Greene County Schools superintendent Tim Christensen shared what he called “the bad and good news” of enrollment with the school board at its regular meeting Oct. 16. The “bad” is that the student count is down 8.89 K-12 students from last year. The good news is the pre-kindergarten enrollment is up six fulltime equivalents, or 12 students from last year’s class. That bodes well for next year’s kindergarten enrollment.
Open enrollment numbers are also good, with the number of students open enrolling out to other districts down 25.6. “We made some good strides in terms of open enrollment. That’s very positive. That translates to money staying in the district that was sent out,” Christensen said.
The enrollment counts were done Oct. 15 and are preliminary at this time.
A year ago enrollment in Greene County schools decreased 29 students, with a decrease in state funds of $180,000 for the current school year. (School funding runs a year behind as it relates to enrollment.) Christensen said at the Oct. 16 meeting he expects the district’s spending authority will be stable for 2020-21.
In other business, as Christensen and high school principal Brian Phillips have suggested to the board that the number of credits required for graduation be reduced from 58 to 42, the board approved requests for early graduation from 14 seniors, or about 14 percent of the senior class.
Thirteen of the 14 students will have met all graduation requirements at the end of the second trimester, Feb. 28. The remaining student had already been approved to receive a basic program diploma, requiring her to take only 42 credits.
Principal Phillips favors granting early graduation requests. “Parents and kids should be in charge of what a kid wants to do, not us saying ‘you have to do what you have to do’,” Phillips told the board.
Students who want to graduate early are required to meet with guidance counselor Ruth Broman and to fill out an application that includes a written statement to the board.
One student, Tyler Miller, will finish his graduation requirements prior to the Christmas break, rather than the end of the second trimester. In his request to the board he wrote that he has been recruited to play football at Iowa State University next fall and wants to enroll there in January so he can attend Cyclone football spring training.
Students are ineligible for school athletics after they graduate, but they are welcome to attend prom and to participate in commencement with their classmates, Phillips explained.
The board at the beginning of the meeting held a public hearing on the sale of the property on which East Greene school was located to the city of Grand Junction. No one spoke and no written comments were received. The board then approved a resolution to sell the now vacant lot to the city of Grand Junction for $1.
The lot has been seeded in grass and will be seeded again by the school district next spring. Grounds superintendent Shawn DeMoss said the site would be “a good green park for the people in Grand Junction.”
A two-car garage and a walk-in freezer remain on the property and still belong to the school district. The property still serves as a school bus stop and the garage will be used as shelter during bitter cold weather. The freezer will be used during the summer lunch program, Christensen said.
Board member Sam Harding, owner’s representative during construction of the career academy and new high school, reported construction is about a month behind, but that the general contractor has hired a third crew to try to make up time lost due to the weather. The company has not asked for an extension of the completion deadline.
The board approved an expense of $56,895 paid to OneNeck IT Solutions for networking equipment at the new high school. The cost is part of the total project; the quote does not include installation.
School technology director Brent Gerzema recommended making the purchase now because he fears costs will increase before the building is ready for the equipment. The quote was at state pricing and expires Oct. 28. He called it “a hefty expenditure but necessary.”
The board approved a language services agreement with Interpreters Unlimited for telephone translation and document translation for Spanish-speaking students and their parents. The school will pay $1.25 per minute for real time translation via the telephone. Christensen told the board Spanish is the only language other than English used by students/families in the district.
The board approved an agreement with North Central Consortium School near Fort Dodge to accept Greene County students with serious behavior-related special education needs. The school is located at the former Rabiner Treatment Center.
Greene County generally sends students with those needs to Granwood or Woodward Academy, but those schools have wait lists. The agreement with North Central provides another option.
The board agreed to move the regular November meeting to Monday, Nov. 18, at 5:30 pm. Members will be at the Iowa Association of School Boards annual convention on the regular meeting date of the third Wednesday.
