001It's 529. I'd say pretty good. Yeah. Yeah. All right. We're going to get started. Um tonight we're starting with a public meeting on the 2526 budget. Yep. Uh there's two things that later on uh we will certify. Um first is that we're informing the public of the maximum we can spend from July 1st, 2025 through June 30th, 2026. Um in instruction 17,15,000 total support services 10,492,000 instructional support programs 975,000 total other expenditures 3,952,000 and total expenditures of a little over 36 million. Um these I'm going to show that line right here. Total total resources you'll see that um for 25 and 24 those are much higher. um we really haven't reduced our budget $14 million. That's just the fieldhouse being reflected in those other two years. So, uh this year is an, you know, an
002accurate reflection of that. The other thing that we'll we'll certify is our tax rate and we continue uh to have three different tax rates in the district. Um the former Alona district a tax rate of $9.93. the former Lever district $9.76 and the former Titanka district $112021. And again, um that we'll have three different tax rates for one more year. When the debt service levy of $127 for Titaka goes away, then we'll all be back to a single a single tax rate. Okay. I know we've all been through this a few times. Is there any questions from the board at this point? We'll talk about it again later in the agenda. Any questions from the public that are here? All right. Hearing none, we will close then this public meeting. Um, what do we got?
0035:32. We'll say or you want to Yeah, we'll go 5:32. Something like that. All right. Um, we'll get ready to open our regular meeting. We'll stand with the pledge of allegiance. If everybody would please join us. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right. Good evening everyone. Thank you for being here. Um, we'll call this meeting to order. We do have a a a quorum here. I don't see any hearing in delegation. So, we need to approve our agenda. A motion. Make a motion to approve the agenda. Thanks, Andrea. Do we have a second? Seconded. Thanks, Jay. We have a motion that's second. All in favor say I. I. I.
004Opposed. Agenda approved. Uh, communications to the board tonight. We have a science fair presentation. I believe they are here. Okay. Um, I'm Megan Rasmmanson and I'm a co-director of the science fair with Holly Waltz and we're here just to share a little bit of information about uh the success we've had in science fair this year. So, I want to give you guys a little bit of background information about our science fair and where we started and where we're we're going. So, uh, science fair has been part of the Alona schools for over 50 years and Holly Waltz and myself co-direct it. Uh, we co-direct the local middle school science fair and and advise our high school science fair students. Okay. In recent years, we have seen growth in our local program that has led to
005success at the state and international levels. This year, over a hundred middle school students participated in our fair at the beginning of February with the help of over 30 community volunteers to judge their projects. Of those students, 37 were selected to go to our state science fair and many of them won awards. Uh several first places in their categories. 31 of the 37 students we took in middle school uh won some sort of award. Uh and one of our students, our eighth grade student, Kaylee Numbers, uh she actually placed in the top eight uh projects out of 396 projects. Wow. Uh so our strong middle school science fair has really helped build us a strong high school program. And this year we had 10 students participate in our high school program which doesn't sound like
006a lot but when we start thinking about what the high school students do they do their science fair project all outside of school time. Uh it requires many hours of research finding mentors in their field building procedures testing and analyzing their data and many of their projects rival college level research and you'll hear about some of their projects today and you will probably agree. So, in the first time over 20 years, Alona schools have not one but two students selected for the prestigious international uh science fair held in Columbus, Ohio this year, May 11th through May 16th. These two students were given an all expense paid trip and only 15 students from the state of Iowa are chosen. And those students are Emerson Waltz and Abby Lampy and they will present their project against 1,800
007students from 80 different countries. uh to earn one of these spots, they had to out compete 229 high school projects. So, we were two of the 15 out of 229 possibilities. Uh in addition to that, we also have a ninth grade or a freshman ISF observer. And in order to get that position, you had to be one of the top freshman projects in the state. So, I think there's eight of those going. Eight or nine? Seven. Six. Six are going. So we have one of six. So if we start putting those numbers together, 21 students will be going to Columbus and three of them will be representing Alona. Um and we like to really sell our message when we're there because a lot of our support we also get from the foundation. Uh so we
