Addressing the school board, Ulrich credited “great leadership,” “great teachers” and “great staff” for the progress and success the district has seen under his leadership.

“Two highest years of graduation in over a decade here at Fort Dodge,” he said. “We’ve reduced the middle school referrals by 60%, which was one of the biggest major challenges as we transitioned in.”

Ulrich told the board that they should be “very, very proud” of being willing to take on the mission and vision Ulrich had in the fall of 2019 to move the fifth grade down to the elementary school level.

“This board had that courage to do some really difficult things and made some really difficult decisions.”

School board President Stu Cochrane presented Ulrich with a plaque commemorating his service to the district.

“On behalf of the board, we just wanted to thank you for your three years here, Jess,” Cochrane said. “It has been an interesting three years, given the circumstances. Your leadership is commendable. We appreciate what you’ve done. You have guided us very well. We appreciate your leadership.”

Cochrane highlighted the work Ulrich did throughout the COVID-19 pandemic to ensure the district’s students continued to receive quality education.

“We’ll remember this last year in particular as a year that required exceptional leadership and things could easily have gone astray; they didn’t,” he said. “You made great decisions on behalf of the district and on behalf of the board.”

Ulrich’s last day with the district is Wednesday. On Thursday, he will take over his role as president of Iowa Central Community College.

Dr. Derrick Joel will step in as the new Fort Dodge Community School superintendent starting on Thursday as well.

During the meeting, the board approved a handful of change orders for two of the projects the district is working on.

The first two change orders were for the Early Childhood Center renovation at the former Arey Building, 104 S. 17th St. Change order No. 6 was for $21,618.84, and included adding a light above the trash enclosure, additional floor preparation and leveling needed on some areas after demolition was completed, removing and reinstalling the dishwasher and counters in the dishwasher room and more.

Change order No. 7, which Ulrich said will be the final change order for the project, will add $16,180.26 for kitchen modification and drywall extras. Ulrich said these changes were made to comply with orders from the city inspectors and fire marshal.

The total cost of the ECC renovation is now $6,232,622.21.

The third change order was for the Fort Dodge Senior High Area C HVAC upgrade. Because the district is using federal funds from the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund to pay for the project, the contract must comply with the wage requirements under the Davis Bacon and Related Acts. This added $104,337.36 to the contract for the adjusted labor wages.

The total cost of this project is now $1,250,337.36.

The board also approved a contract to remove the gravel parking lot on the southwest side of Dodger Stadium. It has previously been used for coaches parking and handicap parking, but a city ordinance requires that all parking areas need to be hard surface parking, said Ryan Utley, director of buildings and grounds for the district.

Griffin’s Landscapes of Fort Dodge was awarded the contract of $12,500 to remove the gravel and re-seed the site, making it a grassy area.

Maier Landscaping of Fort Dodge also submitted a bid for the project of $32,250.

A new three-year subscription for the district’s career and academic planning programming was approved by the board.

“We are required by state law to have one of nine state-approved information systems to house our academic and college career planning,” explained Director of Secondary Education Kirsten Doebel.

The district has used Naviance for six years, she said. It is used by students at Fort Dodge Middle School and Fort Dodge Senior High.

The total cost for the three-year subscription is $42,135.

The board also approved a $65,600 contract with the Center for Educational Leadership to continue with the learning and implementation of the 5D+ instructional framework that the district has been implementing over the past four years. This contract will be paid for using the Teacher Leadership and Compensation grant from the state of Iowa.

The next school board meeting will be at 6 p.m. on July 12 at the Central Office.