ACSD Board of Directors meets

by Brianne Eilers

The Allamakee Community School District (ACSD) Board of Directors met for its regular monthly meeting Monday evening, January 20. During his Superintendent’s report, ACSD Superintendent Dave Herold explained HF 215, which Iowa legislators passed last year, regarding 180 days versus 1080 hours of instruction for a school year. Herold noted that he felt legislators would be revisiting this law this year to make changes, as he said there are problems with the law.
Currently, HF 215 states that in order for a school day to count, it must be a minimum of six hours. The normal school day for students in the ACSD is currently six and a half hours, so if there would be a late start or an early out of more than half an hour, the day would not count. Herold pointed out that currently, in order for a school day to count, it has to be five and a half hours. He also noted that the new law would not allow for things like letting out early for Professional Development days.
To comply with the new law, ACSD will be contemplating a move to the 1080 hours, Herold explained, also noting that he felt many other districts will be doing the same. A public hearing will have to be held to declare the district’s choice of 180 days or 1080 hours before the school calendar for 2014-2015 can be adopted, and would be set at a later date.
Herold also noted that the district has received $16,995 from the Harkin Fire Safety Grant, which will be used to fix various issues at each building this summer.
During the Principals’ Report, East and West Elementary Principal Ann Hart noted that registration for four- and five-year-old will be in February. She said that currently there are “a lot of four-year-olds”, but felt that as the event got closer, there would be more five-year-olds as well. She also informed the Board that in February, the staff from East Elementary will take an evening to work on ways to add more time into the math teaching block.
Waterville Elementary and Waukon Junior High Principal Joe Griffith talked a bit about the Governor’s Challenge and Live Healthy Iowa. The ACSD schools will be participating in that. He also noted that the VFW Voice of Democracy and Patriot’s Pen contests had been held and all buildings had some representation. Gabby Marti took first place and will advancd on to the State level. Griffith also noted that Adrienne Gerst had submitted several students for the Tipton Honor Choir, and nine were selected.
Activities Director and Assistant Waukon High School Principal Jennifer Garin noted that the winter weather has been difficult on sports schedules. She explained that there are still about half of the games left to play, and said to keep checking the district’s calendar and website for schedule updates. Waukon High School Principal Dan Diercks noted that the weather has also affected semester tests and the beginning of the new semester and commended the students and staff for being very flexible with the scheduling needs.
In other reports, during Curriculum Report, Gretchen DeVore gave a presentation regarding the professional learning day that was held earlier Monday. She gave samples of what the teachers were doing to learn about using videos, which could be produced by the instructors or even students, in classroom learning, as well as the web pages that the staff will be designing for themselves in order to help students and parents know what the teachers do.
Buildings and Grounds Director Dennis Mahr reported that 18 new doors were installed during the winter break. Food Services Director Julie Magner reported that in a few weeks, the schools should be serving fresh lettuce and radishes from the school’s garden in the green house. Transportation Director Randy Nordheim reported that there have been some starter issues on buses that required towing, but that they had not had any fuel-related problems yet this winter.
FFA Advisor and Ag instructor Jessica O’Connor noted that she has met with an agronomist from Syngenta and that her students have an opportunity to partner directly with Syngenta to plant their 11-acre test plot. O’Connor noted that they could have between 20-40 varieties, depending on if they wanted to plant only corn, only soybeans, or both. She also noted that the agronomists from Syngenta would be working directly with students in the fields as well.
Under new business, the Board approved hiring staff for the 21st Century After School Program, pending background check as required with hiring of all new staff. Brent Beyer and Chris Shelton were approved as volunteer track coaches. Brett Egan was approved as a SINA Title I teacher at East Elementary. Herold noted that Egan has student taught in the district before as well. Chad Beermann was approved as a Track Throwers Coach for $750, a job he previously did for the district. The Board also accepted the resignation of Kristina Mark from her para-educator position.
The Board approved four-year-old preschool tuition. Information submitted from Principal Hart explained that the four-year-old preschool classes meet four days a week, with two of those days being funded through the State Voluntary Preschool Program and the remaining two funded by the parents. Tuition was set at $2,310, with parents being responsible for $1,155 of that fee. In her information, Hart pointed out that while this is a five-percent increase in tuition from the current year, her school is still charging the least amount of tuition for a local four-year-old preschool program.
The Board also approved a quote for three cabinet heaters from Winona Controls for a total of $7,363. Mahr explained that the heaters will be going in some areas that had temperature control issues during the extreme cold. A field trip request was approved for the High School Music Department to attend a performance of “The Little Mermaid” at the Chanhassen Dinner Theatre in Chanhassen,  MN, as they have done in years past. In information submitted by Adrienne Gerst and Jo Ann Knipfer Sherman, they noted that the trip will be one day instead of two, in order to better accommodate class time and make it more affordable for students. The students will also be stopping at Apache Mall in Rochester, MN to eat supper and take a little break from riding. Final cost will be determined by the number of students signing up and the number of chaperones participating.
The Board also approved the Football Award Banquet, to be held on a Sunday evening. Herold noted that they try to avoid doing that, but due to weather and all the other activities going on throughout the week, that is what has worked the best.
The Board also approved numerous fundraisers. Garin noted that there are a lot of fundraisers, and they are working on a system that will best organize what every group is doing and when they are doing it, so the community is not so overwhelmed by fundraising and there is minimal overlap. They are trying to work on being able to present an entire fundraising calendar to the Board, at a later date, for the next school year and have information in place for the entire year.
Board member Tom Baxter posed a question about what would happen if there was a special fundraiser that cropped up, but had not been on the calendar previously. Garin noted that while they will be trying to limit special cases, there would be an opportunity for special cases to be reviewed by the Board on a case by case basis. She further noted that in the Iowa Code, all fundraisers are to be approved for the school year at the beginning of the year. Baxter noted that he had wanted clarification on that, as he hoped that there might still be some opportunities if a special case cropped up.
The final discussion of the meeting was regarding the district's recent audit results. Board Secretary Janice Rea explained some of the issues the auditors noted when they submitted their final report. She explained that fundraising was an issue pointed out by the company, but the district is taking steps to rectify that and as well as be compliant with the Iowa Code. She also noted that the sales tax reporting and the district’s use of sales taxes collected to reduce property taxes was a plus. “They loved that,” Rea noted. There were also some issues with making sure money got to the right funds, but that all funds in the district have positive balances and that the district also has undesignated fund balances, which is good.