursuant to the Rock County Zoning Ordinance, notice is hereby given by the
Rock County Planning and Zoning Commission that a public hearing will be held at the Rock County Law Enforcement Center located at 1000 North Blue Mound Avenue, Luverne, Minnesota at 7:00 p.m Monday, March 27. 2023. The purpose of this hearing is to rule on the applications for Conditional Use Permits as listed in this notice:
 
Applicant: Duininck, Inc.
Location: A portion of the SE 1/4 of Section 15 of Luverne Town
ship, T102N, R45W, Rock County, Minnesota 
Conditional Use: Placement and operation of a temporary asphalt plant 
Zoning District: A-2, General Agriculture        
 
Applicant: Duininck, Inc.
Location: Portions of Section 14 & 11 of Denver Township, T104N, 
R45W, Rock County, Minnesota
Conditional Use: Aggregate rock quarry mining, stockpiling, washing, and 
associated processing 
Zoning District: A-2, General Agriculture
 
Applicant: Duininck, Inc.
Location: Portions of Section 14 & 11 of Denver Township, T104N, 
R45W, Rock County, Minnesota
Conditional Use: Placement and operation of a temporary asphalt plant 
Zoning District: A-2, General Agriculture      
 
Applicant: Duininck, Inc.
Location: Portions of the SW 1/4 of Section 21 of Battle Plain 
Township, T104N, R44W, 
Rock County, Minnesota
Conditional Use: Aggregate mining, stockpiling, washing, and associated 
processing, and the stockpiling and recycling of concrete 
and asphalt
Zoning District: A-2, General Agriculture             
 
Applicant: Duininck, Inc.
Location: Portions of the SW 1/4 of Section 21 of Battle Plain 
Township, T104N, R44W, Rock County, Minnesota
Conditional Use: Placement and operation of a temporary hot mix asphalt 
plan
Zoning District: A-2, General Agriculture                                                              
 
By Order of the Rock County Planning and Zoning Commission
Eric Hartman, Zoning Administrator
311 W. Gabrielson Road
Luverne, MN 56156
507-283-8862
(03-16, 03-23)

Review and comment project proposal for ISD #671
The Commissioner of the Department of Education 
Review and Comment on the School Construction 
Proposal of Hills-Beaver Creek Public School District, ISD #0671-01
A review and comment must be provided on a school district construction 
project proposal before the district conducts a referendum, solicits bids, or issues bonds 
for the project. A project proposal has been submitted for review and comment
according to requirements set forth in Minnesota Statutes, section 123B.71,
subdivisions 9 and 10, and Minnesota Statutes, section 123B.72. The district
provides the following information:
1. The geographic area and population to be served:
a. preschool through grade 12 student enrollment for the past five years, and
b. student enrollment projections for the next five years.
2. A list of existing school facilities:
a. by year constructed,
b. their uses, and
c. an assessment of the extent to which alternate facilities are available
within school district boundaries and in adjacent school districts.
3. A list of specific deficiencies of the facility:
a. demonstrating the need for a new or renovated facility to be provided,
b. the process used to determine the deficiencies,
c. a list of those deficiencies that will and will not be addressed by the proposed
projects,
d. a list of specific benefits that the new or renovated facility will
provide to students, teachers, and community users served by the facility.
4. A description of the project, including:
a. specifications of site and outdoor space acreage,
b. square footage allocations for classrooms, laboratories and support
spaces,
c. estimated expenditures for major portions of the project,
d. estimated changes in facility operating costs, and
e. dates the project will begin and be completed.
5. A specification of the source of project financing, including:
a. applicable statutory citations,
b. the scheduled date for a bond issue or school board action,
c. a schedule of payments, including debt service equalization aid, and
d. the effect of a bond issue on local property taxes by property class and valuation.
6. Documentation obligating the school district and contractors to comply
with the following items:
a. Minnesota Statutes, section 471.345 governing municipal contracts,
b. sustainable design,
c. school facility commissioning under Minnesota Statutes, section 123B.72, 
certifying the plans and designs for heating, ventilating, air conditioning and 
air filtration for an extensively renovated or new facility meet or exceed current
code standards, including ASHRAE air filtration Standard 52.1,
d. American National Standards Institute (ANSI) acoustical performance
criteria, design requirements and guidelines for schools on maximum back-
ground noise levels and reverberation times,
e. state fire code,
f. chapter 326B governing building codes, and
g. consultation with affected government units about the impact of the
project on utilities, roads, sewers, sidewalks, retention ponds,
school bus and automobile traffic, access to mass transit and safe access
for pedestrians and cyclists.
 