008always sell the message of the foundation and then we always sell the me message that we're a public school from Iowa, a rural small town in northern Iowa and we are competing against some of the best in the world. Um and so we like to to sell that message. The other thing is uh the accolades don't stop there. Riley, who's here as well tonight, she was selected to go to uh the Genius Olympiad in Rochester, New York, which is another international fair. She will be competing against over a thousand students from 64 different countries. And that will be in June. And um of our 10 projects, our high school projects, nine of them had received some sort of placement or scholarships while at state science fair. When Emerson and Abby go to the International Science
009Fair, they will compete for scholarships and grand pri prize placements of $100,000. So, when you start seeing national news, CNN, Fox News, all of those uh places, they'll all report out on the ISF winning. It usually makes headlines. Uh and that's because the prizes are big money. So, we we hope just to show up and compete. Um, and then any recognition is just uh icing to the cake. So, tonight uh we have Emerson Waltz and Riley Sheeker here to talk about their experiences science fair, but I wanted to talk about Abby Lampy and Olivia Snider's uh project. They weren't able to come today, but uh Aby's project, her project is investigating piperine as a non-synthetic elux pump inhibitor to restore antibiotic sensitivity and staffus auroras auroras. you can help me out with that if I
010get that wrong. So, her project really is I'm going to read a little bit from it just because it's pretty intense. Uh she's studying or investigating the ability of piperine which is a plantder derived bioactive compound. It comes from um well it makes pepper but it it comes from that plant and it's to function as a non-synthetic uh e-lux pump inhibitor in combination with fluorescently take puromicine against daflloccus aurorius and so she basically from my understanding is injecting piperine with antibiotics to try to reduce the amount of antibiotics you would need to kill a bacteria. So she's working on antibiotic resistance and trying to find ways to have the antibiotic that we take currently go further. Um so that's her project and at state science fair she placed first in her microbiology and then she
011placed in the top was it eight seven sorry top 15. Yeah well she was one of the so one of the ISFs of the top 15 at the state. So she did very well down there. And then um Olivia her project is a continuation from her last year's project where she is trying to find ways to uh everybody takes probiotics and her last year science fair project showed that most of the probiotics we take it doesn't actually get through the acid in our stomach and grow. And so this year she used different types of capsules that our probiotics come in like gelatin capsules. Uh what are the other types of capsules? Vegetable a vegetarian capsule. So basically ways to take probiotics with the capsule to see if it could go through your your um stomach
012acid and be able to grow in your uh intestine. So hers is basically about probiotics. So tonight we'll have who wants to present first? Emerson. Emerson is a senior and she will talk a little bit about what science fair has done for her and maybe a quick summary of her project. So my project this year is optimizing catalyst for the hydrogenis of polyethylene. So basically for the past two years I've been working with Professor Aaron Santa from the department of chemistry at Iowa State University and we're working to turn plastic waste like grocery bags and water bottles that we all use every day. Turning all that plastic into fuel. So fuel that's actually cleaner than what we're using right now and also cheaper. I've proven that this fuel will cost around $2 per gallon when
013it's scaled up. And if you know anything about chemistry, there's no aromatic compounds in this fuel which means that there's no toxins or carcinogens. The only really byproduct would be carbon emissions which we see from every fuel source but it is proving to be cleaner and to qualify as a fuel. This year I was really focusing on improving it by selecting what catalyst would be the most efficient and cost effective fuel. So from science fair as a freshman, I was an observer like Olivia is now to ISF. And after going to ISF, that really made me want to work to go back. So junior year, I was able to go to the Genius Olympiad, which Riley's going to this year. And when I went to Genius, I got a silver medal award, which I don't
014think anyone from Iowa has ever placed there. Um, so that was really exciting. And then this year to make it back with a continuation of that project to ISP this time is really exciting. Um, science fair has also really helped me figure out what I wanted to do for college and a career because working with Iowa State, my mentor there in the lab, he was a chemical engineer. So, he was able to convince me to go into chemical engineering and not go to Iowa State. So that pushed me to apply to out of state schools where I then committed to Purdue for engineering. Okay. last year was looking at arsenic levels in private well waters. Um I asked people from around Sou County if I could test their wells who have not had their wells
