The Albert Lea school board discussed its long-term goals and how it wants to serve the district at a special school board meeting Monday.

The topic of how the board governs sprung from a consultant’s talk in front of the board at a workshop on Jan. 9.

Some members, including Jeshua Erickson, Mark Ciota and Kim Nelson, spoke openly about wanting to become a board that sets policies instead of a board that micromanages and deals with day-to-day issues.

“Historically we’ve been a management board,” Ciota said.

He said he gets calls about parking spots, copy machines and other issues that he wouldn’t mind if the board decides to use a management model, but also said he’d prefer a governance model, where the board deals with larger issues — such as dropouts, ACT scores and academic achievement.

Erickson agreed but said he still wants the public to be able to bring any issue to school board members.

“My first job is to listen. My second job is to take that knowledge back to the board table and allow that knowledge to inform,” Erickson said. “But I might not act on your particular issue.”

Board member Bill Leland said he feels the board has been moving toward a governance model and said it should discuss how it wants to get involved with education.

“Our administration team is in place, and I think we have one of the best teams in place in the state,” Leland said. “This gives us the ability to do some long-term planning.”

Members went on to discuss how to make the public aware if the board chose to work toward becoming one that governs more than manages.

Superintendent Mike Funk said he wants the board to be able to hold himself and other administrators accountable and said the board can task him to get results on those issues they want to work on.

“If we don’t make some drastic changes, we’re going to stay average,” Ciota said.”

He then said to Funk that he’d like to continue to see big changes in the schools. Funk replied that the district just went through a battery of changes, and many ways the schools operate have changed dramatically.

“I’m feeling very comfortable with what we’re doing in our schools,” Funk said.

He gave the example of using professional learning communities to task teachers to prioritize the most important things a child should learn, and then check that list against other grades and buildings in the district to make sure all students are learning the most important things and that all academics are aligned.

In other action, the board:

• Approved two bids for the school’s three-year heating, air conditioning and ventilation upgrade project. This summer Brookside Education Center and Hawthorne Elementary School will receive upgrades. Larson Contracting had the lowest bid of just over $2 million for the work at Hawthorne, and Rochon Corp. had the lowest bid of $2.6 million for the work at Brookside. All the work will be done during the summer months so as not to disrupt classes.

• Approved having two high school students become non-voting board members. The students, likely a junior and a senior, would be there to discuss issues and share their perspectives.