The Board Report

The MCSD Board of Education held a special meeting on June 23, 2016. After an exempt session, the board approved the following items in open session:

Secretarial staff compensation – The board approved a 3.22 percent salary package increase. Of this increase, 1.9 percent is salary alone.

Administrative staff compensation – The board approved a salary package increase of 3.4 percent, of which 2.38 percent is salary alone.

Stipend – The board approved a $2,500 stipend for Director of Business Operations Brian Bartz for additional duties he took on during the superintendent transition process.

Lisa Koester and John Veldey present the agreement on the salary settlement for teachers to the school board at the June 20 meeting.

Personnel

Dr. Lisa Stevenson

Dr. Lisa Stevenson was approved as the new director of instruction for the Marshalltown Community School District. Stevenson is currently an elementary principal in the Bettendorf Community School District. For more information on Dr. Stevenson, click here.

Director of Information Technology Jeff Weinberg has announced his resignation effective July 31, 2016 as he has taken a position with Heartland AEA in the Des Moines area.
Brett Purvis has been hired as the new director of buildings and grounds for MCSD. Brett arrives at MCSD
from Iowa Valley Community College District where he has served as director of
plant services since

Brett Purvis

2011. He has more than 30 years of construction or buildings
management experience. For all the personnel actions approved by the board, click here.

Chromebook bids   
Director of Information Technology Jeff Weinberg and Instructional Design Specialist Dave Stanfield presented bids for Chromebooks, which support the Digital Conversion in the district. These devices will go to replace devices for all students at Miller Middle School and to mostly freshmen at Marshalltown High School.

The board approved the purchase of 1,235 new Dell Chromebooks of $253,965.40 from GovConnection Inc. of Merrimack, NH.

Ratification of salary settlement for teachers for 2016-17
District Attorney John Veldey and Director of Human Resources Lisa Koester presented this settlement. The teachers will receive a 3.4 percent overall salary package increase, which is a 2.54 percent increase in salary alone and the rest of the increase is insurance. The board approved the tentative agreement and it now goes to the Marshalltown Education Association for approval. For more information on the agreement, click here.

Ratification of salary settlement for food service employees for 2016-17
Koester presented some changes on this settlement, which can be accessed by clicking here. The settlement included a total package increase of 3.13 percent, which includes a 2 percent increase in the wage. The board approved the settlement.

Ratification of salary settlement for transportation for 2016-17
Koester presented changes agreed upon on this settlement. For drivers and monitors, there is a total salary package increase is 2.96 percent. It was approved by the board.

Ratification of salary settlement for buildings and grounds and transportation mechanics for 2016-17
Click here for the agreement changes. The salary package increase will be 2.99 percent, which includes a wage increase of 0.38 percent and the rest of the increase is due to increased insurance costs. It was approved by the board.

Ratification of salary settlement for paraeducators for 2016-17.
For the agreement, click here. This includes a salary package increase of 3 percent, which includes a salary increase 1.99 percent. The agreement was approved by the board.

Interfund borrowing
This item was presented by Director of Business Operations Brian Bartz. He recommended borrowing up to $1 million for the SAVE/SILO fund from the general fund to cover construction overages and completion of construction projects. This money will be paid back to the general fund prior to June 30, 2017. This item was approved by the board.

Board Policies
101.1 – Long Range Needs Assessment – Rewrite approved, waived second reading
711.2 – Student Conduct on School Transportation – Changes made to comply with PBIS and transportation handbook, Approved and waived second reading.
312.3-E1- Fringe Benefits – Administrators/Supervisors – Additions and deletions made. Approved and waived second reading.
201.8 – Board Vacancies – Changes made last fall were not reflected in current policy, will come back for first reading.
202.1- Code of Ethics – Marked as reviewed
202.2 – President-Vice President – Marked as reviewed
202.3- Secretary- Treasurer – Marked as reviewed
703.3R – Financial Planning Calendar – Marked as reviewed
804.2E – Video Surveillance and Electronic Monitoring Exhibit – Marked as reviewed

Closed Session
The board came out of a closed session and approved an agreement on the Roundhouse renovation.

The next regular school board meeting will be at 5 p.m. on July 18. It is the only regular meeting planned for July. The board will meet at noon on Thursday, June 23 in a special session to talk about administrator salaries for 2016-17.

From Board President Bea Niblock
“At the end of June, board meetings are usually not very long and have pretty uncomplicated agendas. However, this board meeting was one of the most important board meetings to present itself.

