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Fort Frye BOE sets planning sessions

BEVERLY — Fort Frye Local Schools will take a long look into the future next week.

A master visioning session that involves school and board personnel, elected officials from the community, businesses, students and parents will be held Monday and Tuesday, with 62 people expected to participate.

“We’ll be asking, what will Fort Frye graduates need in 2039?” superintendent Stephanie Starcher told the board of education Thursday night. The regular monthly meeting also was attended by more than a dozen students in the high school’s government class as part of their studies.

The visioning meetings, which are scheduled to run the full day on both days, will include a wide cross-section of community interests.

The sessions will be led by education planner and consultant Frank Locker, an international specialist in long-term education planning.

“It will look at what education in Fort Frye will look like over the next several decades,” Starcher said. “What children will learn, how they will learn it, what groupings they will learn in, what types of facilities will be needed.”

Starcher said the goal is to develop a long-term master plan for the district, with collaboration from the community.

“It’s a great opportunity to hear community input on what they want for the future,” she said.

Board member Lloyd Booth, talking after the meeting, said the district is seeking the shape of the educational footprint in the community.

“We want to see what we need to accomplish, how we need to advance the curriculum,” he said. “There will be a great cross section of the community involved in this.”

“We’ll be getting input from the whole district, every geographic location,” board member Stephanie Lang said.

The board also approved hiring of school personnel Thursday night, including Amy Hall as a Licensed Practical Nurse for Beverly-Center Elementary School and Angel Brownrigg as an intervention specialist at the same school.

Starcher said Hall will fill an existing open position but Brownrigg’s job is new, created to meet the increasing intervention demands posed by at-risk children.

In other business, the board:

Accepted gifts to the district totaling $3,215

Received notices of retirement from three staff members, two of whom are to be rehired

Approved authorization for $2.5 million to be placed in the district investment fund

Authorized transfer of $1.5 million from the general fund into the permanent improvement fund

Approved recommendation for a contract with H&A Mechanical to complete an HVAC project for the Fort Frye High School gym for $171,900

Approved the adoption and purchase of literacy programs, a three-year Pearson program for grades four and five and a five-year Scholastic Literacy program for kindergarten through grade three, at a total cost of about $125,000.

The next regular meeting of the board is scheduled for 6 p.m. March 21 at Beverly-Center Elementary School.

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