The Adel-DeSoto-Minburn School Board met in regular session on Monday.
According to Board Secretary Josh Jacobs, the board reviewed a two-year plan for the High School English Language Arts curriculum that makes purchases for textbooks, a video library, and journalism equipment. After consideration, Jacobs mentions that the board approved quotes from Barnes and Noble for textbooks, Swank for the video library, and Amazon for the journalism equipment for a total of $79,989.
Jacobs tells Raccoon Valley Radio that other items on the agenda that were approved included a physical education curriculum revision purchases for students in pre-kindergarten through 12th grade for $30,986, a resolution to add a high school show choir starting in the 2025-26 school year, accepting the district’s certified 2026 fiscal year budget with a 17.9 percent increase in property taxes, a resolution for the executed contract, bond documents, and proof of insurance for the construction of the new high school to Stahl Construction, and a resolution for Allender Butzke to work on testing services for the new high school in the amount of $149,825.31.
Jacobs says that additional approved items on the agenda featured setting a public hearing for a MidAmerican electric distribution on May 12th at 6pm, a resolution to certify the tax levy for the payment of $8.5 million of the general obligation school bonds to be issued after May 1st, accepting a window security film at Meadow View Elementary for $16,300, a master contract with the ADM School District for teacher salaries and certified employee contracts for the 2025-26 school year, and contracts for coaches, sponsors, and directors.
Jacobs details that additional items that were approved by the board included a memorandum of understanding to reimburse Cathleen Aronow $4,788 to obtain a Strategist II Endorsement, a renewal contract for Incident IQ for $11,033.88 for a helpdesk platform, a resolution to purchase 40 Macbooks for certified staff from Apple for $41,520, a resolution to buy new classroom desks and chairs for the middle school for $12,048.70, accepting an Innovative Behavioral Therapy services contract, and a three-year agreement with ParentSquare to provide new communication tools for the 2025-26 school year.
Jacobs shares the only item that was tabled during the meeting was related to purchasing close to 600 chromebooks for students in third, fifth, and ninth grade. He acknowledges that the board is concerned about tariffs and wants more time to determine if they’ll have enough qualifying bids to make an educated decision.