The Greene County School Board met Wednesday night in regular session.

The Board heard an update on the new student construction house project near the softball fields. Instructor Chad Morman said the eight students dug the hole for the basement and Karuth Concrete poured the footings in for the house. Louk Plumbing is currently installing the water and sewer lines and installing plumbing in the basement.

The Board then approved 11 early graduation requests, a sharing agreement with South Central Calhoun School District for Denise Carpenter to be a full time English Language Learner teacher and moving the regular school board meetings in November to the 21st and in March to the 22nd due to scheduling conflicts.

The Board then directed Superintendent Tim Christensen to set up a joint meeting with the Paton-Churdan School Board to discuss sharing possibilities for future school years.

The Board heard an update about new state legislation for community colleges to establish regional academies. Iowa Central Community College is looking to pass a bond in December to build an academy in Lohrville as the central location for their southwest region, which includes Greene County. Students must sign up for half-day classes to get college credit. More information will be presented to the Board at a future meeting.

Christensen then reported that this year’s certified enrollment for the district saw a reduction of 50 students. That means the district is facing a $330,000 drop in the general fund. However, the state allows for a 101 percent budget guarantee, meaning that districts have two school years until they realize the full drop in funding. Discussions that stemmed from the information included closing the intermediate building in Grand Junction, building an addition on the elementary school for fourth graders and then the fifth and sixth grades would be taken to the middle school. Another possibility is getting a portable classroom to handle the extra 200 students at the middle school, if the move was made to close the Grand Junction building.

A concerned citizen asked the Board why they are spending money to put an addition on the elementary, despite the fact that the bond referendum didn’t pass. The Board responded by saying that they would save over $300,000 if they closed the intermediate school and there would be some annual savings after that. Another possibility was cutting programs and staff and sharing a superintendent with Ogden School District.

The Board decided to have a special meeting at the intermediate school on November 2nd at 5:30pm to get public input and make a final decision.