The open meeting with the Greene County School Board took place Wednesday night.

A main topic of discussion was about bridging the gap between the education students receive at the high school level versus the college level.  Doug Whipple asked about bringing in college students and talking with high school students about their experiences. High School Principal Brian Phillips said guidance counselor Ruth Broman does that on a small degree currently but another component to be considered would be to include parents in those conversations.

Superintendent Tim Christensen said a debate could be made between putting funding toward the career and technical education courses or funding the honor college courses at the high school. However, it comes down to resources. Plus, board member Sam Harding said currently the state doesn’t test against the common core with the Iowa Test of Basic Skills.

A question was then brought up by Steve Fisher about where the allocated money from Grow Greene County Gaming Corporation was being used for. Christensen said they designated money to renovate Ram Restaurant, purchasing additional Google Chromebooks so that it would be 1:1 for grades three through eight and purchasing additional science supplies to align with the new standards that will be coming from the Iowa Department of Education. Christensen added that he thought the school district would receive about $160,000 for next school year.

Fisher finished the meeting by asking the Board to consider the community’s comments about any significant school calendar changes in the future. He noted that there were parents upset about continuing to have early Wednesday dismissals.

Due to not having a quorum, the Board took no action on any of the discussion items.