The Greene County School Board of Directors met last night in regular session.
The Board approved the second reading of a revised board policy about academic eligibility for middle school students and extracurricular activities.
Activities Director Dean Lansman reported about the football changes from the Iowa High School Athletic Association. With the governing body eliminating one round of postseason games, Lansman noted that teams with winning records could potentially not make the playoffs. He said he will attend a meeting in Ames next week to further look at how the playoffs will operate starting with the 2016 season.
District Reading Specialist Julie Neal reported that 47 kindergarten through fourth graders and 65 fifth through eighth graders are attending summer school to become proficient in reading for the following school year.
The Board then approved several agenda items including a change in the energy loan program to recognize the Iowa Economic Development Authority as the governing body of the program, renewing its agreements to share classes with Iowa Lakes and Iowa Central Community colleges, sharing an industrial technology teacher with Iowa Central, renewing its administration mentoring and induction program at no cost because there are no new administrators for the upcoming school year. Other agenda items that the Board approved were the 28E and food service agreements with New Opportunities, offering the student construction house program to help build Kyle Kinney’s house, renewing its transportation agreements with Ogden and Glidden-Ralston School districts to go two miles into each district to transport open enrolled students and an across-the-board three percent increase in salaries and benefits with the Education Association, administrators, classified staff and the bus driver’s union.
The Board also approved to demolish the rental house that the district owns in Grand Junction, due to water damage on the roof. The estimated cost for demolition would be $2,000 to $3,000.
The Board discussed possibly extending its policy of ending practices at 6pm on Wednesdays during the month of May. The current policy is for the entire school year and ends on May 1st. There is about a two week overlap between finishing up the spring sports season and starting the summer sports season with students not having time to participate in church activities. The Board decided to table their decision to a future meeting.
The Board also approved two additional Physical Plant and Equipment Levy projects for this summer. Buxton Concrete Construction was approved to install sidewalks at the baseball and football fields for better accessibility. The cost will be about $10,900. The second project is to expand wireless access to all school buildings and install an access point in every room of the high school. The total cost of the project is $46,608 and after a rebate, the district will only pay $13,700.40.
Finally Superintendent Tim Christensen said petitions are out to get signatures for a bond referendum in September to eventually get the district down to two buildings: a pre-kindergarten through fourth grade and a 5th through 12th grade buildings.