Superintendent Jeff Bertrang discusses an agenda item at the school board meeting Thursday. The meeting is his last before he retires June 30 and is replaced by Sean Koster.

NEW ULM– Jeff Bertrang presided over his last school board meeting as superintendent on Thursday.

Bertrang had announced his retirement at the December 2022 school board meeting, seeking to serve out the rest of the school year and finish his term June 30, 2023. Bertrang was the District 88 Superintendent for 10 years, and served in several different educational positions in his full 33 year career.

Bertrang read through several of the agenda issues in his last meeting, including his final superintendent’s report, nursing agreements for the 2023-34 school year, and a fundraiser report.

To conclude the meeting, Bertrang gave a farewell speech to the board and staff. He began by thanking them for the years they had spent together and the work they had done.

“It’s been truly an honor to do all the things we’ve been doing together,” he said. “It’s a great board. We’ve got a lot of time learning and growing as a board and we have fun together but more importantly, we focused on kids first.”

He also prepared a list of district accomplishments completed during his tenure. These included selling the former middle school for apartments and the State Street Theatre, building a new high school, increasing student enrollment and staff numbers, and adding several new programs.

“We added soccer, clay target league, all the middle school after school programs, a fitness coach, and robotics,” Bertrang said. “And they’re all district programs, not just clubs on the side.”

Bertrang believed the biggest thing the school board had done was enriching student lives and preparing them for the real world.

“The biggest thing was keeping our students [first] and how we make sure we provide students even better people as they leave our school doors,” he said. “We always talk about academics but there’s academics, there’s behavior, ‘are they ready to live life after high school?’ So a lot of stuff happened but the focus was always on the kids first and I appreciate that.”

Sean Koster will serve as the new District 88 superintendent starting July 1 after being chosen by the New Ulm Public Schools Board on March 22. He comes from Beacon Academy in Minneapolis where he was their superintendent.

In other news, the school board approved a Jefferson Elementary Local Literacy Plan and a New Ulm Middle School Resource Recommendation for grades 6-8.

The Local Literacy plan seeks to bring every child to at or above grade level reading skills by no later than third grade, according to a Minnesota statute. The plan seeks to do so by having Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS), reaching every child based on their individually identified needs.

The Middle School Resource Recommendation covers English/Language Arts for students in grades 6-8. The recommended resource, HMH Into Literature, seeks to match the Minnesota state education standards with a curriculum equipping students with the reading, writing, and speaking skills necessary to succeed as learners.

Both measures were approved unanimously.