Screen Photo Minot Public Schools Board members met for their first meeting of the new school year at the Administration Building on Tuesday. From left to right, Board Vice President Lacey Laudenschlager, Superintendent Scott Faul, Board President Mitch Kraft, and Board members Bill Irmen and Scott Louser.

The Minot Public School Board elected new leadership at the first meeting of the new board on Tuesday and began grappling with the array of issues facing the district in the new year.

Board member Mitch Kraft was elected board president while Lacey Laudenschlager was elected board vice president. The current board is composed of Kraft, Sabrina Herrmann and newcomers Laudenschlager, Bill Irmen and Scott Louser.

Kraus-Anderson Construction Co. gave an update on the progress of the new Minot North High School campus. Work on the sports complex was progressing, with buildings awaiting finishing touches like room signage and cleaning. Irrigation and seeding the field areas is underway, and the surfacing of the track is in progress with lane striping to follow in the next week. Asphalt in the northwest lot has been completed, and fine grading of the main lot is wrapping up with the asphalt base scheduled for this week.

The City of Minot signed off on temporary occupancy in the existing building, and furniture installation is in progress. Final punch items are currently being addressed in the cleaned rooms, and final paint touch-ups are being performed this week.

District Business Manager Laura Dokken reviewed the district’s pupil membership report that was submitted to the state with a total of 7,556.67 average daily attendance (ADM), which revealed a shortfall of 154.88 pupils in 2023-2024. The district’s revenue from the state is determined by the ADM. Dokken also provided an update on the district’s deficit spending, which she said was not as bad as expected. Dokken said they were awaiting the approval from the state of additional revenue that would be posted into the last fiscal year derived from the CTE Center at the Minot Area Workforce Academy, which would provide an additional $346,000.

In old business, primarily the status of the Administration Building’s ongoing HVAC issues, Dokken said an insurance claim was filed, but was denied.

“When you step through the building, we are getting by with portable air conditioning units and that seems to be working on the second floor. It’s a little bit harder to keep things under control on the third floor here because there’s less windows there,” Dokken said.

Dokken said the Administration Building was the recipient of a targeted Brownfield Assessment, which will require the closing of the building Oct. 17-18 for testing of lead-based paint and asbestos. Dokken said the assessment’s approval was in process before the HVAC issues manifested and the Environmental Protection Agency will be performing it. Superintendent Scott Faul clarified the date of the assessment coincides when school will not be in session for academic conferences, and administrative employees will be able to use vacation time.

“It’s just one of those things we started to look into. We had an inquiry, what if we could find some other office space, repurpose some other space. This property could be sold or repurposed so we started to look into that,” Dokken said. “We did apply for some other buildings like Jefferson, McKinley and Bell but they weren’t approved.”

Dokken said another factor the board should keep in mind is the Administration Building is on the National Register of Historic Places as a part of the Minot Commercial Historic District. Dokken called attention to aspects of the North Dakota Century Code which apply to registered buildings, which say such buildings, “may not be destroyed, defaced, altered, removed or otherwise disposed of in any manner without the approval of the State Historical Board. Dokken noted that then MPS Superintendent Edward Mundy wrote a letter on Aug. 1, 1986, opposing the listing of the building on the registry.

“If the project were to be done on the building, that’s pretty extensive. We would have to work through Bismarck to make sure everything was done properly,” Dokken said.

The board approved the board member pay at $8,200 for the president and $7,200 for board members. Faul clarified that board compensation hasn’t changed since 2016. The board also approved the scheduling for its regular meetings, which will be held every second Thursday at 5:30 p.m.