The Fairmont Area School Board heard updates Tuesday from high school co-principals Jake Tietje and Alex Schmidt and elementary principal Andy Traetow. Tietje offered information on how things are running at the high school, noting that a survey will be going out next week to further gauge concerns and gather feedback from families and teachers, given the ongoing distance-learning situation.
“We’ve had more and more parents share great success stories with their students, complimenting our teachers for the work that they’ve done,” he said. “Some of the feedback from parents is that it was a little bit overwhelming at first, but our teachers took it seriously and I think that really shows the work our teachers have put into this.
I was talking with a staff member last week,” Schmidt said. “One comment that she made was that it’s hard to keep those connections with your students on a personal level like you do in the hallways and the classrooms. But they’re doing so many things to make sure those connections still exist.”
Fairmont Elementary Co-Principal Andy Traetow said “Communication has been going well. We have a great support staff that’s also aiding in making sure our students have that communication. One of the unique things that we have done is we set up some homework hot lines for all of our students as well as our students still learning the English language,”
Superintendent Joe Brown offered an update concerning a pending contract for a school resource officer. “I’ve been sharing emails between myself and [Fairmont Police Chief] Mike Hunter,” he said. two things we really wanted. Number one, we wanted to make sure that this SRO is available at the high school from 7:30 in the morning to 3:30 p.m. Even though that’s different from the police contract they have with the city, Chief Hunter said that would be fine. “Second of all, I proposed a 5 percent increase each year rather than a 50 percent increase all at once. Chief Hunter countered that a little bit, but I thought it was reasonable Receiving concensus from the board to finalize the contract, Brown will submit it to the board for ratification on April 28.