Board of education conducts special meeting

Fremont Public Schools recently conducted a special board of education meeting.
The board of education conducted a work session designed to formalize the board/district goals which will serve as the foundation for the next four years. The current board goals consist of:
1. Recruitment, development and retention of employees
2. Assessment and improvement of our learning environments
3. Student outcomes
4. Career technical education initiatives
5. School and community climate/culture
6. Budget finance strategies
7. Community engagement
During a January work session and the 2021-22 school year board meetings, progress towards meeting these goals was presented.
“It’s now time to complete a refresh and look at our challenges and opportunities moving forward,” said Sandi Proskovec, board of education president.
The work session in January, led by Keith Rohwer, provided the backdrop for the work three committees of the board have been engaged in.
“Tonight was an opportunity to update the full board on the work of the committees to ensure progress towards finalizing the goals,” FPS Superintendent Mark Shepard said. “The passage of the bond issue, ongoing development of the Career Technical Education Center, shoring up the district’s finances during uncertain economic times and continuing to adjust our teaching and learning strategies, designed to meet students where they are and continue to move them forward have been huge undertakings.”
“Over the past eight years much has been accomplished yet there is still work to do,” said board of education vice-president Terry Sorensen. “Dr. Rohwer led us through a process that identified challenges facing the school district and opportunities presented in meeting these challenges.”
The next round of board goals will be pared down to three or four – the remaining initiatives will move into an operational/maintenance mode.
The identified priorities include:
1. Recruitment, Development and Retention of Employees
2. Student Outcomes
3. School and Community Climate/Culture/Engagement
“The challenges related to staffing are real and being felt across the region in all areas,” board member Pam Murphy said. “We are competing with other local businesses for employees and the teacher shortage we read about elsewhere is real and impacting our ability to hire professional staff.”
The goal related to HR will identify strategies for recruitment and positioning the District to remain competitive in attracting and keeping talent.
Student outcomes continue to be a high priority for the district. Over the past several years in dealing with the flood of 2019 and the pandemic the focus remained on meeting the students educational needs while at the same time providing a lot of support in so many other basic needs areas.
Parent involvement and continuing to foster a culture of working together with students, parents, teachers, administration and board of education continues to be a priority. Some of the identified strategies include creation of principal advisor committees at each school and surveying of students,
staff and parents, processing their input and adjusting our practices based on the results.
Other areas that move into an operational maintenance mode include: budget and finance strategies, career technical education initiatives and assessing/improving district facilities.
The adoption of the board goals is scheduled for this fall with a two-year review of the four-year goals to be conducted in 2024.
In other business, on July 22 bids were accepted and read aloud for the Lenihan Indoor Air Quality Project. D.R. Anderson submitted the lone base bid for $2,843,000.000.
The board of education approved the base bid and bid alternate #2 for $18,750.00 for a total construction cost of
$2,861,750.00.