FAIRMONT– On Tuesday the Fairmont School Board held its only meeting for the month of December. During the meeting they approved their levy for the upcoming fiscal year and discussed student achievement reports from the previous school year.

Tuesday’s meeting was the district s annual Truth in Taxation hearing required by state law. Based on a formula set by the Minnesota Legislature and calculated by the Minnesota Department of Education the district’s local levy will be increased from $5,868,687.72 to $6,292,151.27 a difference of $423,466.55 or 7.22 percent. The board received no public comments regarding the tax levy and it was passed unanimously.

Another major discussion item concerned student achievement during the previous school year. According to the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment (MCA), the statewide standardized test used to evaluate learning outcomes, last year Fairmont students performed below average in all three areas of evaluation; reading, math and science. Fairmont had 48.6 percent of students meeting proficiency in reading compared to 51.1 percent statewide, 41.2 percent meeting proficiency in math compared to 44.8 percent statewide and 32.6 percent meeting proficiency in science 41.3 percent statewide.

The district has yet to identify a specific cause for the discrepancy but the board considered the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and changing criteria for evaluation as two possible explanations.

”We are in make-up mode because our standards haven’t adjusted for some of that loss that happened for the students (during online instruction). I think we can all say better learning happens when the students are directly in front of us. We didn’t have the level of the learning that we wanted when we were in those modes of learning,” said Principal for Curriculum, Instruction, and Research Kim Niss.

Based on MCA results Fairmont experienced a similar drop in test scores compared to other schools across the state which also have yet to match scores from before the pandemic. However, these results could signal Fairmont is taking longer to recover in comparison to the rest of the state.

Fairmont Superintendent Andy Traetow stated while the test results were suboptimal, they reflect the unexpected changes the district needed to make during the pandemic.

“I would agree that we’d all like to see these numbers be better, closer to the state average (or) above the state average... I’d like to publicly state it’s not for a lack of due diligence and hard work on behalf of our staff. It is what it is, the numbers are the numbers, and we just need to keep working to improve,” said Traetow.

Board members Julie Laue and Mike Edman expressed frustration with the MCA results.

“It’s nothing negative (concerning) our staff, but I take it as my responsibility as a board member and I take that very seriously because I want our students to succeed and to succeed at the highest possible level that they can,” said Laue.

”Our job as a district is to set standards and then allocate standards so staff are able to meet those (standards). This initial review suggests our standards are (may not be) aligned, but clearly we need analysis of our resource allocation,” said Edman.

As a result of last year’s MCA scores the board plans to investigate the cause of these discrepancies and discuss how the district will respond in a future work session which has yet to be scheduled.

Although Fairmont scored below average in the three areas analyzed by the MCA, according to other assessments it scored well above the state average in graduation rates and regular attendance.

Moving to other matters, in his report to the board Traetow reported the boiler and heating system in the high school’s vocational center is now fully functional. Installation of acoustic paneling in the building’s lab spaces is also complete and has effectively solved problems with echoing on those areas. District enrollment remains largely unchanged. Traetow presented no new information concerning the district’s ESSER projects or health and safety.

In other business:

— Principals from both the elementary and the high school said they had received positive feedback regarding Cardinal Community Days. Superintendent Traetow committed to sending out a feedback survey to parents and staff before the start of winter break.

– The board approved the 2022-2023 Educational Improvement Plan. The new plan aims to narrow the proficiency gap in reading between BIPOC and non-BIPOC students while also increasing the number of students at both schools who exceed reading standards.

– The board approved contracts for paraprofessional Annette Larson; junior high boys basketball coach Carter Bell; long term English substitute Grace Higgins; instructional aide John Bartscher, and part time early childhood aide Sarah Bosshart.

– The board approved the resignations of paraprofessionals Jamie Miller and Jo Theobald.

– The board approved policy revisions concerning public comment during school board meetings, family and medical leave and mandated reporting of maltreatment of vulnerable adults.

– The board approved a two year contract settlement for special education paraprofessionals, business office staff, and aides for the current and upcoming school years.

– The board voted to accept donations and grants in accordance with state law. The board accepted a donation Olga Lengyel Institute of $882.72 of Spanish language reading material some of which is related to the Holocaust, $725 from Fairmont Fire Fighters to cover busing for field trips to the fire house for first and second graders, a $200 donation from Bank Midwest for the Food Service Angel Fund, and a gift of 20 socket sets valued at $500 from the Borderline Cruisers for the school’s automotive/small engines classes.

– The board will not meet again during the month of December due to winter break. The board’s next meeting will be held at 5 p.m. on January 10 in the city council chambers. This meeting will be the first wherein Jen Harris will fill the seat vacated by Rufus Rodriguez.