As usual the meeting of the Eagle Grove School Board began with the principals of the schools discussing events at their schools as the third quarter of the year wrapped up. At the High School, they had begun registering students for the 2022-23 school year. Including meeting with 8th graders who were about to become high schoolers next year, and sending information home for their parents. Winter sports had wrapped up, and the spring season is ramping up. And the successful Drill Team and Variety Show nights, which had highlighted the talented students of Eagle Grove, was discussed. As was the successful season of the Speech Team, which sent students to State both in the individual and large group competitions. ELPA tests were underway for EL students, and ISASP tests are coming up the week of April 25th.
For the middle school, Aaron Eilerts’ Day was recapped, along with the 5th-12th grade band concert, the Fuller hall swimming trip, and parent teacher conferences – which had a 92% attendance rate. ISASP tests at the middle school will be between April 4th and April 8th.
For the elementary school, the literacy night, kids heart challenge, and the health fair held during conferences were recapped. The elementary school also had a high attendance rate for parent teacher conferences, at 87%. The then upcoming movie night was also discussed.
After that, the meeting got on to the business at hand. Board member Darren Robinson disclosed a conflict of interest stemming from a relative who is now a district employee, and stated he will abstain from voting in matters directly related to that employee, if any come up. From there, it was on to the consent agenda, which was easily approved.
The board then considered a new 3 year EGEA contract, which would include a 3% per year increase, move to a pool concept, or match the state’s percentage, if higher, and approved the agreement. The board then noted that they are in year two of a three year EGESA contract, and so at this time all that is needed is an update of the handbook. And non-bargaining contracts were unanimously approved, with Superintendent Jess Tolliver abstaining.
Next the board moved on to the issue of the $1,000 retention bonuses which the Esser funding had provided for staff members who were in the classroom all year long. The board unanimously agreed that to reward only those who were in the classroom, and then only those who were for the full year, was unfair to other employees who also braved the pandemic to serve the educational needs of students. It was estimated that to extend the bonuses, with pro-rating for those who didn’t work the full year, would cost approximately $93,500, in order to pay everyone who worked hard and risked their health. The board then voted on funding the extension, which was unanimously approved.
The sting of that expenditure was lessened by the unusual fact that there were no new major expenditures (of over $25,000) to report. And by the report that as a result of the upcoming budget, property taxes were expected to decrease significantly, by an estimated $1.53 per thousand dollars of property taxed. Such a significant decrease was attributed mostly to the district paying off its elementary school bonds. A public hearing was set for April 11th.
Then, high school Principal Heidi Vasquez gave a presentation on Professional Development proposals, which called for a significant increase in professional development time. Confronting the misperception she anticipated among some in the public that professional development time was wasted time, Vasquez answered the question of whether they’ll do more work as teachers under the proposal, or less. “It’s the required amount of work,” Vasquez said, “it is more work, but it’s the required work. We need time to do it and do it right.”
In discussion of the development time matter, elementary school Principal Jared Carder gave Vasquez an assist, pointing out that the demands on teachers continue to grow. “As it becomes less appealing to be in education due to all the things that are going on in the world, this gives us the gift of time to accomplish our goals,” Carder remarked.
Superintendent Tolliver expanded on that, noting that there are greater demands on students as well. “There’s more expectations on every kid learning and we need time to implement that,” Tolliver said.
Robinson asked some questions that got to the heart of the matter. Asked if the additional development time would change the length of the school year, Tolliver replied that it really didn’t. “We lose 14 to 15 hours in the school year,” Tolliver explained. “In total, 2 snow days is about what we’d lose.” Asked how it would affect staff contracts, Tolliver explained that it wouldn’t, as associates could still work on early out days.
“I kind of look at it like a business world operation,” middle school Principal Josh Schild concluded, “They’re going to look at the data and decide what to do, except in this case the data is the student performance.” Meaning that teachers would be spending time studying the success rates of the students studying under them, and make adjustments to their own techniques and priorities, to help their students achieve greater success.
After much discussion, the board unanimously approved the option of increasing professional development time in the 2022-23 school calendar, before moving on.
Next, Tolliver reported that the construction of the elevator in the high school was to start the following week. After that, the board unanimously approved the change to the elementary school handbook discussed at a prior meeting, which tightened the controls over and records of visitors to the school.
Next, the board moved on to the historic business of discussing girl’s wrestling, in the wake of the official statewide sanctioning of the sport. “Girls wrestling has now been sanctioned,” Tolliver announced, happily, “I believe we should have a program of some sort.” Following some discussion, the board unanimously approved moving forward with a girl’s wrestling program for grades 7 to 12.
The ICAP program (Career Ready Iowa) district plan was then unanimously approved. And the sharing agreement for a social worker with Clarion-Goldfield-Dows school district was ended with a unanimous vote.
Next the board discussed the Iowa Central University’s Career Academy and it’s recent Game of Life event. The board agreed the event had been a success for the career academy students, and to continue to participate with the Career Academy in the future. Tolliver noted that the district is in year 7 of a 10 year contract with the Academy, and it looks at this point like when it’s nearing the end the district may want to expand their participation. “It has definitely been a benefit for our students and we don’t want to lose that,” Tolliver concluded.
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