• In a piece of good news, Groton Area Superintendent Laura Schuster reported to the school board Monday night that the enrollment numbers are up for the 2013 school year. Last spring, the board had projected that the district would be down in numbers, but instead the district has gained nine students over last year's numbers. There are 269 students in the elementary school, JK -5th grade, 133 in the Jr. High and 198 students in the high school, for a total of 600 students in the district.
• Groton School Board members learned on Monday that almost all of the summer's street work project has been completed and the final numbers are in. The final numbers are close to the budgeted amount the School Board set aside for the project.
• "There are just a few minor things that still need to be done," Schuster said. "The final numbers should be within a couple of hundred dollars of the budget."
• Schuster also suggested to the board that a few of the budget items be pulled in order to leave some "wiggle room" within the budget. One item pulled from the budget was the striping of the new parking lot, saving the school district $500. The school has a striping unit and can do the parking lot markings themselves. The other change to the budget that was recommended by Schuster was to change the payment of the new curb and gutter from full payment to extending the payments out.
• The reason behind the need to leave some cushion within the budget stems from the problem at the elementary school with the furnace. Last spring the furnace sprang a leak. A quick fix was put in place, but winter approaching, the furnace will need to be repaired. The estimated cost of the furnace is between $4,000 - $5,000.
• Board President Dorene Nelson reported on the City Council meeting last week in which the council discussed the Safe Route to School grant. The council had voted on rejecting the grant money, due to the fact that homeowners along the proposed route did not want to participate.  The council decided on Tuesday to rescind the motion and look at other routes. Schuster and other members of the board expressed their willingness to help the City find other routes that may work.
• In other business, the storage shed on the football field has been removed and the shop class has started framing up the space for the floating cement slab. They should start to pour the concrete sometime this week.
• The recommended policy changes received a second reading and were approved.
• The board acknowledged the receipt of several Public School Exemptions #12-04 (Grade 1), #12-05 (Grades K,1, 3, 4,& 6), #12-06 (Grade 10), #12-07 (Grades 1

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