Oskaloosa School Board Hosts First Meeting Post Superintendent Search
Oskaloosa, Iowa – The Oskaloosa Community School Board met on Tuesday evening, where Board President Sharma Parlet thanked her fellow board members and the community that put effort into helping with the recent superintendent search. “I think it truly was a community effort.”
The Board then considered approval for paving projects at the elementary school parking lot and the middle school.
The elementary would expand the parking area and work on the loop area at the middle school.
The total cost for the projects would be just over $300,000.00.
The District is still required to have a “Return to Learn” plan and update that every six months. The Board updated that plan to coincide with the end of the emergency declaration.
Those included opening up water fountains, removing physical distancing requirements, removing “required” online learning, removing “responsibilities” associated with “required” online learning, and then finally removing COVID data from the website.
Some students continue to wear masks, which is optional for students and parents.
Board member Amanda McGraw commented that it was good to see kids back together and learning.
The Board then considered the approval of a tentative agreement with the Oskaloosa Education Association.
The agreement would include a $900 increase to the base salary of nurses, teachers, and supplemental contracts and advance a step on the pay scale.
Overall it’s a 4.23% salary increase.
It was also agreed to add varsity girls wrestling and middle school girls wrestling programs since the sport is now sanctioned.
The contract agreements passed unanimously.
The Board then approved publishing the 2022-2023 Proposed Oskaloosa School Budget and scheduled a public hearing for Tuesday, April 12th, 2022, at 6 pm.
The proposed property tax rate per $1000 taxable valuation would be 12.99966%
The Board then considered approval of bids on the Phase II portion of the renovation at the Oskaloosa High School, primarily mechanical and fire suppression related.
Upon legal advice, the recommendation was to rebid the project due to bid irregularities and move the project bidding for completion during the summer of 2023.
The recommendation to reject all bids and plan for a 2023 project was approved.
The Board then considered staff retention Payments.
A plan by Governor Kim Reynolds issued a teacher retention bonus, but that bonus has some gaps that, because of language, would exempt some.
The Oskaloosa School District went forward with a plan to reward those teachers and other staff who would have been exempted from the bonus by the State of Iowa.
For Oskaloosa, the cost to reward those individuals totaled approximately $115,500.00.
The Board accepted the resignation of Lisa Van Kooten at the end of the 2021-2022 contract year.
The internal transfers of Nick Eversmeyer, Sara Bonnett, Breyanna Hill, and Brandon Lenhart were also accepted.
Accepted the appointments of Jakob Hasley as High School Physical Education, Stacie Drake as Middle School Science Teacher, and Brandon Lenhart as the Assistant Girls Soccer Coach.
