FAIRMONT – The Fairmont School Board approved $20,403 of Partners In Education (PIE) and Hunt grant proposals during its meeting onTuesday.

The Hunt grants are from the Hunt family farm and go exclusively to student scholarships, of which $2,000 was allocated. The rest was PIE funding, which went toward elementary, high Sshool and general field trip requests. They cover things from aides like alphabet cards and reading materials to up to $2,000 for school orchestra instruments and a $1,500 PAC laptop for musicals and plays.

Field trips to the Children’s Museum of Mankato and for Special Ed students in grades 7-12 were included for $2,812. The $20,403 accepted was chosen from $45,456 in total requests. Some requests were pared down from their original asking point, like the orchestra instruments. Others, like iPads for translator earbuds and robotics parts and equipment, were scrapped altogether.

“If we can’t do the whole project, we do a large portion of it,” Superintendent Andy Traetow said. “The staff has other grants that they go to seek funds from. Some staff members put in multiple requests here too. Some may have been granted one request, but not the other.”

Board Member Dan Brookens asked if this process would be done differently in future years with the Hunt land sale in mind. Traetow said further research would have to be done regarding what’s been done in the past and what will be done in the future.

“My understanding was that both pieces were done separately, then brought together,” Traetow said. “With the sale of the land, as we clarified the parameters for use of those funds, 25 percent of our funds have to go towards student scholarships and 75 percent to student enrichment projects.”

Board Member Michael Edman raised concerns regarding whether typical procedures were being broken. He asked why, if PIE is a community organization, the school board is approving the grants separately rather than accepting them as with other community organizations.

“If this is not our money, we are accepting it,” he said. “We’re not issuing it, we’re not granting it.”

Board Member Julie Laue said the funds are held within the district and funneled through the school, which is how they handle and divide the funds internally.

“Is it any different than the booster club, when they give out their donations of the different projects for the sporting groups? Since I’ve been on the board we’ve done it this way,” she said.

Traetow said it was a fair question and will be looked into moving forward along with changes due to the Hunt farm sale.

Brookens motioned to approve the PIE grants, with Jen Harris seconding. The grants were approved unanimously.