The Greene County Schools board of education at its regular meeting Dec. 11 approved hiring Story Construction as construction manager at risk (CMAR) for the solar project. Story Construction will oversee all construction phases of the $5 million project.
Board member Michelle Fields, who serves on the board’s facilities committee, said she was very impressed with the people she and fellow board member Tim Riphagen interviewed. “They have a lot of experience working with schools… I really feel confident in their ability to help us be successful in implementing the solar project,” Fields said.
Story Construction will charge $15,000 for work during preconstruction, $30,000 for the bidding phase, and 5 percent of the cost of the project to manage construction. Those costs were included in the total cost of the project.
Construction is slated for 2025.
Fields also reported talking with Ken Hagen of OPN about Linduska Field and the state requirements for the number of toilets needed, with a goal putting in fewer than the required 19 toilets for women and 10 for men. Those numbers are based on the total seating capacity in the stands. The board and OPN will use attendance data from the Bound ticketing program to justify the lesser need. The cost per toilet as part of total construction cost is $16,000. When attendance is expected to be at the 1,500 capacity, the district would rent additional portable toilets. The goal is to build only half the state-required number.
The board also approved installing the EverAlert emergency alert system at the elementary school at a cost of $71,714.
School technology director Brent Gerzema said the system at the elementary dates back to the late 1990s and works through the building’s phone system. He said the system is not only dated, “but it’s super unreliable for what it’s supposed to do.”
The current system requires someone to read a message over the phone in the event of an emergency.
The EverAlert system features a 22-inch display in each classroom that ties into the phone system and a web console. Alerts can be pre-programmed as they are now at the other school buildings. EverAlert can also be used for bells, notifications, and paging via the phone system. Written text can also be sent through the system.
Gerzema said he had applied for a federal COPS grant that would have allowed a more robust system. Only two districts in Iowa received the grant funds, and the cost of the other system was $250,000.
High school principal Karen Shannon reported discussing with former superintendent Tim Christensen, who is on staff at Iowa Central Community College and works with schools that operate career academies, ways to increase enrollment and use of the career academy.
She explained that Iowa Central’s Triton Pass allows high school students to take college classes at no cost to them, shifting the initial goal of the career academy. Discussion now is to shift from having career academy classes only in the morning to making them available throughout the day. Students would not be locked into the morning for career academy classes, allowing them more flexibility in taking elective classes
Abbotts said he had conversations with Iowa Central president Jesse Ulrich about rewriting the current 28E agreement to make more flexible scheduling possible.
The board approved three requests to the state School Budget Review Committee for additional funds totaling $170,795. The largest amount is $132,918 due to an increase of 17 students over last year’s enrollment. An increase in students open enrolled out of the district accounts for $25,923, with the remaining due to a need to provide English language instruction beyond five years for some students.
Abbotts explained that if the requests are approved, the district will have access to the funds yet this school year.
The board approved an amendment to Policy 905.5 – Weapons in the School District. The amendment adds “school security officers and/or school resource officers” to the list of persons who are exempt from the prohibition against carrying, possession, transporting or storing weapons, dangerous objects and look-a-like weapons. Abbotts noted that the district does not have security or school resource officers.
The amendment also states, “The district shall not authorize staff members to carry firearms on school grounds in accordance with Iowa Code 724.6.” (Iowa Code 724.6 defines professional carry permits. HF 2586, passed during the 2024 legislative session, gives school districts the option of allowing staff with professional carry permits to carry on school grounds.)
