Superintendent Dr. Steiner told the Fargo Board of Education that Fargo Public Schools posted high Advanced Placement (AP) scores last year and that district leaders used an administrator retreat to work on implementation of several operational policies.

Dr. Steiner said the district had “71 exams taken and 914 scores of a 3 or higher,” and she summarized that Davies, North and South high schools posted comparable pass rates roughly in the 80–87% range. She asked the board to recognize AP teachers and principals for the results.

The superintendent said the administrator retreat included sessions on leader attributes, civility in meetings and a code of conduct for staff. Dr. Steiner described a new, simple meeting “exit ticket” the district plans to use to assess meeting effectiveness and shared that principals practiced an activity intended to build shared norms: “are you good? … and then what that does is it’s an agreement or a commitment when you walk out of that meeting that we’re not gonna go behind a closed door and talk about what didn’t get discussed because we’re saying we’re good in that meeting.”

On the personal device and cell phone policy, Dr. Steiner said the retreat group “got bogged down a little bit” but that most administrators reported confidence—rating their readiness a 4 or 5 on a 5-point scale—to implement the policy once the school year begins. She said principals will give “grace” during the first weeks while staff work through scenarios and that district leaders would resume discussions after initial classroom implementation.

Dr. Steiner also said retreat sessions addressed “human capital work” for supporting staff performance and the code of conduct, with group scenarios used to align responses across buildings. She recounted an exchange credited to Jason Cressup of Lewis and Clark, who asked, “is everything we’re doing today gonna impact kids and learning?” and said the question will be used to inform future plans.

Finally, Dr. Steiner said the district will propose four short “visioning” work sessions appended to upcoming board meetings to discuss strategic and operational planning, beliefs about teaching and learning, and attributes the district should expect from teachers and leaders.

No formal board action was taken on the items Dr. Steiner presented; they were delivered as reports and planning items.