Determines use for anonymous gift to East Greene district years ago
The Greene County Schools board held its last meeting at the W. Madison St location on Wednesday. The first item of old business on the agenda for the board’s regular meeting Dec. 16 was to pass a motion to move meetings to the new administration offices at the middle school on Ram Drive, effective with the Jan. 20 meeting.
Meeting dates and times won’t change. Regular meetings will be held the third Wednesday of each month, beginning at 6:30 pm. They’ll be preceded by a work session at 5:15 if needed. The March meeting will be one week later due to spring break.
The move into the administrative suite at the middle school is slated for over the Christmas break. That will include moving the district’s data center. According to district IT director Brent Gerzema, the change will begin Dec. 22 at 2 pm. There will be no internet access or phone service available to any of the district’s buildings until the transition is complete at the end of the day Wednesday, Dec. 23.
Also under old business, the board accepted voluntary resignations for the purpose of retirement from Pat Heinrichs, Karen Murphy, Teresa Skalla, Ruth Broman, Steve Sillyman and JoAnn Rasmussen. Their resignations are effective at the end of the school year.
The board at its November meeting approved an early retirement incentive as a cost savings tool, with a cap of $200,000. The incentive is based on the current base pay of each staff member. The six perspective retirees will receive a total of $159,527 in incentives. Superintendent Tim Christensen anticipates more applications for the incentive before the deadline in February.
Of the six, Murphy, Sillyman and Rasmussen are classroom teachers. Heinrichs is an instructional coach and Skalla and Broman are guidance counselors. Christensen will begin advertising for the positions he knows will need to be filled.
The board heard a presentation from FFA members Emma Halterman, Autumn Villebro and Conner Allender asking that a new greenhouse be installed at the high school rather than moving the old greenhouse from the former high school.
The three were prepared with a slide presentation that showed uses, benefits to students, costs and possible funding sources. They priced a 24’ X 48’ greenhouse at $56,780 including construction, and a 24’ X 36’ greenhouse at $50,965, also including construction.
After the presentation, Christensen noted a concrete pad has already been poured for the smaller greenhouse, and electrical and plumbing service is in place. Carroll Perkins has donated funds for equipment, and regional planning partnership funds of $8,900 have already been awarded to the district for an ag education project.
The students and ag teacher/FFA advisor Raelyn Harris plan to apply for grants and solicit donations for the greenhouse. They asked for board approval so they can begin that process. By consensus the board approved the project, but since it was listed on the agenda as a report rather than old or new business, the board was unable to take formal action.
The board accepted the low bid of $93,200 from Environmental Property Solutions of Urbandale for asbestos removal at the 1921 school and 1952 gymnasium. Christensen noted that regardless of the future of those buildings, the district must deal with the asbestos. There was no further discussion of the proposed sale of the 1921 building to be repurposed as apartments or the likely demolition of the gym.
The board approved a change order totaling $70,059.49 for Henkel Construction’s work at the middle school. The largest expense is $32,500 for a new ceiling in the general/vocal music room, which was the wrestling room previously. Another $16,736 was added for paint in the new wrestling room.
With the change order, total cost of the project is $4,930,819; the original contract was $4,099,000. Board member Steve Fisher questioned the cost overrun, which is now at 17 percent.
Christensen reminded him the board approved additional funds for the project during the summer of 2019 after the Iowa legislature extended the 1-cent SAVE (Secure an Advanced Vision for Education) sales tax. With that extension, the district has been able to borrow more against anticipated sales tax revenue.
The board voted to accept Perry into the Heart of Iowa Activities Conference. District activities director Todd Gordon said Perry joining the HOIAC “makes a lot of sense” because of the existing rivalry and its short distance from Greene County. He said Perry “brings a lot to the table in a lot of different ways. Activity wise, when we talk about Leadership Council, the diversity we would experience with them, that our kids would experience conference-wide, would be fantastic.”
He added that the state organization will probably mandate allowing Perry into the conference if the member schools don’t vote in the Blue Jays.
Perry is now one of the smallest schools in the Raccoon River Activities Conference, a conference the Rams left several years ago.
The board took care of an issue in the district financial audit coming from funds the former East Greene district accepted years ago. The anonymous $34,000 donation had no strings attached, and the board wanted to consider using it to start a school foundation. The money was put into an agency fund in the district’s activity fund until a foundation was set up, but that didn’t come to pass. The money was spent down to about $26,000 on such things as school assemblies, field trips, and the annual Iowa Association of School Board convention before East Greene and Jefferson-Scranton reorganized.
Upon the reorganization, the money was put into an agency fund in the Greene County district. Auditors want to see it moved into something other than an agency fund. Board secretary Brenda Muir said the auditors also don’t want to see it moved into the Greene County School Foundation.
Christensen suggested the money which, with interest, is about $27,000, be put in the general fund and spent on CleverTouch screens in the middle school classrooms. That’s the same technology that’s at the high school. Purchase of the screens for all 16 classrooms at the middle school would total $32,000. Christensen said the district has the funds needed to make up the difference. The board approved that use of the former East Greene funds.
Board members accepted the same committee assignments as last year with one exception. Board member Catherine Wilson will not serve on the scholarship committee because she has a daughter who is a senior this year. Mike Dennhardt will serve on that committee in her place.
Board committee assignments are: county assessor and conference board- Steve Fisher; Jefferson park and recreation board member- Wilson; negotiations- Dennhardt and Steve Karber; administrative/classified salaries- Dennhardt and Fisher; School Improvement Advisory Council- John McConnell and Wilson; Greene County School Foundation board- Fisher; facilities- McConnell and Karber; insurance- Fisher; and wellness- Karber and Wilson. Karber will continue as the board’s delegate to the Iowa Association of School Boards general assembly.
Sam Harding, owner’s representative on the construction projects, gave an update early in the meeting. The work is completed except for the auditorium at the high school and the gym and wrestling room at the middle school.
Harding continues to be enthusiastic about the auditorium, and again said “there’s no high school that can touch our venue.”
He said key personnel has been trained on the lighting, sound, and rigging systems in the auditorium, and that the training was video recorded. He said the systems are complete enough and professional enough that an internship or even a career strand in theater production could be done there.
He is also excited about the gym at the middle school. The north wall was moved to make room for bleachers, and windows were added at the top of the north wall. A new hardwood floor gleams. “The gym turned out really nice… It doesn’t even look like the same sweatbox it was,” Harding said.
