GrCo school board okays pay increases, changes name of alt school
The Greene County school board and members of the Greene County Early Learning Center board discussed the future of the Early Learning Center at the school board’s regular meeting May 15.
GCELC board members Jacque Andrew and Bill Monroe and GCELC director Cherie Cerveny updated the school board on their discussions about the future of the building. The GCELC rents most of the classroom space at the school administrative building – formerly the south grade school – on W. Madison St.
With the renovation of the current high school into a middle school, all administrative offices will be moved there. The district has offered to give the administrative building to the GCELC, with it remaining to the early learning center to do needed maintenance and renovations.
The ELC board is considering whether to renovate the 1955 building or construct a new building specifically designed for early childhood. The board wants to keep the ELC in the same central location, whether it be a renovation or new construction.
The ELC board’s purpose in talking with the school board was to learn if other space on the school property would be available if the final decision is new construction.
ELC board member Andrew told the school board her board had engaged the services of First Children’s Finance to provide data about the demographics of Greene County. Ninety-seven children are now served by the ELC. First Children’s reported there is potential for another 50 children, but that assumes more availability of childcare would create some population growth.
The ELC board has also engaged Benjamin Design of Ames to evaluate the current building and potential renovation costs, as well as provide estimates of what a new building would cost.
School board president Mark Peters asked what information the ELC board needs from the school to make a decision.
Andrew said knowing what property would be available for a new building is the biggest factor now. The original lot line is where Monroe St was vacated when the south grade school was built.
“If we don’t have access to that property, we don’t have any option but to fix up this building,” Andrew said.
The Early Learning Center board is not the only group interested in the future use of the property. Greene County Development Corporation has proposed a “Three Block Plan” that includes a commercial developer repurposing the current middle school as condominiums, green space with splash pads replacing the middle school parking lot, and the Early Learning Center in its same general location. The Greene County Community Center is the third block of the plan.
Andrew said the ELC board is in conversation with GCDC about its proposal for the property.
School board members Steve Karber and Steve Fisher volunteered to serve on a committee with ELC board members to determine the school’s role in the future of the ELC.
Questions of property lines, utilities, the demolition of the 1955 school building should that be the ELC board’s decision, and the interest to a developer in the middle school should a new Early Learning Center use property immediately to the south of it are all things to be discussed.
In other business, the board discussed the scope of the renovations at the current high school. The bond issue approved by voters a year ago includes $1.5 million to remodel the office suite for secure entrances and to make space for district officers, for work on the gym, and to improve fire safety and ADA compliance.
The cost does not include replacing the HVAC system, parts of which date back to the school’s construction in 1966.
The state legislature recently extended the 1-cent state SAVE (Secure an Advanced Vision for Education) sales tax, allowing schools to sell bonds with repayment coming from future SAVE revenues.
Christensen asked the board to consider bonding against the SAVE fund for a new HVAC system at the current high school. No formal decision was asked for or made, but the board was agreeable to the idea.
The board approved new graduation requirements. The change doesn’t increase the number of credits needed for graduation, but increases the number or required trimesters of freshman-level science from two to three and decreases by one tri the number of higher level science credits needed. It also changes how English/language arts credits are counted.
Christensen commended the board for adding a financial literacy class as a graduating requirement several years ago. The state now mandates it, and several districts are struggling to figure out how and where to add such a class to their curriculum.
The board approved 2.6 percent pay increases for administrators. With the retirement of district technology coordinator Tim Buenz and the voluntary reduction to 9/10th time of curriculum director Karen Sandberg, the overall increase to the district is 2.53 percent, or $2,818.
The board also approved pay increases for several groups of classified employees, including cooks and associates. The substitute teacher pay was increased $5 to $120 per day.
There will be no increase in the prices students pay for meals or book fees for the 2019-20 school year, and the cost of student activity passes will decrease. For the current year, students in grades K-12 paid $75 for an activity pass. Starting with the new school year, students in grades K-6 will pay $25 and students in graded 7-12 will pay $50. The adult and family costs will remain at $100 and $250, respectively.
Senior citizens (age 65 and older) will still be offered activity passes at no charge, but verbiage will be added noting that the school will accept a free will donation for the pass.
The board approved renaming the alternative school, now officially the Greene County Academic Achievement Center, to OHANA. Students in the program have called it OHANA for several years. To them, OHANA is an acronym for Opportunity Happens for All Needing Assistance. OHANA also loosely means “family” in Hawaiian. According to alternative school teacher Heather Moody, “Many students see the word OHANA and can automatically quote the line from the movie ‘Lilo and Stitch’, ‘Ohana means family, and family means no one is left behind… or forgotten.”
The name change will be official when the new high school opens in the fall of 2020.
The board passed several resolutions needed to sell the final $5.5 million in general obligation bonds for the school construction project. The bond bid was awarded at the April meeting. The resolutions passed at the May meeting are part of the process.
