Every classroom in the Greene County Schools will have a new Clevertouch® display for the new school year. A Clevertouch is a touchscreen device that functions as a chalkboard and movie screen did a generation ago. Clevertouch displays are operated through a connected computer.
The school board, at its June 11 meeting, approved the purchase of 92 new Clevertouch displays from Bluum of Minnesota at a total cost of $140,598.08. The purchase will be paid for with physical plant and equipment levy (PPEL) funds.
The new displays will replace those purchased in 2020 with Covid relief funds. Those had only a three-year warranty and cost $500 more each than the new purchase. The new displays come with a seven-year warranty.
The 2020 displays will be put in coaches’ and administrators’ office, for digital signage, and as temporary backup should the new displays need warranty work. The remaining will be sold, district director of technology Brett Gerzema said.
The board approved employee handbooks for the coming school year. The handbooks outline changes in the process of teacher evaluations, replacing one formal observation with three shorter, informal observations. The informal observations will be unannounced and will be a different times during a class period.
“It gives us an opportunity to see all parts of a teacher’s work and what instruction is happening and what students are doing,” high school principal Karen Shannon said.
The board approved a service agreement with Region XII Western Iowa Transit Systems for transportation of students with special needs. The district will pay $35,838 for services.
The board approved participating in the Storm Protection Fund, a 28E entity risk pool. The district’s building insurance through EMC has a deductible for catastrophic events of 1 percent of the value of the buildings. That would amount to $909,822, should all three schools and the bus garage be damaged.
Joining the Storm Protection Fund decreases the deductible to $10,000 per occurrence, at a cost of $35,838 to the district.
The board approved transferring 90 percent of the district’s special education funding to the Heartland Area Education Agency. The transfer has been to Prairie Lakes AEA in past years. The board rescheduled the regular July meeting to Monday, July 7, at 5:15 pm in the district conference room.
