The Haxtun-Fleming Herald - What can we reason but from what we know? -Alexander Pope

The Frenchman Board of Education will have three seats up for grabs in November elections and in preparation, a board candidate night is slated for mid-October.

Superintendent Steve McCracken gave an update to the Board in a Sept. 19 meeting that included information on busses, the upcoming candidate night and maintenance needs for the District.

The local Board of Education has three open seats up for elections this fall including two seats that will hold two-year terms and one seat for a four-year term. McCracken said Jeff Brekel, Leo Mekelburg and incumbent Carmen Vandenbark have submitted proper petitions for the four-year term. Kamie Lambrecht, Aimee Haynes and Jeff Harms all submitted petitions for one of the two seats open for two-year terms.

The school board candidate night is scheduled for Oct. 18 at 6:30 p.m. in the auditorium. There will be a prepared list of questions for each candidate to answer and each will be given the opportunity to speak about why they want to serve on the local school board.

Also during his report, McCracken gave an update on necessary repairs needed on bus 400 and added that bids are currently being collected for a new school bus. Cameras, he said, on bus 418 and 419 were not installed properly therefore Provision should be onsite soon to fix them.

In her principal report to board members, Kortney Firme said Fleming has had a successful first month of school and to celebrate the District’s recent Accredited with Distinction honor, 137 staff and students attended a Colorado Rockies game.

Firme said Fleming students recently participated in clean-up day. Volunteers pulled weeds, cleaned bleachers and picked up trash. Elementary students planted flower pots to decorate the walk way leading to the football bleachers.

Later, in action items, the Board approved a certified contract for Leslie Kaiser and a classified agreement for Kristy Fehringer. Kaiser is working with Fleming’s special education program. She recently completed her Bachelor’s degree in special education so she was moved from the classified employee salary schedule to the certified teacher salary schedule. Fehringer will work in the District kitchen.

Board members approved a motion to make Carmen Vandenbark the Assistant Technology Coordinator. She abstained from voting on the motion as a member of the board of education. Later, motion was reconsidered.

“Our current technology director works on an ‘on call’ basis. He needs some help to get everything accomplished, especially during the first part of the school year and at the end of the year,” McCracken said. “We advertised the position and Vandenbark was the only applicant. The motion to approve her as the assistant technology coordinator passed. The job description, salary amount and the number of hours per week/month is yet to be determined. Therefore, Vandenbark moved to reconsider the motion. The details of the position will be determined and she will be approved during the October meeting.”

In other business the board:

• Approved Katherine Landry as a substitute;

• Approved the 2023-24 District Accountability Committee.

The next board of education meeting in Fleming is slated for Oct. 24 at 7 p.m.