The West Central Valley School Board met in regular session Wednesday. Nyle Godwin was absent.

West Central Valley Middle School Science Fair Director Jill Gerling presented Samantha Colin and her project to the Board. Colin’s research on converting stem cells to kidney cells impressed the judges at the Iowa State Science Fair in Ames last spring. Colin won second place in the medicine category at the competition and was invited to submit her project to the Broadcom Math, Applied Science, Technology, and Engineering Rising Stars (MASTERS) competition. Out of nearly 2,500 submissions, the 7th grader was one of three Iowans to place in the top 300. Colin received a one-year subscription to mathematics software, a ribbon, certificate, and other small prizes.

Board Secretary Symantha Crawford revealed the unofficial certified enrollment numbers to the Board, which remained relatively unchanged. Crawford did note that enrollment numbers are generally down across all of Guthrie County. The Board also approved a tag robotics program for high school and select middle school students as well as a physical education student waiver. This waiver allows students to take a physical education course just one semester per year, instead of the Iowa mandated two semesters.

Finally, the Board approved the hiring of Grundmeyer Leader Search as the superintendent selection search firm. Board Member Jenyse Belden summed up the reason for moving forward with a selection firm as opposed to relying on internal candidates. “I think if we go with a search firm, and one of our internal candidates rises to the top then we know that we’ve done our due diligence and we’ve done our best for the district to pick the best candidate.”

The Board concluded the meeting by continuing the ongoing discussion on the future of superintendent roles, which will continue at next month’s meeting.