The Greene County Community School District is moving forward with a solar energy project to curb electricity costs at the district’s three school building.
Superintendent Brett Abbotts reported at the board’s May 8 meeting he has spoken with staff from Modus Engineering and OPN about the proposed solar energy project. He said the board will discuss hiring a project manager at the June meeting.
Also related to the solar energy project, the board approved a letter of engagement with Ahlers Cooney Attorneys to serve as bond counsel in the sale of $5,075,000 in general obligation school capital loan notes to fund the project. The bonds will be repaid with projected revenue from the district’s physical plant and equipment levy (PPEL).
The district will pay Ahlers Cooney an estimated $20,000, with an additional $500 to cover office expenses, travel, printing, and similar costs.
Abbotts also reported that after public questions about the district purchasing the city-owned softball field in E. Lincoln Way, he talked with Jefferson city staff. He said due to grant funding when the property was originally purchased by the city, there are six state agencies involved and it would take 18-24 months for ownership to transfer. “It’s probably not a viable option at this point, so we’ll roll that back to the facilities process,” Abbotts said.
He also reported the plan approved last summer to have construction students build a new restroom facility at Linduska Field has been scuttled. A plan going forward has not been developed.
Last July the board approved having the 2023-24 construction class build a 553-sq ft steel post frame building with restrooms on the north end of the athletic field. It was to be placed close enough to Allensworth Field to accommodate those who attend baseball games as well as those who attend football, soccer, and track & field events at Linduska Field. Cost was approved not to exceed $180,000.
Abbots gave no explanation of why the project wasn’t built.
District administrators submit monthly reports as a PowerPoint slide. The reports are touched on only briefly during the open board meeting,
In his May report, director of technology Brett Gerzema reported on a “catastrophic failure” of a Virtual Environment storage controller. The failure occurred the afternoon of May 2 and the systems weren’t fully restored until the afternoon of May 6.
Gerzema thanked Scott Fosseen of Prairie Lakes Area Education Agency for his help. Fosseen was able to find a physical server for the district that allowed for restoration of the three virtual servers that went down during the data corruption. The district incurred no cost for his services.
Principals included scores from the recently-completed Iowa Statewide Assessment of Student Progress (ISASP). At the high school, scores ranged from a high of 80 percent of freshmen being proficient in reading to lows of 55 percent of freshmen being proficient in math and 53 percent of sophomores being proficient in science. For juniors, in their last year of taking the ISASP, 76 of students scored proficient in reading, 70 percent scored proficient in math, and 64 percent scored proficient in writing.
At the middle school, fifth graders scored lowest in writing at 55 percent being proficient; 74 percent scored as proficient in math. Sixth graders scored 77 percent proficient in writing and eighth graders scored 76 percent proficient in reading and 74 percent proficient in writing.
Only third and fourth graders took the ISASP at the elementary school. In third grade, 49 percent of students are proficient in writing, 51 percent are proficient in reading, and 70 percent are proficient in math. In fourth grade, 64 percent are proficient in reading and writing and 65 percent are proficient in math.
The board approved hourly wages for the coming school year for classified staff. With the increases, the wage range for paraeducators will be $12.81 to $18.43 hourly; $13.86 to $23.07 for custodians; $11.76 to $18.54 for nutrition (meal) staff; and $14.70 to $23.91 for secretaries. The increases total $85,740 for the year, about 5 percent over the current year.
School bus drivers are in the second year of a 5-year agreement. Per the agreement, they will receive a 2.5 percent pay increase.
Pay for substitute teachers will increase from $135 per day to $150, and from $175 to $180.52 per day after 10 consecutive days in the same classroom. Abbotts said there is always a need for substitute teachers.
