One fact has been abundantly clear at recent meetings of the Hutchinson School Board: Constituents have numerous concerns about the ongoing response to COVID-19.
During the public comment section of board meetings, locals have urged the School Board not to mandate masks or institute policies regarding vaccinations. While constituents shared fears of potential vaccine side effects and the social ramifications of wearing masks and social isolation, many often veer into misinformation. The school’s current policy advises students and staff wear masks but does not require it — except for during bus rides as mandated by the federal government.
At the Dec. 13 meeting, one person called for resignations while expressing frustration with board discussions purported to be one-sided and dismissive of public comments. One ongoing subject of friction is a recent quarterly meeting during which there was no public comment section.
An invitation for Dr. Brian Pollmann — the chief medical officer at Hutchinson Health — to speak at the School Board meeting was criticized as one-sided and a conflict of interest, as his wife, Sara Pollmann, is a member of the School Board. Brian Pollmann serves as co-incident commander for the hospital’s COVID response and insisted that his presence was unrelated to his wife serving on the board. He himself has also served as a School Board member from 2007-10, and in 2020 on an interim basis.
“My purpose is to better inform the conversation, to advocate for public health and to advocate for the improved health of my individual patients, and all the patients and people of the Hutchinson area,” Brian Pollmann told board members.
During his presentation he said the primary goal of public health right now is to keep community transmission — calculated based on the percent of confirmed cases of COVID-19 among those tested — below 5%. This benchmark is the same for all contagious diseases, he said, not just COVID. During the prior week, the rate of COVID transmission was 28% with an average of 40 cases per day. This past week the Minnesota Department of Health reported 134 new cases in McLeod County and three new COVID-related deaths, bringing the total to 87.
But there are concerns beyond the COVID case numbers, Pollmann said.
“For the last several weeks going back to mid-September, 20-30% of our hospital capacity in Hutchinson alone has been due to COVID patients,” he said. “That has pushed us to the brink of consistently being on a case-by-case scenario, which means we don’t know at any given moment if we can accept a new patient to Hutchinson Health.”
The issue, he said, is statewide. As of the morning of Dec. 13, there were 13 free ICU beds in Minnesota, though most were not at primary care centers equipped to deal with serious illness. Of those ICU beds, five were open.
“We’ve had to limit the number of non-emergent surgical cases that require an in-person stay,” Pollmann said. “This is people who have severe debilitating pain, this is people who have potential cancer diagnoses. This is major situations that people need to have surgeries done and we just cannot accommodate them.”
The pandemic has also brought about longer wait times and supply shortages affecting health care.
“We found out this morning we are in dire need of blood,” Pollmann said. “Normally, Hutchinson receives a daily allocation of blood from the American Red Cross. We learned this morning we will be receiving no more blood for probably the next several days at least.”
Long hours have led to staff burnouts and resignations, compounding the same issues. Pollmann shared the story of a patient who died of COVID-19 and left behind children, and of a husband and wife, both hospitalized due to COVID-19. The husband was unable to say goodbye when his wife died. In addition to the strain of such stories, staff are verbally abused by community members, Pollmann said.
To help curb the ongoing pandemic, Pollmann advised the school step up education about safe practices. Speaking more generally, he said the best way to reduce transmission of COVID-19 is to develop increased immunity through vaccinations, even if they do not always stop COVID.
Board Chair JoEllen Kimball told Pollmann the school is following federal mandates requiring masks on buses, advising students to wear masks, and requiring school visitors to wear marks. Parents are advised to conduct daily screenings, and staff conduct self-screenings as well.
“I feel like our numbers are not real high right now,” she said.
For the week of Dec. 4-10, there were 10 new confirmed COVID-19 cases among the district’s 2,859 students, and two new cases among its 463 staff. Overall, the school has reported 262 cases among students and 47 cases among staff this school year. But those numbers may be misleading, Pollmann said. He reported that meetings between schools, health officials and health providers had revealed stories about symptomatic residents refusing to be tested.
“We strongly suspect that what we’re seeing, at least in the schools, is likely underreported,” Pollmann said.
Board Member Michael Massmann objected to Pollmann’s being allowed to speak at the meeting, calling it “highly inappropriate” to have Pollmann speak at the School Board meeting.
“I don’t think we discussed or addressed issues that directly pertain to the School Board’s business,” he said, adding later that it “raises a lot of blurred lines about conflicts of interest,” referring to Pollmann’s wife and Board Member Erin Knudtson, who is also a doctor at Hutchinson Health.
“Taking up our time tonight to have a member of a ... company that generates revenue based on testing and vaccinations to come here and share information that doesn’t relate to the board is just inappropriate,” Massmann said.
