Sharp Discussion Over School Board Agendas

Oskaloosa Community School Board

Oskaloosa, Iowa – The Oskaloosa School Board met in regular session on Tuesday evening, with all members present with the exception of Erik Edgren and Carl Drost.

Tom Richardson, Board President, reported that 87% of students are being referred to the office 0 to 1 times for behavioral issues in the elementary. According to Richardson, the AEA looks to have that number at 80% or higher.

The discussion of discipline at the elementary facility has been a topic of great discussion for the district, and the board implemented student handbook changes at the beginning of the year to help address concerns.

Richardson praised those involved during the process, calling the change “spectacular”.

The board considered approval of the softball field renovations. The need to change the location of the field became apparent as the facility aged, and requirements for accessibility also changed over time.

The current field will be used for the upcoming season, and the board approved the project specifications and to solicit bids. Actual bids could be awarded in July of 2017.

The board approved an architect contract for the upcoming high school gym renovation project. The goal is to make the facility useful for the next 40 years. The structure has served the district for 40 years at this point.

Air conditioning and heating updates, new roof and more are part of the project and could cost upwards of 2.1 million dollars, and take 6 months to complete. That completion date could cause some disruption during the upcoming school year.

The board recognized several retiring staff members, including Marion Voss, who served as a bus driver for the district for 28 years.

Jeff Nicholson was also honored by the board for serving the district for 30 years in the custodial/maintenance department.

The board approved a tentative agreement and master contract amendments with the OSSSA, totaling a 1.67% salary increase for those staff members. The agreement was for one year, which historically is a 2 year agreement.

A 1.3% increase in salary was the recommendation for all administrators and directors for the Oskaloosa School District. The group will also have the same insurance options as the certified staff.
The lone dissenting vote to the increase was board member Amanda McGraw.

Also approved was wages for other support employees for the district. These employees are typically not part of a union or certified staff for the district. Reiter also recommended a 1.67% increase for those individuals. Those staff members would also have the same health coverage options as others in the district.

McGraw once again was the lone dissenting vote to the increase.

The second and final reading of revised board policy series 100, covering education philosophy. The motion passed unanimously.

The board then considered revising policy 210.8, board meeting agenda.

Board member Kraig VanHulzen made the recommendation for change based upon prior board meetings. VanHulzen believed that changes were needed so the board was working together. VanHulzen said he wanted “more transparency, because sometimes I feel like we’re getting off task in some of our meetings.”

VanHulzen said that he included documentation of his tasks with fellow board members, “what I found is, when I submitted the reports, I was more thoughtful, and also, when Tom [Richardson] asked me to comment, I really didn’t feel like I needed to share unless I thought the public needed to know. Because what I’ve done is informed the board on what some of the activities I was involved in and what the progress was.”

VanHulzen said that if a board member wants to share something, the other board members need to know ahead of time what that member wants to speak about. “So there is no surprises.”

“What I have proposed is that all board members submit reports 2 days prior to the meeting date on the committees or items they wish to share,” added Van Hulzen.

With Drost and Edgren not present at the meeting, board member Shelly Herr suggested that the conversation may be best served when all members were present.

VanHulzen said he’s been surprised at some of Drost’s topics, “and as board members, we shouldn’t be surprised with anything that should be in front of us.”

VanHulzen asked McGraw what her opinion was on the proposed changes. McGraw said that she feels it’s just another way “to silence people.”

“The point of it is, I’m not trying to silence Carl. Carl and I, we have our differences, but at the end of the day, we’re working together. We’re working together on several different projects,” added VanHulzen. “We can agree to disagree, but I would just like to know what he’s going to talk about before hand so I can kind of, at least, prepare myself.”

VanHulzen said he brought up the proposed changes because he, referring to himself, was “not happy with my behavior. How I responded, and it’s because, I’m just not prepared for it.”

“Maybe it’s more of an issue of how we’re working together, than it is board policy,” added board member Sharma Parlett.

McGraw said that she wants to see agenda items that talk about academics, or improving test scores or bringing kids back to the Oskaloosa School District. “Test scores. Let’s talk about that and not spend so much time bickering back and forth about things that and…”

Parlett injected, “Test scores will come once a year, and they are what they are and we can’t change those.”

“People look at our report card. I work with a kid that decided to go that way [pointing North] because he looked at the report card,” said McGraw. “People look at it. That’s why they don’t come here.”

“Oh there’s other reasons,” said Richardson. “You’ve seen the survey, don’t ignore it.”

The Oskaloosa School Board has been highly divided, and often very openly contentious during the past year, with heated debates taking place during the public meetings.

The motion by VanHulzen was tabled for a later date.

Iowa Association of School Boards Award of Merit went to Denise McLellan, who had primarily served in the elementary for 16 years in the general music category.

Ginny Foster has served the district for 18 years, primarily in the physical education department at the high school.

Marty Stowell served the district as a 1st grade teacher, and retires after 21 years.

The board conducted a public hearing on the sale of a student construction house. No member of the public spoke in regards to the sale.

The board then conducted a public hearing in regards to the 2016-17 budget amendment. No member of the pubic spoke in that hearing.

The board then approved the motion to amend the 2016-17 budget amendment.

The next scheduled meeting is set for May 23rd at 7pm.