Business in Shoreview turns over a new leaf in farming

farmland.

• Plants are safe: Food is typically vulnerable to extreme weather and pests. Hydroponic systems can be set up indoors away from harmful elements.

• T here is no need for chemicals: Because food grows inside away from pests, there’s no need for any harmful herbicides or pesticides.

Glasoe said he has always been interested in alternative energies. Back when he was getting his undergraduate degree at St. Olaf College, he had two friends that were interested in farming and engineering.

“We brainstormed an idea of building an energy-efficient, selfsufficient farm and when I graduated, there wasn’t any more interest in alternative energies,” Glasoe said. “Government programs dried up, but I stayed interested in it.”

HERE ARE INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT THE FARM:

• T he farm is 40 feet long by 8 feet wide by 9 1/2 feet high.

• T he farm has insulation with an R28 value.

• T he farm weighs 8 tons and is tied down with city code required tiedowns.

• It has the equivalent growing space of 2 to 4 acres of land. The variance is due to the way various crops are spaced when planted in the towers.

• A nnual output ranges from 2 to 6 tons, again depending on the variety of crops being grown.

• T he farm uses between 168-231 kilowatt-hours/day on average.

BY NOELLE OLSON SHOREVIEW PRESS EDITOR

Just off Chatsworth Street in Shoreview lies a farm inside an urban container.

Frisk Fra Boksen, a relatively new local business in Shoreview, is owned by and operated by Shoreview resident Chris Glasoe.

“Our container is a complete farming system inside a box,” Glasoe said. “We grow full-size greens, including several varieties of lettuce, rainbow Swiss chard, kale, arugula and basils. Our primary markets are farm-to-table restaurants and online retail orders. We are working with Churchill St. restaurant on setting up a retail pickup with them as a way to support two Shoreview businesses.”

According to Glasoe, the urban container is fully assembled as a hydroponic farm — which grows with water instead of soil.

“It is a complete hydroponic growing system in a box,” Glasoe said. “Meaning, we perform every farm-related task from seeding to harvesting and packaging, right inside the container.”

The benefits of hydroponic farming include:

• It saves water: On average, hydroponic systems use 90% less water than soil-based farming by efficiently recapturing and recycling water.

• It uses space wisely: A hydroponic farm can grow three to 10 times the number of crops in the same amount of space as traditional

When Glasoe and his wife Barb retired, they started Frisk Fra Boksen because they wanted to create a lowimpact, sustainable way of producing fresh vegetables.

“We read about this kind of thing back in 2018 or so and found it interesting,” Glasoe said. “We put it all together and bought this, had it delivered and tried to figure it out. Which we did.”

Glasoe said he uses a mobile application to remotely monitor and control the climate inside the farm such as the lights, temperature and humidity. He knows what’s going on inside the farm, even when he’s not there.

The farm harvests approximately 25 pounds of produce each week. In the future, Glasoe hopes to have multiple containers and expand the farm.

“Besides farm-to-table restaurants, we do some retail sales online, but farm-to-table is our focus,” he said. “We want to grow it, and we’ll see what happens.”

• T he farm uses 5 gallons of water per day on average, again depending on crops and outside conditions.

For more information on Frisk Fra Boksen, go to https://www. friskfraboksen.com/.

Shoreview Press Editor Noelle Olson can be reached at shoreviewnews@ presspubs.com or 651-407-1229.

Time to enroll kindergarteners

The kindergarten enrollment process for the 2023-2024 school year has begun. The first of four windows for applications has already closed, but the next application round is due March 15. The Centennial School District will be reaching out to families to check in and remind them about enrollment deadlines. Families who live within district boundaries will be enrolled traditionally, while some families might choose an optional transfer to another school. Open enrollment will allow families outside the district to choose their first, second and third choices of schools and will be offered enrollment based on availability.

Educators work on fundamentals

Centennial teachers will have a districtwide staff development day on Feb. 17. The early childhood through fifth grade educators will gather at Rice Lake Elementary to focus on the Benchmark reading curriculum, while educators of grades 6-12 will meet at Centennial Middle School to focus on priority standards. The development day will help to standardize the curriculum to make certain all classes meet education standards in the same way.

Districts join forces for school lunch

The Centennial School District has entered a joint powers agreement with the Forest Lake and Fridley districts to supply food to the schools. “This is joining all three forces together to increase the volume,” said Executive Director of Business Services Patrick Chaffey. “We think that we’re going to be able to get more participation from other vendors. The agreement permits the Centennial School District to exit the arrangement after the first year if the district does not like the result. “Theoretically, more volume, lower prices, good for us and our food service fund.”

Personnel, COVID-19 funding, state aid factor into budget adjustment

Due to a combination of factors including state aid, staff vacancies, enrollment numbers and others, the Centennial School District projects a $500,000 budget adjustment for the 2023-2024 school year. This new projection allows the 2025-2029 budget plan to remain unchanged at $1.2 million in total adjustments.

Currently, there is a $17 billion surplus in school funding from state aid, but only $5 billion of that money is ongoing funding. The rest is a one-time award. “We like it, we’ll take it, but I’d rather have the ongoing money any day of the week,” Chaffey said. “We’re really looking toward that $5 billion and getting a bigger slice of that pie.”

As the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic fade from classrooms, the emergency pandemic funding will trickle away as well. Centennial did not receive as much funding as some other districts, but the loss still represents a challenge for the projected budget.

Two operating referendums will require renewal within the next 10 years; one in FY26 and the other in FY29. For budgeting purposes, those are assumed to pass, Chaffey explained. Open enrollment will likely help evenly distribute the number of students in each grade, as there is always some natural fluctuation in the class size.

State aid is expected to increase by 0.5 percent, although personnel payments will rise at the same rate, and Chaffey explained that a dollar in state aid does not exactly equate to wage expenses. “State aid and staff don’t correlate,” he said. “If we get a dollar in state aid, we can’t give it away in salaries and benefits. It’s about 70 percent on the dollar.”

There are still many unknowns that make projection complicated, Chaffey said. “This is the bad year for budgets, because everything is hypothetical,” he said. “It really puts us in a better financial position to be able to push that off to the next year and see where all the dust settles. Then we’ll come back at that point in time and we’ll revise the $1.2 million for school year 2024-25.”

Jobs and programs may be on the cutting floor

With budget reductions on the horizon, the Centennial School Board has approved a resolution directing administrative staff to make recommendations to reduce school programs and positions. This is a routine resolution that fulfills the requirements of the fund balance policy, but may signal changes within the district within the coming months.

No one goes away hungry

Students in the Centennial School District would be unequivocally assured of a meal under an