The Greene County School Board met Wednesday night in regular session.
The meeting started with the Board not going into closed session for student discipline hearing. Instead the Board approved Superintendent Tim Christensen’s recommendation, following a conversation with the district’s attorney, that the student’s family has requested an alternative educational placement at Woodward Academy for the 2018-19 school year. Christensen added that because the district already sends students to Woodward Academy, no additional transportation cost would be assessed to them.
The retiring Board then approved the second readings for new board policies of advertising and promotions, along with unmanned aircrafts with drones as presented. The retiring Board then adjourned.
The new Board then held its organizational portion of the meeting. They elected Dr. Mark Peters to continue to serve as Board President and Steve Fisher was elected as Vice-President for the 2018-19 school year. There was one minor change to the board committee assignments with Steve Fisher replacing Dr. Steve Karber on the scholarship committee. The Board also re-appointed Dr. Karber as the Iowa Association of School Boards Delegate. They approved to continue to have the regular board meetings on the third Wednesday of the month, with the exception of November as it will be on the Monday prior to Thanksgiving, and March as it will be on the second Wednesday, due to spring break. The regular meetings will be at 6:30pm, with work sessions to begin at 5:15pm during the school year. During the summer months, the regular meetings will be at 5:15pm and there will be no work sessions.
The Board also approved the 2017-18 certified report, along with the 2017-18 special education supplement and transportation reports as presented, fundraiser requests for FFA and Spanish Club, the FFA Chapter to attend the National Convention in October, action plans for the Board’s goals as discussed in the work session, several board policy reviews and they voted to discontinue a lease agreement to use the Rippey baseball field and parking lot. Additionally the Board approved an allowable growth request of $407,000 for the special education deficit from last year, along with another allowable growth request of $51,600 for limited English proficient expenditures, a Teacher Quality Professional Development Committee as presented and an $18,900 estimate from Terracon to do soil sampling for the site of the new high school and career academy that’s slated for later this fall.