Brian Pollmann said it is not unusual for him to be asked to give advice to local entities. He advised the school to increase efforts to encourage safe practices to avoid spreading COVID-19, as asymptomatic students could unknowingly spread the disease in the community. He said doing so was important to the health of students, and to avoiding emergency situations where a student or community member may be injured without room available in a local hospital.“Most physicians, most clinicians do not believe that the public understands what is going on in hospitals right now, the risk the community is at because of limited capacity,” Brian Pollmann said. “So just by me talking here spreads that message, and that’s something that furthers your message, Mr. Massmann.”
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Daron VanderHeiden
Since arriving in Hutchinson in 1994, Daron VanderHeiden has filled many roles in the Hutchinson Public School District, but at the end of this school year it will be time to say goodbye.
He started as a Hutchinson Middle School technical education teacher and moved to the high school to teach technology. Students knew him for woodworking and computer-aided design lessons, which was his teaching degree.
He’s also served as a coach, an assistant principal at Hutchinson High School, and as a principal at West Elementary. But lately, most Hutchinson residents know him as the District 423 superintendent, a role he’s held for 16 years.
“It’s almost unheard of, for someone to come up through a (school) system like I did,” VanderHeiden said. “I feel blessed about that. I’ve enjoyed all my time here in all the positions I’ve had.”
His departure was announced at the Dec. 13 School Board meeting following an email sent to inform district staff. VanderHeiden said he expects to help the School Board decide on its hiring process, but not be involved much beyond that point.
Hutchinson Public Schools Board Chair JoEllen Kimball said there are many superintendent openings at the moment.
“The sooner we get started the better the pool will be,” she said. “Hutchinson will be a sought-after spot. ... There will be plenty of people who want to come to Hutchinson. We just have to find the right person.”
Kimball, a former District 423 teacher, said VanderHeiden has been an “excellent superintendent.”
“He’s a good and honest man and a great teacher,” she said. “He’s been a role model to me.”
She highlighted his willingness to interact with and listen to students as valuable qualities in his superintendent role, and his experience in the trades as an asset to the district and to students during his time as a teacher.
“He worked in construction and worked his way through college as a construction worker,” Kimball said. “So, with our building projects he’s very well respected by the construction managers.”
VanderHeiden said it felt like the right time to go after 16 years as superintendent, and with his wife, English teacher Lori VanderHeiden, retiring as well. When the two came to Hutchinson together as a spousal team, it was unusual at the time, though there were other pairs that had been hired separately.
“This is truly our home,” VanderHeiden said. “I’ve just been so ... grateful to spend my entire career here. My children went to school here and got a great education. And we’re going to stay here in Hutchinson.”
It's that time of year when property owners brace for news of levy increases from their county, city and school district.
Tax levies, which each of these entities must pass before January, tend to increase year by year and balance against property values and the size of the tax base to determine how much each property owner must pay. But for its 2022 tax levy, the Hutchinson School Board has approved a decrease of 2.24%, making good on a projection made a few months ago by Rebecca Boll, director of business and finance for Hutchinson Public Schools.
“We’re expecting not to have any surprises,” she said when the preliminary levy was approved back in September. "There could be a little savings."
After previous levies of $9.12 million in 2020 and $9.3 million in 2021, the School Board approved Boll's advised $9.01 million levy for 2022.
How will the change impact taxpayers? To provide an example, Boll assumed a property value increase of 7.5% from the past year on a house valued at $175,000, which is fairly close to the median value of $183,000. The owner of such a property within the Hutchinson School District will pay $78 less on the school portion of their property taxes — a change of about 9.3%. Decreases across the spectrum of property values and types range from 9.2% to 16%.
Boll provided a list of major factors that contributed to the levy decrease:
- The district has 30 fewer students than anticipated, which cuts its state-allowed levy authority. This removed $41,939.
- Unemployment insurance costs are expected to fall from COVID-19 levels, which decreases levy authority. This removed $30,389.
- Lower enrollment also impacted long-term facilities maintenance levy authority. The pay-as-you-go levy for asbestos abatement projects is anticipated to be at a lower level. This removed $137,579.
- Another $86,888 was removed due to prior year adjustments for fewer field and facility rentals during Minnesota State High School League shutdowns, and shorter seasons. A critical worker child care facility lease was also removed.
Each year for the past few years, the School Board has had to face the possibility of reducing teacher positions, largely due to lower enrollment. The trend of lower enrollment is being played out across the state and brings with it funding cuts.
Boll said the school is still studying how enrollment will factor in next school year, and if cuts will be considered. But, she said, the levy does not drive such changes. The school is unable to increase its levy to safeguard against such cuts, as state formulas and local voters mandate limits as to how much schools can levy.
"If we operated like a city, we would certainly take a look at that ... but our formulas don't work the same way," Boll said.
In 2011 voters approved a $128 per-pupil levy increase. In 2013, voters approved another $680 and $180 per-pupil levy increase. Those levies will remain through the fiscal 2023 and 2025 years. It will be up to the School Board to decide if it will ask voters to approve those levies again, or make any change.
