The Williston Hockey Club is in a much better financial position after an anonymous individual recently gave $36,000 to the organization.

During Tuesday evening's meeting of the Williston Public School District 1 Finance Committee, hockey club Treasurer Pat Sogard told school officials about the recent private donation. The donation comes at a point when the club owes the school district $28,000 and the club faces major additional operating expenses this year.

Sogard said the club is also waiting to see if it receives a STAR fund grant for $30,000. He said if it receives the STAR fund grant, it would greatly help in covering the $75,000 cost of replacing a cooling tower that freezes water to form ice at the city's Agri-Sports Complex.

The Finance Committee members again discussed the club's outstanding debt to the school district and they agreed a school board decision should focus primarily upon how to handle the debt. Some ideas expressed to address the club debt included waiving the debt to establishing a contract and extended five-year payment plan.

However, Finance Committee member Cory Hanson said the $28,000 debt to the district represents funds that have already been spent. The district also has agreed to cover the cost of bussing the hockey team for the upcoming season. But committee members expressed concern about whether other sports may not pay their bills if the district forgives this debt, as the district's final decision sets a precedence for other programs.

The committee members also agreed the district is not in a position to deal with integrating the hockey program into other extra-curricular activites.

Also during the Fiance Committee meeting, district business manager Connie Blatherwick asked for permission to raise the limit on the Visa credit card that she uses for expenses to be raised from $3,000 to $10,000. She said in speaking with Williston High School Principal Chris Kittelson, he said the card often gets close to the limit.

Meanwhile, at a Personnel Committee meeting also held Tuesday, Kittelson shared a "heads up" that two teachers have expressed an interest in retiring and that hiring may be an issue at a future board meeting.

He also said there is a North Dakota curriculum possibility of implementing staggered diplomas for high school students.

"The million dollar question is how are we going to fund it," Kittelson said.

He said they would need to hire another employee and all of the diploma options have higher standards and credit requirements than they currently have at the high school. The new standards raise the requirement for graduation to 24 credits from 21 credits.

"I think it's an interesting proposal," said Kittelson. "It's not law, it's just on the table."

Kittelson also talked about a good attendance reward policy, which continued as discussion during part of a Curriculum Committee meeting that also was held Tuesday. The attendance policy states any student who does not miss more than four class periods in a full year subject or two class periods in a semester subject and maintains an overall grade of C or higher is exempt from the final test in that subject.

Kittelson said the policy's goal is to create a win-win situation and the incentive gives teachers a chance for better results.

"This is the direction I would like to pursue," he said.

Meanwhile, Wilkinson Elementary Principal Pam Lambert said many other schools have implemented a "data warehouse" which stores information about students and keeps it in a network so that teachers can access the history of a student. The system would include a first year start-up cost of about $30,000.

WHS Spanish teacher Joe Meisel also presented some information about a 14-day trip to Costa Rica, for which he said 30 students have expressed interest.

"We will utilize fundraising opportunities as much as possible," he said.

He also requested that committee members bring this trip before the board at the next meeting.

"Without the board's approval, we will not make the trip," Meisel said.

WHS Resource Room teacher Suzann Binks discussed the fact that WHS is the only school of its size in the state without an alternative school and this may be something the high school could work toward in the future. She also said in the school Resource Room, the job has changed drastically over the years as society and students have changed.

"We listen, counsel, talk to parents," she said, adding that 18 years ago she saw almost no parental involvement as there is now.

She spends a lot of time on the phone and e-mailing parents as part of her job. She also said she has worked with a few English as a Second Language students, which is also a change.

"We have been talking about adding an alternative school for awhile, and we should start doing and stop talking," said Kittelson.