The Greene County Schools board of education demonstrated at its May 17 regular meeting that more goes into educating students than teachers, curricula, and classrooms. Most of the board’s agenda was non-academic items – things like restrooms at the football field, cashless admission gates at athletic events, and outdoor play equipment for middle schoolers.
Building trades instructor Kirk Davis updated the board on progress on the large storage building students are constructing south of the high school in lieu of a house. The project is on track for completion next fall, with subcontractors working through the summer on items outside the students’ skills.
Davis said planning is starting for next year, with no consideration of building a house. He suggested that a new restroom facility at Linduska Field is needed. The restrooms are small, “pretty inadequate during track meets and football games,” Davis said. Students could provide most of the labor for construction of a new restroom building, with plumbing being the larger portion of the cost.
Board member John McConnell recalled that five or six years ago a new building was planned, but “got shot down.” Davis was not with the district at the time.
“I’m glad the discussion is coming back around. We need it. It’s not getting any better,” McConnell said.
Activities director David Wright said that since coming to the district last summer, the restrooms at the football field are the most frequent complaints he hears.
Board member Steve Fisher reminded the board that the long term plan is for the district’s athletic facilities to all be at (new) high school. “This is going to be a short-term fix, 10 or 15 years. That’s been the plan since we bought the land out there (the high school site), to build a new athletic complex,” Fisher said.
Wright called it a “quandary,” knowing when it might be that the district builds new athletic facilities. “The question it comes down to is that we need to have facilities now that are adequate,” he said.
Without polling board members, board president Bonnie Silbaugh said, “it sounds like the vibe is to go forward with the idea.”
Davis will start developing plans and have cost estimates for the board’s June meeting.
The board approved a proposal from the Heart of Iowa Activities Conference that all member schools who are not using only cashless ticketing for events start on a “path to cashless” this fall. Tickets will need to be purchased online via the Bound platform (linked from the school website) prior to events or with a debit/credit card at the gate. For the 2023-24 school year, there will not be a cash box or a designated cash line at the gate of any events, but someone who comes with only cash would be able to pay to get in.
Bound will provide card readers for admission gates.
Adult admission is increasing to $6 for the new school year. Of that, Bound will receive a 90-cent service fee per ticket.
Wright said cashless admission makes it easier to keep track of gate receipts and attendance, decreases the number of people handling cash, and decreases the possibility of gate receipts being stolen. Only one HOIAC school has not indicated it will go cashless, so Ram fans who travel will need to use debit/credit cards for away games. He suggested that fans who don’t use debit/credit cards purchase season passes that allow admission to all home events.
The board also approved up to $65,000 for outdoor recreation equipment at the middle school. Because the building was built as a high school, there is no play equipment. Students have outdoor recess with very few activities available.
Teachers Samantha Telleen and Matt Paulsen surveyed middle school students to develop a list of what the majority of students would most like to have available. An obstacle course was the most wished-for activity.
The teachers’ proposal includes an obstacle course at a cost of $38,440, a concrete basketball court with three rows of bleachers, a swing set with six swings, volleyball, cornhole, a pair of 6-foot cedar conversation benches, and four-square.
The equipment totals close to $65,000 without installation costs. Superintendent Brett Abbotts hopes community volunteers will be available for installation. BOOST has agreed to donate toward the project but has not named an amount.
The equipment will be on the northwest corner of the middle school grounds, south of the teachers’ parking lot. It will also serve as a neighborhood playground, as the nearest city park is several blocks away.
“We think this will alleviate some of the behaviors we seen when students are out there for 20 minutes with nothing to do,” Telleen said.
The board okayed a request from Paton-Churdan to share bowling under the same agreement as other sports. Greene County board member Michele Fields asked the board to consider sharing all sports or no sports going forward. “I’m not a huge fan of picking and choosing which sports we share. I’d like to do all of our sports together or none of our sports together,” she said.
Silbaugh said that can be put on a future agenda. Fields did vote in favor of the motion to share bowling with P-C.
The board approved summer projects to include the purchase of a Dixie Chopper mower from Neese Inc at a cost of $14,500; the demolition of four small buildings (storage sheds and greenhouses) immediately south of the middle school by Murphy Construction at a cost of $9,500; a new walk-in cooler/freezer at the elementary school from LD Services at a cost of $46,282; and walk-in cooler refrigeration equipment at the middle school from Drees Co at a cost of $8,374. Funding for the first two projects will come from the physical plant and equipment levy, with funding for refrigeration projects from the school nutrition fund.
