Approves purchase of Stopfinder geo alerts for busses, roof replacement at middle school
The Greene County Schools board approved strategic priorities at its Dec. 21 regular meeting. The goals were first discussed at a Nov. 30 work session with Lou Ann Gvist, Iowa Association of School Boards development director.
The board has set priorities the past several years. An effort this time was to wordsmith the previous goals to make them easy to understand and remember. The four goals are academic excellence; recruit and retain quality staff; resource management; and community relations. Each goal is broken down into two or more elements. Click here to see them all.
School superintendent Brett Abbotts reported a new website for the Greene County Career Academy was launched Dec. 20 at www.iowacentral.edu/ca/gcca.asp. The website includes information about the strands available – Advanced manufacturing, welding; Agriculture information technology; Computer science/programming; Construction – Building trades; Culinary and hospitality; and Health care.
The new website falls under the Community Relations board goal.
Abbots also reported work toward a new agreement with New Opportunities for the Greene County Head Start program. Once the new agreement is in place Greene County will have two additional 4-year-old classrooms at the elementary school while serving 3-year-olds as well. The school is also looking at “a community connection with a local partner here in town,” but Abbotts said it’s too soon to say more about that partnership.
He updated the board on the status of redeveloping the former middle school. He said the developers of the project are still waiting to hear from the State Historical Preservation Office about whether they’ll lose funding for the project if the gymnasium is torn down. The current determination is that removing the gym would eliminate the historic tax credits for the housing project planned for the three-story classroom portion of the building. The funds in question are about half the total project cost. “We’re still in a hurry up and wait situation for that,” Abbotts said.
Murphy Construction has the bid to raze the building. “I want to make sure we’re doing the right thing before we give Andy (Murphy) the go-ahead to start taking things down,” he said.
He also reported forming a superintendent advisory committee composed of 10 staff members – Chad Morton, Deb Marquardt and Emily Van Egmond from the high school; Doug Brown, Tammy Mohr and Samantha Telleen from the middle school; Rhonda Baker, Paige Berns and Mary Ewalt from the elementary school; and Kyle Kinne, who works in all three buildings. The committee will meet monthly to provide Abbotts with feedback on items like the school calendar, professional development, teacher evaluation, priorities for social and emotional learning, and more.
The board approved the purchase of Stopfinder Geo Alerts/Samsara GPS from Transfinder of Schenectady, NY. Stopfinder will allow parents to track their student’s bus in real time, and to receive an “alert” when the bus is within a specified distance from home. Stopfinder will be particularly helpful to parents in knowing when activity busses (example, basketball teams) will arrive back in Jefferson.
Access to Stopfinder will be tied to the Infinite Campus program already in use. Only persons identified in Infinite Campus as a parent or guardian will be invited to download the Stopfinder app. The cost is $4,500 for the software for each of three years, and $500 total for hardware for the 15 busses in the school fleet.
The board approved a contract with the Garland Company Inc of Cleveland, OH, for replacement of the last two ballast roofs on the middle school, both of which are on the southeast portion of the building. Garland will provide specifications and bid documents, with material costs determined by Garland. Contractors will submit bids to do the installation. Cost is set at $215,000 per section, for a total of $430,000. Bids will be due by Jan. 20 with approval on the Feb. 16 board agenda. Funding will be from the districts Local Option Sales Tax (LOST) fund.
The board approved the district’s 18-page At Risk/Dropout Prevention program for 2023-24. The plan includes the alternative high school program, the Success Center at the high school, mental health counseling, behavior management program, career readiness – iJAG, credit recovery, guidance support services, at-risk liaison, and nursing services. Total cost is $441,531.
The board approved a new radon mitigation policy under the advice of the IASB. By 2025 all school districts must test their buildings for radon, and submit plans for any needed mitigation by 2027.
