The Monday, February 14th meeting of the Eagle Grove School Board got started right away at 6:00 pm sharp as scheduled, with all members of the board present.
Following the formalities of calling the meeting to order, performing the roll call and welcoming the public, Elementary School principal Jared Carder took the floor to delve into progress and positive happenings at the grade school level. “We’re really trying to focus on growth,” Carder told the board, “we know we’re in something of a hole as far as ‘benchmarks’ are concerned, mostly as fallout from COVID, so we’re really trying to focus on growth and improvement.” Carder then cited some rather positive benchmarks, gathered by staff during their “data day” efforts. For instance, 77% of students in the 4th grade grew their vocabularies by at least 15 words, Carder reported. Most students improved their words per minute, improving high risk students to low risk, and low risk to target benchmarks. “We have a lot of experts,” Carder said, “so being able to lean on those experts is very useful.”
Next, acting Middle School principal Josh Schild discussed recent events at the Middle School. First he discussed the school’s participation in the Global School Play Day, when students were given an hour and a half to simply be kids and enjoy playing. During which students, Schild reported, had a wonderful time and were well behaved. Middle school students also enjoyed a PBIS BINGO party. But it wasn’t all fun and games. Schild also discussed Iowa Specialty Hospital’s presentation on mental health, and the school’s new Interventionist, Marsha Halbach. Schild also offered a reminder that Aaron Eilert’s day events would take place next Friday. Lastly, Schild discussed changes to the Middle School’s visiting policy. In an adjustment designed to better understand who is in the school, when, where they go, and how long they stay, the school is now requiring guests to sign out, as well as in. This is seen as more secure, and also better for contact tracing with respect to COVID and future public health matters.
With no members of the public presenting comments and no members of the board having any conflicts of interest to report, the meeting pressed on through the approval of the agenda, which was unanimous.
Next the board tackled the consent items, which included approving the minutes of the prior meeting, payment of the monthly bills and examination of district financial statements. Also in the consent items was accepting the advance resignations of 6 teachers, which included discussion of the difficulty the district faces with recruiting and retaining teachers and substitute teachers. In the consent items the board also discussed contracts and open enrollment applications. The consent items were passed by unanimous vote, following a motion by Darren Robinson.
One of the meatier discussions revolved around the elevator contract for the high school. Bids had come in ranging from $487,000 to $580,000, which were more than expected. Superintendent Jess Toliver urged the board to approve the lower bid by Kingland Construction, pointing out that it would likely save money to lock in the contract before inflation grew any more, or supply chain issues caused a lack of parts or equipment that could delay the work or cause cost overruns. Tolliver also pointed out that Kingland had done work for the district in the building before, and Tolliver had been satisfied with their work. Following a motion to award the bid to Kingland by Robinson, seconded by Dr. Aaron Parrott, the board voted unanimously to do so. It is hoped that construction of the new elevator could begin shortly after the ground thaws.
Next the board discussed the possibility of utilizing the iJAG (Iowa Jobs for America’s Graduates) program at the high school. In a written statement presented to the board Superintendent Tolliver urged the board to approve using the program in Eagle Grove’s schools, citing the success the program has had in other area schools. The program is operated by an independent 3rd party non-profit organization and is designed to help students from 7th grade and older to avoid becoming a drop-out and develop career competencies that will lead to a successful transition from school to college, or a career. “I think we should try it for a year and see how it goes,” Tolliver said. Following a motion by Angie Capsel, seconded by Robinson, the board approved engaging with the iJAG program.
The board then drilled down into whether or not to join the Iowa Local Government Risk Pool which locks in natural gas rates through a form of price insurance. Although the district would be agreeing to a somewhat premium rate at current rates, with natural gas rates increasing and that trend showing no sign of reversing, it was considered that perhaps this would likely ultimately result in significant cost savings, while also locking in budgets. Following a motion by Robinson to join the risk pool, seconded by Parrott, the board voted unanimously to join.
Although it was on the agenda to tackle the budget, this was tabled until the next meeting because the board is awaiting crucial information from the state regarding funding.
There was also no movement on teacher salary negotiations as the board was awaiting response from the EGEA coordinator. It was stated that the district’s goal is to negotiate through February and approve the resulting final contract at the March meeting.
From there the board discussed expenses over $25,000. Although there were none initially on the agenda, the cost to replace components for one of the boilers at the Elementary School were added. The boiler had recently failed due to a design flaw. New components will repair it and prevent the same issue from recurring. Currently, the elementary school is operating on one of it’s two boilers.
The board then moved on to discussion of ESSER III plans. Discussion centered around concern that the ESSER funds are nearly all spent, and now that Governor Reynolds has declared Iowa’s COVID emergency officially over funding that relied on the emergency declaration being in place may dry up.
In the Board Member reports Robinson raised concern about the growing issue of vaping among middle school students. Acting Middle School principal Schild confirmed that the matter is a serious issue, pointing out that several instances of students with vapes in the middle school have already occurred. The board expressed concern that while students who vape or smoke generally will do so in the restrooms, available technological equipment to detect vaping would be cost prohibitive to install in all the restrooms and locker rooms, and would be easily damaged or defeated. As no technological solution is presently plausible, it was determined that the best way to combat the problem is through informing students and parents, and working with them to minimize the problem as much as possible.
Owing to the fact that it was Valentine’s Day, Superintendent Tolliver kept his report short. Discussion centered around the recent bursting of an old steel pipe in the street leading to the administration building, which was the district’s financial responsibility. When the pipe burst it sent metallic debris through the plumbing which became lodged in several of the toilets on the first floor, destroying them. Fortunately, those toilets were slated for replacement anyhow, and the funds were already allocated. Keeping the cost of this unfortunate mishap significantly lower than it might otherwise have been.
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