The importance of a strong city-school relationship is critical to our community.”

Superintendent Dr. Tammy Champa

The ISD 200 School Board unanimously adopted the new 2025-2027 strategic plan, the overarching guideline for the district over the next three years and replacement for Policy 100 which was sunset in March.
The process of creating the strategic plan started in November of last year, drawing from the School Perceptions Survey and various Community Collaboration Committee meetings. The final language was overhauled at the June work session, condensing the core values, overhauling the vision statement and language within the core pillars and strategic anchors.
The board had been previously concerned about the adoption of the strategic plan without input from the incoming Superintendent Dr. Kristine Wehrkamp Herman who started July 1. Wehrkamp Herman was in attendance for both the June work session and the board meeting, providing input at the work session and her approval for the new policy at the board meeting.
“I was so impressed with the amount of work that individual board members put forward in that really thinking and assessing and talking through different opportunities for language changes that made sense for the community,” said Wehrkamp Herman in an interview.
Before the unanimous vote, School Board Chair Carrie Tate called the plan an “absolute work of collaboration.”

Fastbridge Data
Director of Teaching and Learning Andrew Hodges presented on the data from Fastbridge, the math and reading assessments given to students to provide teachers with data to identify student needs, skill gaps, and generally monitor progress.
Of particular note were the results from early reading in kindergarten and first grade which showed that 76% of students were making normal or aggressive fall-to-spring growth in reading. Hodges characterized that number as above several normal benchmarks including the expected 50% of students making normal or aggressive growth, and the ideal 70% of students making normal or aggressive growth. Hodges characterized that growth as “closing gaps in students who need to catch up in their skills sets.”
“There are really good things going on in our kindergartens,” said Hodges.
Much of the data presented by Hodges is relatively new, which means that student cohorts are still being compared to other cohorts rather than their own progress from past years. As the program continues better comparisons will be able to be made.
Another point Hodges noted was that these Fastbridge tests are not graded, so students don’t have a grade incentive to do well or even care about the results. “Student investment into new tests is worth considering,” said Hodges, noting that over time, students may take the test more seriously, which could also affect scores.
The topline for Reading for grades 2-4, is that while overall achievement is up 3% from the previous year, only 46% of all students are making typical or aggressive growth.
“When I look at 46% of students making typical or aggressive growth, that’s just not enough. We need to go higher,” said Hodges about the elementary school data.
The middle school shared similar statics for reading with 45% of grades 5-8 making typical or aggressive growth. Hodges also noted that “I’d also like to see that [rate] be a little higher.”
Earlymath testing was piloted in Kennedy in grades k-1 last year. While data only exists for one cohort in one year fall to spring, students at Kennedy showed a 4% growth rate. The program will be rolled out across the district next year.
For math in grades 2-4, achievement was up 4% over the last two years, with 48% of middle schoolers making typical or aggressive growth.
“We need to see higher growth overall,” said Hodges about these numbers.
From this data, the district was able to revisit and update its local literacy plan. The 2024-2025 goal was for 80% of students K-8 to read at grade level. In the district in the 2024-2025 school year, 60.9% of students are reading at grade level.
The goal for the next school year is to raise the number of students reading at grade level to 65%.

Civic Arena
Director Mark Zuzek added a discussion to the agenda regarding the Hastings Civic Arena, revisiting the discussion on if the school district should pay a portion of the reconstruction costs of the Civic Arena.
The board unanimously voted in August 2024 to not fund the ongoing civic arena project which started in 2023, more than a year before City Administrator Dan Wietecha would come before the school board to ask for funds. At that meeting, Wietecha asked the district to pay for 30% of the project totaling some $1.6 million.
At that time, school members rejected the ask due to not wanting to expand the cost sharing agreement with the city to maintenance rather than new construction as well as the timing of the ask which “should have been a conversation we had three to four years ago,” said Tate at the August work session.
It was that meeting, in specific, at which board members chaffed.
“This was presented to us in an unprofessional way,” said Director Philip Biermaier, citing some of the incorrect data presented at that meeting including the assertion that the district pays $85,000 annually for ice time, which is roughly the total cost for 10 years of ice time used by the district.
Biermaier spurned the longstanding “handshake” cost-sharing agreement between the city and school district to fund capital projects that benefited both city and school district.
“They’re all dead,” said Biermaier, of those city and school officials who made that agreement.
Board members discussed a district proposal dated April 2025 that detailed a plan for the district to pay 23% of the reduced costs of the project, no longer including the costs of the solar array.
Board members largely stood by the August decision citing many of the same reasons.
Vice Chair Jessica Dressely noted at paying for maintenance “historically hasn’t been something the school district did. We have partnered with them on new facilities that benefit both the city and the school district in the past where we did the 30/70 split, but not on ongoing maintenance on buildings that they own and generate revenue.”
“Nothing has changed,” said Tate, saying the August proposal occurred “at the 11th hour.”
Communication with the city was also a point of focus in the discussion as the Joint Powers Agreement between the district and city is currently being reworked.
“The importance of a strong city-school relationship is critical to our community,” said Superintendent Dr. Tammy Champa.