Board Delays Action On Superintendent Contract
Oskaloosa School Superintendent Russ Reiter discusses school funding with legislators at Eggs and Issues 2015.
The Oskaloosa School Board declined to take action on Superintendent Russ Reiter’s contract Monday evening. Board President Carl Drost, after a two hour closed session to evaluate Reiter, announced that action on Reiter’s contract will occur at the June 22nd meeting, when the board is expected to review board goals. Reiter has been with the school district since the 2010-2011 school year. He previously served as Superintendent of the Mt. Ayer School District for four years.
Tensions also flared Monday evening during the board reports section of the meeting. At issue was a report given by Board President Carl Drost, who recapped meetings that he and Reiter had held with building staff of the High School, Middle School, and Elementary School.
In his report, Drost highlighted several issues that had been brought up by staff during the meetings, including morale, communication, and the budget. After receiving his report, board member Kraig Van Hulzen had expressed concerns that the report was given at the last minute. “We didn’t get this information ahead of time. It’s called transparency. We need to be transparent,” Van Hulzen said.
Drost responded. “Mr. Reiter and I got together this morning about 10:00am to make sure that we agreed on these items. I am not going to send out a report that he and I did together without his opinion and his name on it,” he said. After further discussion on the matter, it was suggested that board members send out board reports ahead of time to all members of the school board. Drost said to do so would violate the open meetings law. “I cannot send each member of the board a report and not be in violation of the open meetings law. If this is intended to hang the board president, bring it on,” Drost said.
The board also considered approval of salaries for administrators and department directors. Board member Neal Hadden stated that he wanted to see some comparisons of our salaries compared to other school districts. He also stated that he would like to address salaries for administrators after the board reviews board goals on June 22nd. An initial voted on approving the salaries for all administrators and directors failed on a 3-3 vote. A later vote on approving a 2.35% increase in salary for department directors passed on a unanimous vote. Board members will address the issue of salaries for administrators at the June 22nd Oskaloosa School Board meeting.
In other action, the board:
* Unanimously approved the 2015-2016 Annual Progress Report Improvement Goals
* Unanimously approved board policy relating to open campus at the high school. Under the approved policy, no changes will be made to the open campus policy.
* Unanimously approved the 2014-2015 student/parent handbooks
* Unanimously accepted the resignation of Kendra Roquet as Elementary Kindergarten Teacher
* Unanimously approved the appointments of Joseph Cain and Matt Johnson as High School Special Education Teachers, Jana Lundean as High School TAG Teacher, Brett Hoffman as 6th Grade Math and Language Arts Teacher, and Emily Neusma as 6th Grade Math and Science Teacher.
The next meeting of the Oskaloosa School Board will be on June 22nd at 7:00 pm.
