Fremont City Schools board backs SRO contracts, reviews staff-development plan and five-year forecast

Fremont City Schools board members on the November regular meeting heard a district presentation on staff development and student behavior supports, approved contracts for three school resource officers and routine personnel and procurement items, and reviewed a five-year financial forecast that assumes modest revenue growth and continued increases in benefits and expenses.

Superintendent Hirt framed the district's second core strategic objective as supporting and developing staff, saying the district will "support and develop our staff" through three action steps: build a culture of connection and well-being, adopt a preschool-through-12 literacy focus and continue individualized professional-development choices. Principal Christina French described Krogan Elementary's PBIS (Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports) work, saying the school completed a fidelity inventory and has implemented Tier 1 at about 46% and Tier 3 at about 32%, but identified a gap in Tier 2 supports. "Our goal is to provide targeted intervention for Tier 2 students," French said, describing a newly formed Tier 2 committee and plans for an intervention skills library and scheduled pull-out time.

On the safety front the board approved two separate contracts that together provide three school resource officers for the district. The board approved a contract with Sandusky County to fund one SRO (Deputy Eric Jordan), and approved a separate contract with the City of Fremont for two SROs assigned to the North Street campus, named Ashley O'Connor and Artonia Rivera. Superintendent Hirt said the officers rotate through buildings as needed; board members asked whether one elementary-focused SRO was sufficient and were told the district has a total of three SROs serving buildings.

Finance and budget dominated the middle portion of the meeting. The treasurer told the board the district realized $649,000 in utility savings across fiscal 2023-24 through participation in the Ohio Schools Council and cited $213,000 in natural-gas savings since 2021. The treasurer warned the five-year forecast is conservative and excludes grant funds and the self-insurance fund (it covers the general fund only), and noted a 6% increase in insurance rates slated to take effect Dec. 1. He also reported the district is "very sure as of right now that we are gonna get one payment from Nexus in February," but emphasized timing and final amounts were not yet confirmed.

On procurement the board approved a Dell technology purchase tied to the Project Lead The Way grant for classroom devices. Discussion referenced "four carts and 32 a cart," and another participant mentioned "120 devices," creating an unresolved discrepancy in the meeting record about the exact device count.

Routine personnel items were approved, including multiple resignations, two administrative appointments (Victoria Gamboa and Megan Sweeney) and supplemental contracts for fall programming. The board also adopted an Ohio Public Education Appreciation Week proclamation and approved an appropriation change to spend additional United Way funds on the ACE Mentoring program (awards, scholarships, background checks and travel).

Votes at a glance: all motions recorded in the meeting transcript were approved by roll-call vote. - Approval of minutes (10/21/2024): approved (motion by Miss Lewis; second by Missus Blum). - Donations (Item 1): approved. - Transportation for volleyball regional trip (Item 2): approved (private donation funded trip). - Sandusky County contract for one SRO (Item 3): approved. - City of Fremont contract for two SROs (Item 4): approved (Ashley O'Connor, Artonia Rivera). - First reading of policies (Items 5'26): approved to proceed as first reading. - Dell technology devices for Project Lead The Way (Item 27): approved (device-count discrepancy noted). - Personnel slate (Items 28'36): approved (resignations, appointments, supplements). - Ohio Public Education Appreciation Week proclamation (Item 37): approved. - Appropriation change for United Way ACE Mentoring (Item 40): approved.

What's next: staff said curriculum committee work on a new K— ELA adoption will return to the board in the coming months; the treasurer said the district expects to see the Nexus payment in the February real-estate collection but will update the board when amounts are finalized.

(Reporting based on the Fremont City Schools board transcript of the Nov. meeting.)