Hammer Field could become Jim Gustafson Field if a group of local men get their way.

The Albert Lea school board on Monday heard from residents Bruce Olson, Rich Oliphant and Bob Goldman about a plan that aims to name the high school football field Jim Gustafson Field.

Olson told the board the plan to name the field after the former educator and football coach wouldn’t cost the district anything. Their plan also includes remodeling the front entrance of the field and setting up a monetary account to reduce athletic fees for athletes in the future.

Their plan includes fundraising through various avenues, including asking alumni and former football players for donations. Olson said they expect to raise at least $150,000, with $50,000 going to remodeling the entrance.

Board member Mark Ciota asked if they had researched whether it can be changed from Hammer Field. Olson said they hadn’t but added they would be flexible if the district wanted to keep that name for the entire complex and just rename the football field.

The board tentatively approved the plan pending more information.

 

Student development

The Albert Lea school board learned about the ways in which student development has changed in the district Monday night at its meeting.

Director of Teaching and Learning Mary Williams spoke to the board about the work that’s happening in the district’s professional learning communities. They’re calling the new student achievement standards work Essential Outcome Development.

Williams explained that the old approach to setting standards had teachers working inside their buildings, principals were not part of the process and there was no collaboration. With the new way the district sets standards teachers at each grade level meet with others in the district, set standards and principals oversee the standards before they’re sent to the district for approval.

“This is the work teachers are committed to on staff development days,” Williams said.

Because of the specific nature of planning standards, the process may take up to three years. Williams said she guessed 99 percent of the teachers in the district are behind the new plan.

“The significant change is the buy-in,” Superintendent Mike Funk said.

In other action the board:

• Approved moving forward with Director of Human Resources and Technology Jim Quiram’s plan to upgrade the district’s servers and network. The board heard about the plan at a meeting in February. Quiram said the district will buy the hardware for the upgrade, about $150,000, in this fiscal year and install it in the next.

• Amended the 2011-12 budget with updated enrollment figures and various grants that came in after the budget was originally approved. Director of Finance and Operations Lori Volz said that the final budget reflected a surplus of almost $200,000. She said since the budget is about $35 million that it’s basically like breaking even.

• Accepted a donation of $165,000 from the Eugene Turtness estate, which will be specifically for scholarships to seniors who plan to study business at a four-year college or university in Minnesota.

• Approved the 2012-13 school year calendar. Funk said there will be no early out days on the calendar, even though there will be the same amount of staff development days. Federal holiday Martin Luther King Jr. Day was added as a district holiday, meaning there will not be school that day.

• Spoke about having to move board meetings during the summer while Brookside Education Center receives upgrades to the heating and ventilation system. The district offices will move to Albert Lea High School on June 4. The Area Learning Center will move summer school from Brookside to the high school, and Community Education will move from Brookside to Lakeview Elementary School during the summer.

• Heard from Funk that he had been getting some calls from concerned parents about the quality of meat being served at the schools. Parents had seen items in national news about the U.S. Department of Agriculture using meat filler that had been treated with ammonia in its beef. Funk said he checked with the food supplier and no food served in the district had been treated with ammonia.

• Heard from Funk that MCA testing will start soon. New this year is the option to take the math portion of the test online, and the district will be able to have results much sooner. Students will also have the option to retake the test if they’re not proficient or want a better score.

• Heard from Sonja Zieske about the district’s nine Destination Imagination teams that competed at a regional tournament in Rochester. Seven of the teams were selected to go to the state tournament in April. She said it was the first year the district was represented and that the students did well at the competition that focuses on creative problem solving.

Look to the Tribune in future editions for more about Destination Imagination.