District 742

The St. Cloud area school board has given Superintendent Willie Jett a three-year contract extension. Jett's base salary next school year will be just over $187,000, which is about a three percent pay raise from this year.

The St. Cloud area school district will wait until at least the fall of 2016 to attempt another bond referendum. The district also has the option to ask voters to approve a school building plan in the spring of 2017. Superintendent Willie Jett says their focus now is getting feedback from the community.

The original group of kindergarteners who enrolled in the St. Cloud area school district immersion program in 2007 are nearly entering high school. Since the 2007-08 school year, District 742 has offered Chinese language classrooms at Madison Elementary and Spanish language classrooms at Clearview Elementary.

The St. Cloud area school district will discuss a new policy for service animals in schools during their Wednesday night board meeting. The purpose of the policy is to set up procedures for the use of service animals by students, employees and visitors in school buildings and on school grounds.

I talked with St. Cloud School District 742 Director of Community Engagement Tami Deland today on WJON. She explained at the District is considering options and has been in communication with the group "Friends of Clark Field".

The Friends of Clark Field group met on Monday night to brainstorm plans to preserve the field as green space. Superintendent Willie Jett made the announcement that they had stopped demolition of the field while they consider other options for a future site to place early childhood education programs.

The "Friends of Clark Field" group is hosting a community meeting on Monday night to develop an action plan for the restoration of the field. The hope is to develop a strategy that will balance the strategy of all parties involved.

Lacrosse in St. Cloud schools may become a fully funded district activity on Thursday night. The school board is expected to approve funding for the sport, which would cost them roughly $50,000 a year.

The St. Cloud area school district is halting demolition of Clark Field while they consider other options for a future site to place early childhood education programs. The district originally had a plan to put in a $25 million building on the field for early childhood education, community education, adult basic education, the district welcome center, media services and the administrative offices.

The St. Cloud area school district is continuing efforts to diversify its teachers and support staff. Numbers released by the St. Cloud area school district say they have 10,100 students and 4,497 are "non-white."