Oskaloosa school board met in regular session Monday and moved through about a dozen items including several end of fiscal year issues.
One of the first items of business was to remove renewal of different insurance policies and consideration of approved revised board goals. New information had been received and board president Carl Drost felt it would not be prudent to approve the goals without the time to consider the information. These items will be added to a June 22 meeting.
Drost made a presentation on feedback he had received during district wide meetings. Board members Kraig Van Hulzen and Tom Richardson told Drost it would have been good to have his report before the start of the meeting so they could follow along as he was reading. Drost said for him to do so would have violated Iowa’s open meeting laws.
Jan Palmer spoke on behalf of Backpack Weekend Food Initiative. She said her group would like to focus on Oskaloosa Elementary. There have been potentially 130 students who could possibly benefit from the program. There would be no district dollars allocated to the program, only to allow the group to work with school officials and teachers to implement the program. Amy Langdon, director of United Way of Mahaska County. She said that United Way has been working with Palmer on the project and feels confident any funding that is needed would be readily available.
Board member Neal Hadden said he agrees with the program and feels it is needed. All the parties indicated that confidentiality and discreetness is the top priority. Drost suggested putting the program on the July agenda for approval. Board members agreed and felt this needed an approval by the board to move forward.
Salaries for directors and administrators were on the agenda, but only director pay was approved. Superintendent Russ Reiter had suggested director salaries at 2.35 percent and administrators at 2 percent. He pointed out that the figure includes salary and any insurance and other benefits.
Hadden and board member Shawn Moyer asked how current administrative salaries stack up against others in the area. “I would like to know where we are with other administrators’ contracts,” said Hadden
“I don’t know how we are with them either,” added Moyer.
Van Hulzen, Richardson and Nik Rule voted to approve the salaries for both. Moyer, Hadden and Drost voted against. On a second motion, the board unanimously approved the director’s salary schedule and will place the administrator’s on the June 22 agenda. Reiter stated he would gather information on salaries for comparison purposes.
Approval was give for a 2.43 percent increase to other support staff not included in any of the bargaining units.
Middle school principal Andy Hotek presented a revised schedule at his building. The proposal is to have block scheduling for sixth grade students and an eight period day for seventh and eighth grade. “The sixth grade and the seventh and eight grade will be on complete different schedules,” said Hotek.
Hadden said he was sold on the block scheduling for sixth grade, but just was not sure about the eight period structure. The board approved after lengthy discussion.
The board accepted the resignation of long-time kindergarten teacher Kendra Rouqet (ROCKY). She has accepted a position with the Area Education Agency. She had taught in the district since 1993.
The board approved five new teachers. At the high school the board offered contracts to Joseph Kane as level II special education teacher at $39,516 and Level I special education to Matt Johnson at $39,347. Jana Lundeen was hired as talented and gifted instructor for $44,114.
Brett Hoffman was hired as a sixth grade math and language arts instructor for $36,931 while Emily Nieuwsma was hired for sixth grade math and science at $40,455.
The board considered approval of the 2015-16 annual progress improvement goals. Dr. Mary Cooksley, district curriculum director made the presentation, which included an update on the goals for this year. One goal, “one year’s growth in grades 4-11 by the Iowa Assessment National Standard Score, showed improvement in many areas, but not all. This goal is still pertinent. The district advisory committee will add a change from 21st Century skills to technology 8 for eighth graders. The goal would have 90 percent of the students at a 2 or higher. They approved the goals for next school year.
The members approved board policy 501.111, which deals with senior high open campus. Principal Stacy Bandy had contacted conference schools and others the size of Oskaloosa and policies were all over the board. He said basically if a student was not failing a class they could have an open campus. Board member Nik Rule said he would like to see the mark at 2.75 grade average. After discussion it was determined a C minus will be the standard, but Bandy will look at tying it to one year achievement on Iowa Assessments.
In other business:
Held public hearing on the District Developed Special Education Delivery Plan. No one spoke on the issue. The board will look to approve at the July 13 meeting.
Approved the 2015-16 student handbooks
Authorized board business manager Chad Vink to pay some fiscal year end invoices.
Story By R.D. Keep
