Fleming BOE opts to pay concurrent enrollment fees for 19 students

Nearly 20 juniors and seniors at Fleming High School are a part of concurrent enrollment classes at nearby Northeastern Junior College in Sterling. The concurrent enrollment program provides high school students with the opportunity to enroll in postsecondary courses and earn college credit at no tuition cost to them or their family. Combined, those students are taking 121 credit hours.

Fleming Superintendent Steve McCracken said a total of 19 juniors and seniors are enrolled in concurrent enrollment classes through NJC and are taking classes such as college algebra, English composition, public speaking, psychology and statistics. He said one student is enrolled in auto repair classes and two others are enrolled in a welding class.

In a recent November meeting, the local school board in Fleming voted to approve an invoice from NJC for concurrent enrollment, one of just a few action items outside of board policy review on the agenda at the most recent meeting. The cost of those concurrent enrollment classes, McCracken said, totals just over $8,000.

“The District will pick up that cost,” the Superintendent said. “We think it is a great opportunity for our students to take advantage of while still being enrolled in high school and it provides another opportunity for us to expose our students to the increased rigor of a college class.”

At the start of the Nov. 15 meeting, board members and administration heard a report from Scott Szabo on the financial audit from the fiscal year ending on June 30. Szabo highlighted information that indicated the financial condition of the District while pointing out that the District is in good condition with sufficient amount of reserves.

“The budget for 2022-23 is looking good,” McCracken said in later follow up. “Our enrollment has increased from last year and school funding appears to be more healthy than in the past few years.”

Following Szabo’s report, McCracken and Principal Kortney Firme gave reports to the Board. Firme recently attended the inaugural Principal Conference in Colorado Springs and said she found it very beneficial. She also held discussion with board members in regards to ALMA and how grades are reported.

Alma is a kindergarten through 12th grade cloud-based student information system used by many school districts in Colorado. Fleming just recently implemented the new student information system.

McCracken told board members the equipment purchased with funds from the SAFER grant have been installed. The funding for the grant is a source that the local BOCES secured for several member schools and provides two-way radios that bridge directly to emergency responders and dispatch.

“This equipment will bridge communications from our school directly to emergency response agencies in our county,” said McCracken.

Later, in action items, the board:

• Approved a motion to revise regulation AC for non-discrimination/equal opportunity;

• Approved several motions in agreeance that the board is operating within the limits of policies regarding board committee principles, board member code of conduct, board member covenants, handling operational issues raised by community members, board member conflict of interest, board member financial disclosure, process for addressing board member violations, development and revision of board policy , cost of governance and monitoring superintendent performance;

• Tabled a motion to review policy pertaining to board committee structure due to the fact that a board member was not present at the meeting.

The next school board meeting in Fleming is slated for Dec. 12 at 6 p.m.