FAIRMONT– Fairmont Elementary School co-principals, Michelle Rosen and Brian Grensteiner provided an update to the Fairmont School Board on Tuesday. They shared a new venture the district will be providing to provide more access and ease to families when reporting a student as absent.

“With the amount of attendance pieces that flow into the office every morning, one of the busiest times of the day is 7:30 to 9:00 a.m. time period,” Grensteiner said.

He said if there’s a student unable to get to school because of an illness, a parent or guardian usually makes a phone call or email to the office and the office staff needs to answer the message.

“On days that there are 80 voicemails, that can be quite timely. In efforts to be efficient and provide more access to families, we will be launching, as of Jan. 31, an online version to report kid’s absence as a parent,” Grensteiner said.

He said it’s within the Skyward system and parents already have access to the portal to check grades and sign up for conferences, but now parents will have the opportunity to report an absence through the system.

“Now we don’t need a live person to physically put it in so that will reduce call volume,” Grensteiner said.

He said parents will certainly still be able to call or email if that’s preferred. More information on this will go out to families later this week.

Board member Nicole Green asked what grades this system applies to. Grensteiner said this will be available to parents with students in grades K-12.

Grensteiner also shared that as the end of the first semester is coming up, they’ve been collecting and analyzing a lot of data.

“We’re trying to figure out what we need to do to serve our students in the most appropriate way,” Grensteiner said.

He said the goal in the second semester is to “squeeze the pyramid” by getting fewer students into tier 2 services, which means their needs are being met in the core classrooms.

Superintendent Andy Traetow also provided an update and shared some positive news.

“As we stand today, we have six total Covid active cases. We had 25 on Friday. As you know, 12 days ago we hit our yearly high for active Covid cases in our school at 33 so to have the vast majority of those kids back in our buildings is extremely important,” Traetow said.

He said in terms of overall illness, there were 100 more students in the schools today than there were 12 days ago when the district announced it would extend a long weekend, due to weather, and be closed Monday because of an increase in student-related illness.

“Our school district has moved to the updated CDC and Minnesota Department of Health guidance related to quarantining and return to school and work,” Traetow shared.

He said the Minnesota State High School League has also released new parameters in alignment with those guidelines with some additional requirements for return to

participation. He said that information can be found on the MSHSL website.

In other news, Dr. Sarah Mittelstadt, director of Southern Plains Education Cooperative, spoke to the board about the congressional IDEA Full Funding Act.

Mittelstadt said the Minnesota School Board Association is encouraging all of the school districts in the area to pass the resolution which looks at special education funding both at the federal and state level. She said that the money comes from the district’s general fund.

She said in 2019, which is the last year they have final data on, $1.5 million came out of Fairmont’s general fund to cover the cost of special education.

“It’s a federal mandate so certainly the federal government should provide some of the funding,” Mittlestadt said.

In 1975, when the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act passed, Mittelstadt said the federal government promised to fund 40 percent of the cost of special education but there’s a big gap now from what was promised. Now they fund about 12 to 13 percent.

Board member Julie Laue made a motion to approve the resolution, which says the district agrees to provide financial support for a ten-year plan to fully fund the federal share go the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.

“I do believe it’s very important for our students,” Laue said.

Representative Bjorn Olson was also present to speak to the school board. Olson has been speaking to the school boards, city councils and county commissioner meetings in the area.

Olson spoke briefly about his history as an educator at Blue Earth Area Schools, which he is a graduate of. He encouraged the school board members to give him a call if there’s ever anything he can do for them.

“As a teacher, education means a lot to me,” Olson said.

In other action, the board approved the employment of Lea Riemann as a long-term substitute science teacher at Fairmont High School, effective Jan. 25 to June 6.