The board approved negotiated salary and benefit packages for teachers, food service employees, transportation, buildings and grounds, transportation mechanics, and paraeducators. These complete packages will give the district the opportunity to hire highly qualified staff members to enhance the educational lives of the students in the district.   That was evidenced by the list of personnel hired to fill vacant positions at this meeting, as well.

Highly qualified, energetic and compassionate employees are the cornerstone to a sound educational system and the start of becoming the ‘district of choice.’”  – Bea Niblock

Marshalltown High School history teacher Alex Abbe talked to the board on June 6 about his selection for the James Madison Memorial Fellowship.

Recognition
Marshalltown High School history teacher Alex Abbe talked about his selection for the James Madison Memorial Fellowship.
As part of his selection as a fellow, Abbe will receive $24,000 to pay for his master’s degree studies at Ashland University and participate in a four-week summer institute in 2017 at Georgetown University in Washington DC to deepen his content knowledge in history.
He said at the core of his studies is to help “make history matter as it should.”

Personnel items
For personnel items, click here.

Among the personnel items was the appointment of Pat Rial as the next principal of Miller Middle School.  Rollie Ackerman has been hired as the new Activities Director at Marshalltown High School. He has served in the AD role at Grundy Center for the past 13 years.

Paraprofessional Educators
Jon Thomas of Teamsters Local 238 spoke on behalf of the paraprofessional educators of MCSD. Many district paraeducators attended the meeting as well.
Thomas advised the district to work to reduce the 30 percent attrition rate among paraeducators.
“We are constantly trying to hire 30 percent of the workforce,” Thomas said.
He said they would rather see fewer paras who are better compensated which could result in a lower turnover rate. Thomas said he believes there is a need revamp the process by which paraeducators are assigned to schools.
This was a non-action item.

Open Enrollment Out
Director of Human Resources Lisa Koester gave an update on students open enrolling out of the district. Currently 567 students open enroll out of the district out of 5,321 students.
Discussion was held on the idea of contacting parents of open enrollment out students as part of a survey.
Koester said the number of open enrollment out students is an issue and the strategic plan has a goal to make Marshalltown the “district of choice.”
The board members were adamant about finding ways to lower the number.
To view the presentation document, click here.

Summer Camp Insurance Coverage
This item was presented by Director of Business Operations Brian Bartz and Activities Director Craig Huegel after guidance was released by the Iowa Department of Education on how camps are to be handled. This action item will extend liability coverage for camps for 2016, but not in the future.
Discussion was held on camps being held and who sponsors camps. The motion was approved.

Copier Bid
Bartz and Director of Information Technology Jeff Weinberg presented a recommendation that Advanced Systems of Waterloo be awarded the copier contract in the district starting July 1. The rate per copy will be $.0088 for the life of the contract. The motion was approved.

Board Policies
100.2 – Equal Educational Opportunity – Marked as reviewed
101.1 – Long Range Needs Assessment – Policy rewrote, will be brought back for first reading
101.1 R-1 – Long Range Needs Assessment Process – Marked as reviewed
101.1-R-2 – Early Childhood Process – Parental Notification – Marked as reviewed
200 – Statement of Guiding Principles – Marked as reviewed.
711.1- Student School Transportation – Marked as reviewed
711.1R – Student Eligibility for Bus Service – Marked as reviewed
711.2- Student Conduct on School Transportation – Delete “After three warnings…” sentence so it corresponds with new transportation handbook discipline as it relates to PBIS. Will come back as first reading
711.8 – Transportation in Inclement Weather – Marked as reviewed
312.3-E1 – Fringe Benefits – Administrators/Supervisors – Prescription drug listing changed to “scheduled benefits” instead of $5/$10. Also minor changes to professional dues sentence. To come back for first reading.

The board then went into an exempt session to conduct a negotiations strategy meeting.

The next regular meeting of the board is at 5 p.m. June 20 in district offices.

From Board President Bea Niblock
“A presentation was made to the board regarding the numbers of students open enrolling out of the district each year. Board members began a discussion surrounding the trends of that data. It was asked that such a presentation be made on a regular basis at subsequent board meetings.
It is the intent of the board to look at trends in the data regarding the open enrollment by grade, year and cohort groups. A goal to decreasing those figures is part of the board’s work in the development of a revised strategic plan with the new superintendent, Dr. Schutte.
Decreasing open enrollment out of the district is a high priority for this board.” – Bea Niblock