The Greene County School Board met Wednesday in regular session.

The meeting started with Jefferson resident Cindy Wise addressing the Board. She said a letter of support was submitted to the City of Jefferson for the proposed KCG Companies apartment project. She stated the letter was from the Superintendent Brett Abbotts and that the School Board also supported the project and that the district could handle an influx of new students. She asked what Abbotts meant by his comments and how much “an influx” was considering she claimed the classrooms are completely full right now. Abbotts asked for her contact information and that he would directly reach out to her for a response.

The Board approved three voluntary retirements and commended each individual on their service to the district. Those individuals included LeeAnn Ausberger for 24 years of service as a teacher, Coleen Sillyman with 12 years of service as a custodian and Jean McKenzie-Vickers with 11 years in the district as an associate. Next, the Board approved two school driving permits for two students, including Isaac Hoffman and Mason Lehman, along with two fundraiser requests for the FFA Chapter and boys and girls golf teams. 

The Board also approved an out of state travel request for Greene County FFA to attend the National FFA Convention this October, the 2024-25 purchase agreement for food bids with Area Education Agency, the Paton-Churdan sharing agreement with a slight language change of the discontinuation policy of the agreement as presented. The Board also approved the negotiated agreement with the Greene County Education Association for a 3.22 percent total package increase, along with an additional 2.69 percent off of the base salary increase.

Additionally, the Board denied an open enrollment waiver request for a homeschooled student, whose family is moving into the district from Carroll and wanted to play soccer. The Board heard information regarding property taxes and other financial information with Piper Sandler, where no action was taken by the Board. Finally, the Board held a discussion about the city-owned softball fields. Several options were discussed, including continuing with the 28E agreement the district has now, if the district were to own the fields outright, and another entity, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources showed interest in partnering with the district for the use of the property. No action was taken by the Board following the discussion.