K-M sets vote for ZED relocation

The Kasson-Mantorville School Board handed out KoMet Kommendations, discussed upcoming school events, set a tentative vote date for Zumbro Education District (ZED) re-location, and reviewed a recent visit to Cardinal Manufacturing during its monthly meeting on Monday, Oct. 21.

Michael Meeker, a third-grade teacher at K-M Elementary School began the meeting by presenting each Superstar Summer Reader with a KoMet Kommendation. The fourth-graders were honored for reading for at least 100 minutes each week, with one skip week, throughout the summer. The children who received the KoMet Kommendations are: Kariana Melcher, Karlie Gangl, Molli O’Reilly, Alivia Jasperson, Oliver Powell, Spencer Myers, Kylan Mize, Chelsea Hansing, Jackson DalBello, Nessa Santjer, and Torsten Herfindahl-Quint.

Then, K-M High School Principal Trent Langemo presented each of the October Students of the Month with a KoMet Kommendation. The students who received the honors were Emma Aarsvold, Rachel Schultz, Gabriela Espinoza, and Reid Spreiter with Aarsvold representing the first-year students and Spreiter representing the seniors.

Langemo remained at the podium to honor K-M agriculture teacher Lori Pagel with a KoMet Kommendation for her leadership in organizing the Summer Agriculture Tour.

“These programs don’t exist unless there is a stalwart educator who makes sure these grants don’t fall through the cracks,” he said referencing Pagel.

Student school board representative Ellie Bigelow mentioned a few upcoming events going on at the high school. She said the section tournament for K-M volleyball and the section meet for K-M cross-country will be held Thursday, Oct. 24. Meanwhile, Shrek the Musical begins Thursday, Nov. 7.

She also said that the Family, Career and Community Leaders of America (FCC-LA) have organized a district-wide food drive with the goal of bringing in 9,000 pounds between all three schools. Lastly, she noted that next week is finals week for Kasson-Mantorville High School so the next week and a half will be busy for those students.

The school board then moved on to discussing the upcoming ZED vote. All seven school districts (Blooming Prairie, Byron, Hayfield, Kasson-Mantorville, Pine Island, Stewartville, and Triton) that send students to the ZED Area Learning Center (ALC) must approve the relocation in order for it to happen.

Board member Amy Olson said the other school districts want K-M to be the first district to vote on the relocation.

The tentative date and time for the vote is 6 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 4, in the K-M High School Collab Room.

After that, three educators, including Langemo, discussed a recent trip to Eleva-Strum High School in Wisconsin, where they toured Cardinal Manufacturing, which is a student-run manufacturing business.

They said the high school functions as a regular high school except students can choose to spend their last two periods working for the school’s business.

The students, with the help of three full-time leaders, do everything from manufacturing to bills and invoices to communications.

 The educators who visted Eleva-Strum said the school’s goal is to fill the skills gap one student at a time.

The leaders at Eleva-Strum told the K-M educators that their advice for a school business is to start small, but go fast.

The K-M educators said Kasson-Mantorville High School is “well on our way in terms of facilities,” and asked the school board “What do you want us to produce? What parts can we make?”

They also brought up the idea of inviting local manufacturing leaders to K-M High School to get a plan in place for how K-M could start its own manufacturing business.

After the special meeting on Nov. 4 for the ZED relocation vote, the next school board meeting will be held at 7 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 18.