Chamber members had the opportunity on April 20th to hear from Micah Mortensen, Benson School Superintendent, on the latest happenings in the Benson School District.
Mr. Mortensen started the discussion by recapping some of the positives that came out of dealing with the Corona crisis. Partnership with the Benson Hospital was extremely helpful in getting rapid tests for faculty and staff. In addition, once vaccines became available Benson Hospital facilitated vaccinating Benson School personnel. The shift to online learning propelled many teachers to get better acquainted with the available technology to facilitate quality learning.
Benson schools received additional funding from the Federal government to help with the challenges that Corona brought to the district. These funds were utilized to hire additional custodians and a nurse.
Superintendent Mortensen also provided an update on the bond that was passed several years ago. The bond was to fund transportation, technology, and security. To date, the school had purchased 14 new school buses and several other district vehicles. These purchases have greatly increased the dependability of the fleet and the fleet mechanic is happy to be performing the routine maintenance on the vehicles instead of the constant repair of fatigued vehicles the negatively impacted the transportation at the school. Technology improvements have been made over the past 3 years that really came into play during the rapid switch to online learning. The investment saw immediate rewards during the pandemic. The last piece of the bond is underway way now with the increased security measures being put in place on the campus. The most obvious of which is the new higher fencing to completely close off the campus and funnel visitors through the offices so they can be vetted before entering the campus.
The meeting concluded with Mr. Mortensen sharing that life on campus at Benson Schools is returning to normal and the graduation promotion ceremonies this year will be held in person.