The Park Rapids School Board on Tuesday, Nov. 19 approved the use of the GoFan online ticketing platform for school sports.
According to Activities Director Jeremy Nordick, the Heart O’Lakes Conference has been talking about universally adopting GoFan.
He said the system allows you to click an icon on the school’s online activities schedule and either print a ticket or save it to your phone and scan it at the gate.
“The one kicker on this is it’s a $1 (per ticket) service fee,” said Nordick. “So our $6 events would be $7.”
He said there is no activation fee, and GoFan would send the school two free scanners. He said they would probably pay somewhere between $500 and $700 for an extra one or two to serve all sports venues, drawing on the letter winners account.
“I know it would be a lot easier for some of these double headers if we had this option for some fans,” said Nordick, noting that it travels well for fans of visiting teams.
“There’s a lot of schools that do it,” he said. “I think we can get ahead of the game here a little bit if we do approve it.”
He said GoFan puts out reports that would be useful for an audit.
Business Manager Kent Fritze said school activities are currently very “cash heavy,” making them “subject to errors, misplacements and temptations.” Meanwhile, he said, a lot of people don’t carry cash anymore.
Going electronic, Fritze said, “allows us to have better reporting and also better security over the deposits that we have.”
School board chair Sherry Safratowich asked if this is the same system Fergus Falls uses, noting that school doesn’t offer a cash option. Nordick said it is the same platform, but he supports keeping the cash option available for local families.
He said the same point-of-sale system could be used for concessions, with a 3% convenience fee.
School board member Andrea Morgan voted to go forward with GoFan, and the motion passed 6-0.
High School Principal Jeff Johnson reported the high school has taken its initiative to use localized videos from “teenaged brain” expert Tara Brown to a new level.
Johnson spoke of “trying to identify students that are connecting with an adult” in the school and building relationships with them. “Every student should come to school and connect with somebody,” he said.
Century School Principal Mike LeMier reported his K-6 leadership staff are reconsidering the terms “elementary” versus “middle school” nomenclature in view of next year’s seventh- and eighth- grade move to the high school, and they’re leaning toward the terms “upper” and “lower.”
Regarding student discipline, LeMier said K-3 students have had 89 office visits so far this year, 55% of them from the same four students – “a few busy buddies, especially in the really younger grades, that are just having a hard time adapting,” he said, adding that a couple of them are in special education and staff is looking for additional supports for them.
In grades 4-8, he said, there were 14 suspensions in September and October, an 84% decrease from the 2021-22 school year to date and down 59% from 2022-23.
LeMier said his staff fielded some questions from parents about seventh and eighth grade no longer having recess.
“It was one of those things we shifted this year to align (the) seventh- and eighth-grade schedule more with the high school schedule,” he said, adding that teachers have reported their students seem calmer and more focused in their afternoon classes.
Jill Stevenson, director of curriculum and instruction, reported that World’s Best Work Force will now be called Comprehensive Achievement and Civic Readiness.
