UPDATE FROM PHOENIX TASK FORCE

JEREMY WALTNER  – EDITOR & PUBLISHER

The Freeman Public School Board learned early this week that an advisory committee tasked with looking at an athletic partnership is continuing to meet and is exploring whether to expand the Phoenix cooperative with Marion and Freeman Academy into other sports.

Freeman School Board President Emily Andersen, who represents Freeman Public on the task force along with board member Doug McCune, told the board at its regular monthly meeting Monday, Jan. 9, that the committee met last November and is scheduled to meet again on Jan. 30 “to see if there’s any interest at all in looking at additional sports.”

The Phoenix cooperative was formed last year as a football partnership between the three schools and will also take the field this spring as part of the first-ever season of South Dakota High School Activities Association-sanctioned softball.

Andersen and McCune said one of the big questions moving forward is participation numbers, and “if it’s something that fits our district — if it’s something that fits everybody’s district,” Andersen said. “There’s really no time crunch on any of this; we’ve got plenty of time to discuss and get input from folks.”

Andersen she will provide a follow-up at the February board meeting; “stay tuned.”

Tietje offered contract

The Freeman School Board also voted Monday night to offer Superintendent Jake Tietje a contract that will keep him on as the district’s top administrator through the 2025-26 school year. The three-year contract was approved following a closed session and came on a 4-0 vote; board member Cody Fransen was absent from Monday’s meeting.

Tietje is in his second year as superintendent at Freeman Public after being hired in the summer of 2021.