FAIRMONT– The Fairmont School Board on Tuesday and prominent agenda items included the results of the district’s surveys regarding Cardinal Community Days and the end of the beginning of second semester.

Superintendent Andy Traetow and building principals discussed the results of the feedback surveys regarding Cardinal Community Days which were distributed earlier this month. Overall survey results were mixed; roughly one third of families surveyed said they would prefer the e-learning days be replaced by days with conventional in-person instruction, one third expressed indifference and roughly 15% said they were highly supportive.

Traetow described staff feedback as mixed but noted most staff members said the e-learning days were meeting their expectations regarding time for collaboration and interaction. Three quarters of staff surveyed were teaching staff while the remaining quarter were in support roles.

Most students surveyed said they were given too large of a work load on e-learning days but Traetow also said a majority of students in grades 7 through12 viewed the days largely positively.

Despite the mixed responses to the e-learning days, members of the board expressed support for how the imitative has performed thus far.

“Even if it doesn’t match all of our hopes for it, it is still 100 percent a worthwhile thing and is providing us with some valuable information. For my student in particular I can see a skill set being developed that will be very useful once she gets older,” said board member Michael Edman.

Traetow said the data collected in the survey will be used alongside data measuring student performance in the next few weeks to make changes or revisions to the e-learning days.

“We know we still need refinement, we’re going to take a real hard look at this. There’s so many factors to consider … we’ll ultimately put all those pieces together and make a decision for how we’ll proceed for the rest of the school year either with refinements, adjustments, or other options,” said Traetow.

In his report Traetow also noted the district was in the process of building its calendar and strategic plan for the upcoming school year and mentioned plans to replace the playground on the east side of the elementary school in the summer of 2024.

In their report to the board, elementary school principals Michelle Rosen and Brian Grensteiner said all upcoming report cards used for K through 6 students will use standards-based grading methods. The new numerical system will provide more information regarding what grades represent compared to a classical A through F scale. The principals also announced the school has freed up more time for Parent Educator Sandy Soelter who hopes to expand her parenting classes for K through 2 parents and highlighted the school’s recent focus on teaching emotional intelligence.

The report from high school principals Chad Brusky and Alex Schmidt opened with discussion of the school’s anti-vaping education program and ongoing revisions of the school’s crisis response plan. This was followed by a summary of results from the school’s recent school surveys regarding school culture and connections with staff. The survey was conducted last week and had a higher response rate from previous years. While the principals said they were still in the process of applying this data to school policy, they did note that out of the 557 students surveyed on staff connections 28 students said they only had one connection with an adult staff member and 28 students felt no connection to any staff members.

Activities Director Mat Mahoney also presented a report to the board which included an overview of activities participation during the fall semester. He noted 49 percent of students participated in a fall sport and 60 percent of students participated in a fall fine arts activity whereas in the winter 27 percent of students participated in a sport while 8 percent participated in a winter activity.

In other business, the board:

— Voted to accept a donation of $500 from Ross Bernstein for the high school general fund and $3,000 of wood from Steve Rose for woodworking and construction trades classes.

— Voted to approve the employment of Reada McConnaughy as the junior high school robotics coach for the current school year and voted to accept the resignation of custodian Bob Harris effective March 31.

This was the first school board meeting held during the school year’s second semester. Because of an abnormal amount of snow days in December the district extended the grading period for first semester by four days.

The board will meet again on Feb. 14