  Description of Proposed School Construction Project
Hills-Beaver Creek Public School District, ISD #0671-01 is proposing a two question bond referendum on April 11, 2023. The first ballot question would authorize $26.5 million in bonding authority to finance a new, 57,416 square foot elementary school on a new site to be acquired by the district, most likely in or around Beaver Creek; along with the demolition of the existing elementary school and secure entrance improvements to the secondary school. The second ballot question would authorize $3.475 million in bonding authority to finance: deferred maintenance upgrades to Hugo Gym, the demolition of the remaining portion of the old Hills high school, upgrades to the existing bus garage facility and parking lot improvements at the secondary facility in Hills.
The existing school buildings include: an older PK-5 facility in Beaver Creek, a newer, 6-12th grade secondary in Hills and the old high school site (which contains the Hugo Gym and the bus garage); also located in Hills. The projects proposed would be scheduled for completion in calendar years 2024 and 2025. Cost estimates by ballot question/location/project type are as follows:
Ballot Question #1 Ballot Question #2
New Elementary School  $15,170,322 Deferred Maintenance ­     $1,056,154
Land Acquisition                   $480,000 Bus Garage Addition           $383,806
Storm Shelter Upgrades       $350,000 Demo Old High School        $456,160
Site Improvements            $2,452,500 Site Improvements              $486,000
Demo Existing Elementary   $561,000 Fees, Permits & Testing      $357,318
HS / MS Secure Entrance      $48,000 Contingencies         $689,842
FF&E / Technology            $2,227,961 Bond Issuance           $45,720
Fees, Permits & Testing    $1,324,023 $3,475,000
Contingencies                    $2,809,049
Bond Issuance                      $449,367
Capitalized Interest               $627,778
                                $26,500,000
 
Though the district expects a decline in operational costs with the construction of a new, energy-efficient elementary school and the demolition of the non-gymnasium portion of the old high school facility, declining enrollment will likely be an issue for the district’s operational budget in the intermediate to long term future. Enrollment projections show a decline of 8 – 13% annually beginning with the 2025-26 school year. If enrollment declines continue into the future and class sizes drop significantly below the status-quo of slightly more than 20 students per grade, the district will likely face operational cost deficits prior to the completion of the debt service payments on the proposed bond issue which expire in FY 2046.
The proposed project appears to be in the short-term interest of the school district but the intermediate and long term advisability of the proposed projects is difficult to determine and will be dependent on future student enrollment trends.
Review and Comment Statement
Based on the department’s analysis of the school district’s required documentation and other pertinent information from sources of the Minnesota Department of Education, the Commissioner of Education provides a positive review and comment.
Additional Information is Available
Persons desiring additional information requiring this proposal should
contact the school district superintendent's office.
 
/s/ Willie L. Jett II,
Commissioner
March 3, 2023
(03-16, 03-23)

Local grain producers reported corn and soybean yields from the 2022 production year at just above the state average, a year after record-setting yields locally in 2021.
Rock County farmers averaged a corn yield of 196.8 bushels per acre in 2022 from 129,400 harvested acres. In 2021 local producers pushed the county’s corn yield record from 127,600 acres of 206.4 bushels per acre.
The state corn yield average for 2022 was 195 bushels per acre.
Renville County led the state in corn grain production, harvesting a total of 52.9 million bushels. (Rock County had 25.4 million bushels).
Martin County led all Minnesota counties with a corn yield average of 224.9 bushels per acre.
For corn silage, Rock County producers harvested 4,680 acres in 2022 with an average yield of 22 tons per acre, down from 24 tons per acre in 2021.
The state corn silage yield average for 2022 was 21.5 tons per acre.
Stearns County led the state in corn silage, harvesting 1.2 million tons in 2022. Wabasha, Dodge and Mower counties tied for the highest corn silage yields in 2022 with an average of 26 tons per acre.
In soybean production for 2022, local farmers harvested 6.4 million bushels from 108,200 acres in Rock County with an average yield of 55.5 bushels per acre. In 2021 producers harvested a near record-setting 61.5 bushels per acre.
The state average for soybean production in 2022 was 50 bushels per acre.
Faribault County led soybean production in the state with the harvest of 11.1 million bushels in 2022. (Rock County had 6 million). Steele County achieved the highest soybean yield in 2022 with an average of 63 bushels per acre.
Several weather events affected Rock County in 2022 including a May 12 derecho, which barreled across the county with 70 mph winds, followed by tornado-like cells over Memorial Day weekend. Extreme heat settled into the county in late June, bringing drought conditions through the summer into the fall harvest season.
 
State set corn yield records in 2022
According to farm management analyst Kent Thiesse, the 2022 corn yield average of 195 bushels per acre is a new statewide record. This surpasses 194 bushels per acre in 2017, he noted in his March 5 “Focus on Ag” column.
Soybean yields didn’t rise to the record set in 2016 of 52 bushels per acre, but came close with 50 bushels per acre.
Thiesse noted extreme drought conditions continued to impact 2022 crop yields in the neighboring states of South Dakota and Nebraska. The average corn and soybean yields for South Dakota for 2022 were 135 and 38 bushels per acre respectively. Nebraska recorded average yields of 165 bushels per acre for corn and 49 bushels per acre for soybeans.