Mid-Prairie Community School District
Kalona, Wellman, West Chester
Mid-Prairie Central Office Community Room, Wellman, IA 52356
June 12, 2023 – 6:15 p.m.
Vice President Gabrielle Frederick called the meeting to order in the absence of President Jeremy Pickard.
Board members present: Mary Allred, Denise Chittick, Gabrielle Frederick, Marianne Schlabach, Jake Snider.
Board members absent: Jeremy Pickard, Jed Seward.
Also Present: Jeff Swartzentruber, Chuck Banks, Robin Foster, Rob Hruby, Greg Jergens, Rachel Kerns, Amy Shalla, and Frank Slabaugh.
Brian Stone, Superintendent was absent.
Mary Allred moved to adopt the agenda as presented. Seconded by Marianne Schlabach. Motion carried 5-0.
Hawk Highlight – Principals Foster and Jergens presented on the TCIT outcome data. This is the second year of the program and is set to improve social and emotional support. The initial training was provided by Grant Wood AEA. The Adults and Teachers are being coached on ways to approach and connect to students using common language elements. The District continues to have coaches of the program trained so that the District can train the teachers and staff. Jergens covered some of the data points and graphs of the data to show the progress made during the use of the program in classrooms. The Board asked questions for clarification and understanding during the presentation. Next year, it is anticipated that there will be 4 coaches in the District with 19 Teachers receiving coaching in the program in the 2023-2024 School Year. The goal is to train all Kindergarten through Fourth Grade teachers.
Public Forum
A parent of a student at the Middle School spoke about their experience with their Special Education Student. It was found in March that the student had not received education to the IEP. The question was who is held accountable in administration after something like this is found?
WORK SESSION
The Board asked questions and discussed the report forms shared by each Administrator about their areas of responsibility. Middle School provided a building construction update as did Home School and High School.
BUSINESS MEETING
Consent Items
Mary Allred moved to approve the following consent items.
Minutes of Previous Meetings
The minutes of May 8, 2023 and May 15, 2023;
Finance Report
The Finance Report for May 2023;
Payment of Bills
The bills as listed for June 12, 2023; Prepaid Bills;
Open Enrollment Requests
Stacia Danner requests Grady Danner (Kindergarten), attend Mid-Prairie from Keota Community School District for the 2023-24 School Year;
Dean and Maria Straub request George Straub (Grade 2), Paraskevi Straub (Grade 3), and Philip Straub (Grade 5) attend Mid-Prairie’s Home School Assistance Program from College Community School District for the 2023-24 School Year;
Josh and Audrey Kromminga request Hadley Kromminga (Kindergarten) attend Mid-Prairie’s Home School Assistance Program from Iowa City Community School District for the 2023-24 School Year;
Lauren Ward requests Grayson Ward (Kindergarten) attend Mid-Prairie’s Home School Assistance Program from XX Community School District for the 2023-24 School Year;
Nicole Tucker requests Lexi Haynes (Grade 2), Madisyn Haynes (Grade 5), and Saige Haynes (Grade 9) attend Fairfield Community School District from Mid-Prairie;
Personnel Items
Contract issued to Chris Kern, High School 0.5 FTE Physical Education Teacher, $27,534 per annum;
Contract issued to Emma Corbelli, East Elementary Kindergarten Teacher, $40,310 per annum;
Contract issued to Stephanie Schlabaugh, Middle School Fifth Grade Teacher, $41,700 per annum;
Contract issued to Jennifer Zeglis, Middle School Band Teacher, $52,473 per annum;
Contract issued to Marci Stanfield, Nutrition Director, $51,800 per annum;
Contract issued to Brenna Schwenker, High School Head Dance Team Coach, $1,876 per season;
Contract Issued to Jeremy Peck, AM Bus Route Driver, $24.43 per hour;
Contract issued to Travis Hartley, PM Bus Route Driver, $24.43 per hour;
Resignation of Andrew Kahler, East Elementary Custodian, $16.46 per hour, effective 6/2/2023;
Resignation of Aaron Coghlan, High School Assistant Varsity Football Coach, $3,459 per annum, effective 6/5/2023;
Resignation of Aaron Coghlan, Middle School Boys Track Coach, $2,605 per annum, effective 5/15/2023;
Fundraising Requests
Mid-Prairie Basketball requests approval to raise funds through the garage type sale in June and July of old jersey, shirts, and warm-ups to be used for team apparel, volunteer coaches, coach apparel, basketball equipment and supplies;
Mid-Prairie Football requests approval to raise funds through the garage type sale in June and July of old jersey, and other items to be used for team apparel, volunteer coaches, coach apparel, football uniforms, equipment and supplies;
Mid-Prairie Football requests approval to raise funds through sponsor donations for t-shirts as part of the football camp for grades 5 to 12 from July 31 to August 3 to be used for team apparel, volunteer coaches, coach apparel, football uniforms, equipment and supplies;
Mid-Prairie Home School Assistance Program requests approval to raise funds from May 2023 through December 2023 through Bake Sales, Dine Out Events, T-shirts, Free-will Donations Box and Letters to Businesses for support of programming, community building activities for students and families;
Grant Wood AEA PowerSchool Contract for the 2023-2024 School Year
Recommended for Approval the PowerSchool Access Agreement for the upcoming school year.
