Herman-Norcross discusses transportation for hockey

Katie Erdman

Grant County Herald

For a time this summer, the future of the Storm hockey cooperative program was in question. Budget cuts by some of the participating school districts made for this concern as they proposed no longer offering the sport and eventually deciding to not provide transportation.

The Morris Hockey Association stepped in and offered to help out with some of the funding needs in order to keep the program running. One of these was to pay for the transportation of the Morris hockey players to Benson, which would be the host school. 

Herman-Norcross is part of that cooperative program and at their school board meeting on October 15, the board members discussed how they could provide transportation for the five boys and two girls who want to participate in hockey. 

In previous years, the players were able to ride on the Morris van route to practices that were held in Morris. With seven students now, the van would not be large enough to hold them and the van route students. The board members questioned the transportation costs of the Morris players since Herman-Norcross is also a part of the Morris Hockey Association and these parents pay into the association. Also in the past, a bus would take the students from Morris to Benson as needed and this will no longer be available. 

Superintendent Jessica Dietz reached out to the president of the Morris Hockey Association with this question but has not yet received a response. There was some discussion about using one of the three school owned vans however these are often all being used for routes. Another option could be to purchase a fourth van that can be used for the transportation of hockey players and other activities through the year.

Before discussing the transportation, the board approved several agreements in regard to the pairing in hockey. The first was to pair in girls hockey and the next was to dissolve the current hockey agreement. The board then approved a new hockey agreement adding one more school to now include Chokio-Alberta.

The discussion on transportation will continue in the future after getting more information from the Morris Hockey Association.

Dietz gave the board members a run down of the busy activity at the school and for her during the last month. She has attended several trainings and conferences and has been supervising the new teachers. The school staff is now complete with the hiring of Cheryl Shekleton as the elementary music instructor. She will be working on Monday – Thursday for two hours each morning. She is currently putting together a program for Veterans Day and there will be a Christmas Program on December 8 at 1:30 p.m.

Dietz stated that the building heating and cooling system is working well. However an inspection of the boiler found that one of the valves was installed incorrectly. Ellingson will be coming to fix this. The old boiler in the gymnasium area will be kept and reported to the state to keep on the list of boilers. This would be a good backup in the event that something happens to one of the boilers.

The snow removal contracts were reviewed and the board decided to retain the services of the same people who did the work last year. The school calendar was also adjusted with early outs on November 6 and March 10 for a special training and assessment time.

Dietz told the board that October 31 will be the end of the first quarter and everything has been going well so far. 

“The new teachers are doing great,” she commented. “They are going above and beyond and will come and ask questions when needed.”

She will soon be doing assessments for all the teachers and working on a plan for the Superintendent assessment in the future.