Edgren to resign from school board

Erik Edgren [second from right\ announced on Tuesday that he will step down from the board in the near future.

Oskaloosa, Iowa- More turnover on the board is imminent as another Oskaloosa School Board member announced they would not be completing their term on the board. Director District 6 member Erik Edgren announced on Tuesday that he would step down from the board in the near future. Edgren did not give an exact date for when he will officially resign. Edgren cited family health as a reason for why he would be resigning. However, he said that he would not make it official until after an “issue” the board is currently tackling is resolved.

“There’s an issue in front of the board right now that I consider too important for me to step down at this time, so when those issues are resolved, I do regretfully have to step down for family issues,” Edgren said.

Edgren did not provide more detail about the ongoing issue “in front of the board”, but he did add that he did not at all like serving on the school board.

“While I’ve tried to do the best in this job, I don’t like it. I don’t like it at all. Not even a little bit,” Edgren said. “To any voter in the public, I’d like to extend my apologies for not being able to fill out my term,” Edgren added.

Erik Edgren was first elected to the Oskaloosa School board in 2015, defeating incumbent Shawn Moyer 175 votes to 96 votes, one of the lowest turnouts for a contested Oskaloosa School Board election.

Edgren is the fourth Oskaloosa School Board member in as many years to resign, before completion his term.

What’s next for the Oskaloosa School Board? After Edgren officially announces the date his resignation becomes effective, the board must do one of two things. They must either appoint someone to fill out the remainder of his term, or they must call a special election to fill out the term. If the board chooses to appoint a member, the public can petition the board to hold a special election.

According to the Iowa Secretary of State’s Office, any petition for a special election must be turned in no later than 14 days from the date the appointment to the board is made. The petition must contain signatures from 30 percent of the total number of voters in the last school election, or 100 signatures, whichever is greater. 1,088 votes were cast in the September Oskaloosa School Board election, meaning a petition must have at least 326 signatures on it.

If a special election is held by the board, it would have to be held between 60 and 70 days of “when the vacancy becomes known by the secretary of the board.”

The last vacancy on the school board was filled by a special election, after a petition was presented to the school board. Before that, the previous two vacancies on the school board were filled by appointment to the board.

At Monday’s meeting, the board also heard an update from Take Action Consulting. Take Action Consulting has been brought in by the board to address numerous behavior problems that were brought up in spring of 2016. Rozie Warder, of Take Action Consulting, updated the board on, among other things, how the school will be addressing cases needing attention from trained mental health professionals. Warder said that a psychiatrist from Mahaska Behavior Health has agreed to meet with teachers, the student’s therapist, and the student’s therapist to do case reviews. Warder said that began this past week in the school district. She added that this is unique to the Oskaloosa School District.

“It was a great opportunity, and it’s not done anywhere,” Warder said.

She added that she is proud of the way that the community has come together to provide help and other support for the Oskaloosa School District.

“The community of Oskaloosa is one that we should be so proud of over the work they’re willing to do for the folks in our schools. I’m blessed to be a part of that,” Warder said.

Warder also invited middle school associate principal Mark Scholes to talk about the PBIS program and how it is working at the middle school. Scholes noted that behavior incidents had dropped from grade level to grade level during the 1st trimester at the middle school. Scholes attributed this to the older students “figuring it out”. The majority of office referrals among sixth-grade students were for “physical” behavior, though Scholes said that did not necessarily mean fighting. Among seventh graders, Scholes noted that insubordination appeared to be a large number of office referrals, and among eighth graders, there was no clear reason for office referrals.

The board on Tuesday also discussed the softball field project and some revisions to the concessions stand plans. At issue for the board was the possibility of building the concessions stand out of concrete blocks, or to do a “stick build”. Board member Kraig Van Hulzen noted that to build using concrete blocks, it would increase the project cost by around $20,000, bringing it to $47,000. He did note that building with concrete blocks would allow the project to be done by baseball/softball season, and that from an aesthetic standpoint, it would go well. Board member Erik Edgren, however, expressed reservations initially with using a concrete block material. Edgren stated that in his experience, unless a building his continuously heated during the year, the concrete block will break and crack during the freeze and re-freeze that is common in winter.

“I don’t see a concession stand as something you’re going to be paying for heat year round,” Edgren said.

Van Hulzen said that he doesn’t necessarily have a preference but added that regardless of which material the board moves ahead with for the project, it is important that the board is mindful of the public’s money.

“You have to use due diligence with the public’s money. Period,” Van Hulzen said.

Ultimately, the board voted 7-0, to modify plans to call for a masonry concession stand/restrooms facility and to solicit bids for the project.

The board also approved revisions to a couple of board policies. The first revision dealt with the board’s policy on vacancies on the board. It was noted that there was some confusion with the board’s policy, as it differed with information from the Iowa Association of School Boards. The major difference between the board’s policy was that it did not include any language on the public being allowed to petition for a special election. The board unanimously approved the first reading of revisions to the policy to include the public being able to petition the board for a special election in the event of a vacancy.

The board also considered changes to the board policy relating to district legal counsel. The revision being proposed was allowing the board president to contact district legal counsel on behalf of the board. Current policy states that only the secretary of the board or the superintendent can do so. Board member Carl Drost noted that when he was previously board president until the 1990s, this issue had come up before.

“I think that the board president should be able to call,” Drost said of the proposal.

The board ultimately approved the first reading of the change 7-0.

The board also voted 5-2, with board members Carl Drost and Erik Edgren voted no, to approve an application to the School Budget Review Committee for modified allowable growth-dropout prevention.

Lastly, the board rounded out their meeting with a closed session to discuss matters presently in litigation, or where litigation is imminent. No action was taken after the closed session.

The next regular meeting of the Oskaloosa School Board will be on January 9 at 6 pm in the George Daily Auditorium Meeting Room.