Denise Chittick seconded the consent items. Motion carried 5-0.
Student Learning
District K-5 Student Math Curriculum
Kristan Hunter, Curriculum Leader for the District and Teachers Sarah Ihde, Paula Buckwalter, Emily Zehr, Renee Fisher, Mariah Schlabach, Hannah Mougin, Emily Pennington, Renee Fisher, and Hallie Whitten were present and presented the new Math Curriculum work they have completed over the last two school years and are ready to implement in the coming school year. After two pilots they chose I-Ready, illustrative math, curriculum because of the impact and tools it provided to the students. They presented the six desired student outcomes with some detail. The Board asked questions on implementation strategies. The projected costs for 630 students in 36 classrooms over 7 years from 2023 to 2030 totals $96,793.77. While this is paid in 2023, the costs spread out over the 7 years will be $384.10 per year per class and $3.13 per student per year.
Denise Chittick moved to approve Kindergarten to Grade 5 Math Curriculum program for 7 years at a cost of $96,793.77 to be paid in Year 1. Mary Allred seconded the motion. Motion carried 5-0.
Finance
Dairy Bid for the 2023-2024 School Year
Jeff Swartzentruber School Business Official discussed the Dairy Bid Process as outlined in a memo of May 23, 2023. Prairie Farms was the only group to provide a diary bid for the upcoming year and for the four 1-year extensions to follow. He asked for questions on the process and the cost analysis also provided. Based upon the process and available fact pattern, Swartzentruber recommended the Dairy Bid be awarded to Prairie Farms as presented with the option to extend the agreement and relationship for 4 1-year extensions.
Mary Allred moved to approve the award of the Dairy Bid to Prairie Farms for the 2023-2024 School year and the 4 1-year extensions as presented. Jake Snider seconded the motion. Motion carried 5-0.
Superintendent Wage Review for the 2023-2024 School Year
School Business Official Swartzentruber drew the Boards attention to the document. After Superintendent Stone’s evaluation on May 8, 2023, the next step is to consider updating the wages for the second year of the contract. All staff received a 3.2% package increase for the 2023-2024 School Year. Superintendent Stone has stated to the Board that he would not be comfortable with a 3.2% package increase due to the fact that his wages would increase by 3.27% due to the benefit package he receives being lower in growth. At a maximum, he would prefer his wages to be no higher than the Principals which is near 2.69%--and would bring his overall package increase to 2.68%. At a minimum there would be no increase to wages for 2023-2024 and the package increase would be 0.28%. The Board discussed the different approaches and numbers.
The decision was made to table the decision due to the absence of Stone, Pickard, and Seward. Frederick will seek to find a special meeting date before June 30, 2023.
Termination of Administrator Contract
Superintendent Stone reported that a final action is required to terminate the contract of the Administrator named in the May 15, 2023 meeting. This is the subsequent and final step in the process. This requires a roll call vote.
Mary Allred moved to approve the termination of the Administrator Contract as noted in the May 15, 2023 meeting. Marianne Schlabach seconded the motion. Motion carried 5-0.
Roll Call Vote: Gabrielle Frederick - yes Mary Allred - yes
Jed Seward - absent Jeremy Pickard - absent
Marianne Schlabach - yes Jake Snider - yes
Denise Chittick - yes
Motion carried 5-0.
Board Development and Inservice Activities
Nothing was added at this time.
Announcements and Suggestions for Next Agenda
The next regular Board meeting will be on Monday, June 26, 2023, at 6:15 p.m. at the Central Office Community Room. Agenda items to include: Acceptance of the 2021-2022 Audited Statements; Begin to review Board Policies for the current policy chapters; 2024 Legislative Priorities for IASB; Tabled Superintendent salary and package increase for 2023-2024. As there will only be 4 Board Members present, Marianne Schlabach will most likely preside.
Discussion of a special Board Meeting to discuss Superintendent Compensation with Frederick to work with the Board to find a date before June 30, 2023.
Board Highlights
- Appreciation was expressed for the Graduation ceremony.
- It is exciting to see the progression in elementary math curriculum.
Adjournment
The meeting adjourned at 7:20 p.m.