FAIRMONT– The Fairmont Area School Board heard from Superintendent Andy Traetow on Tuesday who recapped the recent Martin County Leadership’s visit.

“Last week we had the pleasure of hosting our Martin County Leadership program that’s led by the Fairmont Area Chamber of Commerce for education day. Principal (Chad) Brusky led some tours at the Jr./Sr. High School or our CTE academies and I was joined by the superintendents of GHEC and Martin County West to do a panel discussion and answer some questions for a group of about 13 individuals,” Traetow said.

He said that Dr. Sarah Mittelstadt of Arise Academy was also present to discuss operations of Southern Plains Learning Cooperative and Rebecca Watson was also there to represent homeschooling in Martin County.

“We tried to provide this leadership group a wide perspective of all the educational opportunities throughout our community,” Traetow said.

He added that they also discussed college in the schools (CIS) partnerships and that Fairmont Area Schools is proud of the extensive amount of CIS offerings it has. The district partners with Minnesota West Community and Technical College for most classes along with MSU Mankato and Riverland Community and Technical College.

“The unique aspect there is all of these classes are taught by our teachers and we currently offer 27 courses that spans over 80 credits that our students have access to,” Traetow said.

He also touched on the district’s current enrollment number, which is at 1,713 students, which is down slightly from several weeks ago though Traetow said it’s settling into a consistent range.

In other business, Board Member Julie Laue went over several policy revisions that have been brought to the policy committee for review.

Most of the revisions were recommended by the Minnesota School Board Association and approved by the board on Tuesday.

Traetow noted that some of the policies will continue to see changes in subsequent years.

“Of the 27 newly revised policies out of last legislative session, we are over halfway through those and continuing to make progress,” Traetow said.

The board also had a first reading of a new policy dealing with online instruction.

“It goes through the definitions of blended instruction, digital instruction and… it goes through as to how we will follow this policy as the enrolling district and how we have to present that to our students while also following state statute,” Laue said.

Board Member Nicole Green added that it’s a completely new policy. She encouraged the board to take it home and read through it and said the board will vote on it at its next meeting.

In other news, the board:

— Approved a proclamation declaring Oct. 23-31 Red Ribbon Week.

— Accepted the retirement of Mary Granheim, high school counseling ASA, effective Jan 4.

— Approved the employment of Ashley Gilb and Jennifer York as special ed paraprofessionals.