By Sam Parsons
The Oskaloosa Community School Board held a regular meeting last night. The board approved a special meeting for November 18 to fill their board member vacancy in the wake of the resignation of board member Clint O’Day. O’Day submitted his resignation in October, but two weeks later asked if he could rescind his resignation to stay on the board for the remainder of his term, which would have ended in December. Superintendent Mike Fisher said that he had spoken with the Commissioner of Elections with the Iowa Secretary of State’s office, representatives from the Iowa Association of School Boards, and other legal counsel, and they found that the “most easy, clean way” to fill the vacancy is to swear in all of the new board members that were elected earlier this month during the special meeting next week, ensuring that the district stays within compliance of the state law that no board member seat can be vacant for more than 30 days.
The canvass of the city and school election will take place this morning at 9am.
At the end of the meeting, the board conducted its superintendent evaluation in an open session. Board president Kathy Butler said that the legally required evaluation is typically done in July in a closed session. The evaluation was summarized in a master document with 10 leadership standards, which were given ratings of either “meets expectations” or “does not meet expectations.” Each board member filled out their own evaluation, with the exception of board member Sarah McGraw, and all of the individual evaluations were compiled into the master document.
The one category in which the board gave a rating of “does not meet expectations” was that of “ethics and professional norms.” Board members Sarah Hall, Sharma Parlett, Matt Sherlock, and Aaron Hinnah each said that they rated Fisher as “meets expectations” for that category, and they asked for a revision of the master document to reflect the majority in that regard. After an extensive discussion, the board agreed to revise the evaluation to rate Fisher as “meets expectations” in that category.
