The Fairmont Area School Board on Tuesday heard a presentation on the Student Achievement Results report from Kim Niss, the district’s principal of curriculum.The data is from the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments taken during the last school year. They test students knowledge in math, science and reading. Students at Fairmont Area Schools have scored higher than the state’s average on math and reading tests. Fairmont Area Schools has a higher percentage of students who qualify for free and reduced lunch, at 45.7 percent, compared to most of the state’s schools. Yet those students scored much higher than the state’s average. Math scores have typically been above the state average. Reading scores at Fairmont have increased by 3 percent over the last three years.Science scores for Fairmont have seen a significant increase over the past four years.Anyone who wants to see results from Fairmont or any other district can find them on the Minnesota Department of Education website at education.mn.gov/MDE.

Jenni Diegnau provided the Educational Improvement Plan for the district’s staff development curriculum council. She said the district goal is by May 2020 to have student achievement of the free and reduced lunch subgroup increase by 3 percent on the MCA in reading and math.

The board approved the hiring of Natanael Moreno to serve as the district’s community outreach coordinator. Originally from Chile, he is a 2006 graduate of Fairmont High School. He currently works as an office manager and family liaison at Hiawatha Academy in Minneapolis. He will begin his employment with Fairmont Area Schools in January.

The board also approved the hire of Leah Moreno as an English Language Learner teacher to work with the elementary school’s 98 ELL students. She is a 2009 graduate of Fairmont High School and currently works as a multilingual learning specialist at the University of Minnesota. She will begin her role in mid-December.

The board accepted donations of:

$25,000 from Kahler Automation for the Construction Trades Academy.

$6,000 from Fairmont 3M to be used for equipment for Fairmont Elementary School’s Makerspace.

A black accent chair, valued at $343, from Fairmont Slumberland Furniture, for the ECFE parent room.

$100 from J. Hokanson Print, Inc. for elementary and high school activity funds.