Superintendent Notes
by Randy Bruer
Property Taxes
Last year, the legislative session brought several changes to the number of statutes that impact the taxation of Minnesota residents. Win-E-Mac School taxes will be less on your tax statement for the next levy term. Ag properties will see an Ag land credit on your statement which will reduce Ag land taxes used to pay for facilities or of a school district. This is a good relief for residents of the Win-E-Mac School District. Everyone has received your property tax statement/s which will show a market value that determines the amount of taxes paid this coming year. Again, we would like to say thank you to our patrons for your support of the Win-E-Mac School.
School Functions
At the present time, the Win-E-Mac School is teaching students in grades 5-12 through Distance Learning with the Pre-K through 4th grade in-person. We took out all extra furniture to expand the student spacing to over 6’ for safety reasons. At the present time, instruction is going well. The school day can change quickly if we need to move to Distance Learning for all students, so parents must have a plan if this should happen. School personal and student absence will determine the school model we operate under.
Sports have been put on a pause at this time and plans are being discussed to open when the Governor allows this to happen. The pause lasts until December 18th, but we are hearing of an extension.
COVID-19 Exposure Notification Mobile App Now Available in Minnesota
On Monday, November 23, the Governor announced the availability of a new COVID-19 exposure notification mobile application, COVIDaware MN, and he has encouraged all Minnesotans to use it. The app is aimed at slowing the spread of COVID-19 by helping Minnesotans protect themselves and their loved ones. The voluntary, anonymous application will alert a user if another user with whom they have had close contact during the virus’ infectious period tests positive for COVID-19.
When Minnesotans download the app and allow notifications, COVIDaware MN generates a random, privacy-protecting key for a user’s phone. To help ensure that these random keys can’t be used to identify you or your location, they change every 10-20 minutes and the app does not track individuals’ locations or their positions relative to one another. Using Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) technology, the user’s phone, and the phones of other users they are near, anonymously exchange these privacy-protected keys. If a person receives a positive test, MDH will provide a unique code the person may enter into the app, if they choose. If they enter the code, users with whom they’ve been within six feet for 15 or more minutes over a 24-hour period in the past 14 days will receive a notification of exposure and instructions from MDH on how to keep themselves and their families safe. COVIDaware MN will exchange random keys with anyone who downloads COVIDaware MN or similar applications developed by other states that use the same technology framework.
More than 20 states and territories have launched apps based on Google and Apple’s exposure notification technology. More states are expected to adopt this technology as part of their COVID-19 response efforts.
Minnesotans can learn more about the app on the COVIDaware MN website, and download it from the Google Play or App Store. The more individuals who download the app, the more effective the tool will be to notify Minnesotans about potential exposures.
Garden Valley TV
This year, the Win-E-Mac school plans to host our Girls and Boys Varsity Basketball games on a local TV channel 30. We invite the public, who pay for this service, to watch our local channel during this season to see these events. If you are not on the local channel, you can still purchase the sports video for $5 a month. Please get in touch with Garden Valley Telephone to find out details. We do connect for each home varsity game or event in the school. Students will be operating the broadcast so please be patient with the televised service.
Have a Great Holiday Season!