Staff reports share news about school programs

The first staff spotlight during the Waseca School Board’s March 5 work session was LuAnn Ross, the autism specialist for the district. Ross, who has been with Waseca schools for 20 years, told the board she deals with all of the highest level of needs among the special education students, including the physically and developmentally impaired whether they qualify with autism or not. Ross currently has a caseload of nine students, most of whom have one-on-one paras because of their need level; her classroom is located in the high school even though her students might vary in age from 11 to 22. 

 

The second staff member to speak about his program was high school band instructor Devon Lawrence, who shared information about the marching band trip to Disney World this past January. The board heard of many positive educational experiences, but the highlight of the trip was the performance of the marching band in the Magic Kingdom parade. 

 

Superintendent Eric Hudspith gave an update on the revised budget; the district intentionally will spend down some restricted funds but the overall general fund will have little or no change. Hudspith also mentioned his work with the Minnesota School Board Association (MSBA) for the board to complete a self-evaluation in the next few months.