GRANADA– The Granada-Huntley-East Chain School Board on Thursday heard a number of reports. One of them, given by Director of Curriculum and Instruction, Keri Murphy, touched on some new work being done in the EL (English Learner) program.

“We have two new EL families here. After completing assessments, we determined five of these seven students qualify for services,” Murphy said.

She added that Blue Earth Area School’s EL teacher will come over and observe the students and look at the data scores to determine the extent of need for services.

“It’s a program for a small amount of kids but definitely the needs are there,” Murphy said.

Murphy also said that they will be starting fall targeted services for those in grades K-5. She said 19 students are signed up for reading and 14 are signed up for math.

“I have two teachers and two paraprofessionals that will help me with that,” Murphy said.

This month’s teacher update was provided by Shy Hornick, a middle and high school counselor. Hornick said she’s been holding one-to-one senior meetings, sometimes with parents, and has received positive feedback from that.

“It’s a lot of looking at second semester, looking at GPA, at transcripts, how many credits earned and classes still needed. We also talk about post-high school and whether college is their route or workforce or military,” Hornick said.

She said they’ve also talked about FAFSA and will have an informational financial aid night on Nov. 13.

Hornick also spoke about some of her tech goals and said she has created a Google document with all of the information needed for students and plans to put it on the school’s website for parents to access.

The district’s Activities Director, Erin Roiger, also provided a report. She said that fall sports is nearing the end of the regular season but that they’re hoping to see some teams make it further into the playoff season.

She shared that winter sport sign up sheets will go out after MEA break later this week.

Switching to arts, Roiger said,”Our theater arts department has just started their work with the fall play. We have 25 students out with a few more helping as stage hands.”

She said that they’re still hoping to have the play show at the Fairmont Opera House but that it’s dependent on how construction there goes.

“The community ed offerings have been busy. I’ve seen a lot of involvement with our kid class offerings. In September we had just over 40 kids participating in classes after school and we’re looking to see some more involvement with the adult classes,” Roiger said.

She noted that pickleball is slated to start next week and that she thinks hall walking will pick up soon with inclement weather.

Finally, Roiger shared that the annual trunk and treat event is planned for 5:30 to 7 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 27.

In his report, Principal Andy Walden touched on last week’s homecoming, which he said went well and saw a lot of student and staff participation.

“The overall feeling of homecoming… it had a good feeling of community,” Walden said.

He said that earlier this week, for Indigenous People’s Day, James Marushin with the Martin County Historical Society came to the school to present to students, as per new state requirements.

“The focus of his presentation was of the Dakota War of 1862. he talked about 45 minutes of the causes and affects of the Dakota War and the lasting impact of that,” Walden said.

Information about recent Narcan training was also shared. Walden said they have two nasal applications that can be used and that they were told if they ever expect an opioid overdose when someone is unresponsive, they can administer Narcan.

“The plan is to train teachers in the future on signals of opioid overdose and tighten up our response protocol if we are ever to experience that emergency,” Walden said.

In other action, the board:

— Approved the resignation of Brandi Opheim as an assist cook.

— Approved the resignation of Chloe Jensen as a floating sub.

— Approved Lindsey Wegner as a paraprofessional for the 2023-24 school year and Amber Leach as a part-time paraprofessional.

— Approved the fall/winter coaches for the 2023-24 school year.