MANKATO — Mankato Area School Board newcomer Elizabeth Hanke, of Mankato, and incumbents Liz Ratcliff, Christopher Kind and Erin Roberts were sworn in Monday as the board reconvened after the holidays.
Hanke, who was elected to fill former Vice Chair Kristi Schuck’s seat this past fall, is expected to serve on the board’s wellness, transportation and early learning committees among others.
She said she wants to increase organization and transparency with her assignments.
“And so making sure that we get those mission statements, those goals, a schedule of how we’re going to accomplish these goals would be one of the other things I’d like to make sure that we accomplish,” she said.
Hanke, who campaigned on wanting to drive student rigor, said Monday that it’s important that the district meets all of their students’ basic needs in math and reading.
“We have to have a literate community in order to see future productivity with our workforce,” she said.
Hanke’s election to the board comes after four members on the board who were not up for reelection signed a letter of support in the fall for candidate Tracy Frederick Corcoran, Kind, Ratcliff and Roberts.
Hanke said since then she’s been involved in district team building sessions and other onboarding processes.
“I’ve had the opportunity to meet with the cabinet members and discuss what they do in their roles,” she said.
Shannon Sinning, who retained his chair assignment Monday, said he’s looking forward to working with Hanke.
“I can work with anybody, and I’m excited to work with Elizabeth. We’ve met previous to this meeting, just talked about how the board works and those types of things, questions she had. I know she’s met with other members before getting seated tonight. I don’t anticipate any issues. I think we’re all going to work well together,” he said.
Supt. Paul Peterson said the district does everything it can to prepare a new member.
“What I can tell you is that I do not foresee any hiccup or any disruption to the big work that our school board has been engaged in for several years. Our board has a clear vision and mission they have adopted based on community feedback, and our district leaders are fully committed to implementing that roadmap,” he said.
Hanke said she will be attending Minnesota School Boards Association trainings soon.
The board elected member Kari Pratt as vice chair Monday, Roberts as clerk and Kind as treasurer.
Sinning said the board will be different without Schuck, who was elected in 2009, but that they have goals for the future.
“I know a goal of our entire board is really to focus on the high school model, changes to that and the middle school model, just how we’re teaching, what is relevant, career-focused learning those types of things, but there’s definitely going to be some changes. You’ve already seen it with elementary with the three magnet schools. We’re going to have some different types of changes definitely at the high school, middle school level,” he said.