015tested in over a year due to the fact that Iowa offers free um private well testing through the state. And so I was looking to see if I can find correlation between like where high arsenic levels could possibly pop up. I looked at like the well depth, um how old the well is, the elevation of the wells, and even at sulfate levels because the sulfate levels can is supposed to lead to higher arsenic levels. Um none of the correlations that I found were super strong. I'm thinking that's because I didn't have a large enough land area. So, I'm turning it on the fact that um there is something going on with high arsenic levels, but I'm not sure what it is yet. So, it's bringing awareness to why this is important and that more people
016should be getting their well tested sooner because a lot of the people that I talked to didn't know that they should be getting their wells tested. And the people who did have their wells tested um had results that they did not want to find out. They weren't good, but it's helping them solve the problem and hopefully increase their well water quality to be drinking safer water. Um, as a freshman last year, I was able to be an observer at ISF. That was a really good experience because I was able to meet a lot of different people and just like expand the view of science. Like here, you think it's just like biology, chemistry, general science there. There's so many different categories of science stuff you haven't even heard of. Just really broaden your science world.
017And then this year, I'm going to Genius Olympia. I'm hoping to meet some more good people, make lifelong friends, and hopefully eventually get to present at ISF, but we're working our way up. Any questions? Thanks, Riley. Yes. How long a process did you take to narrow down to specific specifically what category or how how did you come about part of I wanted to study how I could take plastics and turn it into fuel? Um, so I think the end of my sophomore year, I hadn't really done anything. I worked with plastics in the past, but not that. I actually read an article by I think the New York Times. They had said like, "Hey, what if we were able to turn our garbage into a fuel source?" And I'm really into chemistry. So, the first
018thing I did was look up the chemical structure of plastic and the chemical structure of fuel, like diesel. And they're actually the same compound, just different sizes. So fuel is a lot smaller than plastic. So then I just have to figure out how do I break down straight chain hydrocarbons into smaller alkanes. And that process is called hydrogenolysis. It's actually very simple. And then I found a professor at Iowa State that was doing something similar. I wasn't able to kind of identify that based off of their profiles, but I could kind of figure they were doing something these products and they like clean energy. So, I said, I'll reach out to this one. And it actually turned out to work really well. And I would say all of our high school kids that end up
019doing science fair end up doing something in a STEM field. So, it's really encouraging them to go on and make that their career. Just opening up the idea. Um, you know, most of our most of our kids don't get a lot of science till they're in middle school. So then they're able to see like, hey, I don't really know a lot about this and they can learn so much from the projects and take it from there. And it's interesting they'll start with one and it just kind of takes grab a hold of another one and um even one year to the next year they might not necessarily really I mean Riley's project last year was on how essential oils can actually help kill bacteria. So she kind of did that and we decided we do
020the microbiology route this year. So then sometimes they come and then we meet and I'll talk to them about ideas and things they're interested in and then I'll do some researching, they'll do some researching. um we'll do some mentoring reseed to a speaker last year at science fair about microbiology and antibiotic resistance and then so she followed up and reached out to that individual and she's been in conversation with him and he works for the CDC and um so things like that and then really at the high school level we'll meet him as far as we can and then we also try to get that mentor in there that specialized in that field because um it's just it's pretty pretty precise and um science fair is becoming kind of big money at state international level
021because families are fighting it as a way to get their kids into some Ivy League schools. So, they're willing to pay for outside mentors, outside people to help support them. Um, and so for us to even be able to compete is always exciting because we don't have a University of Iowa and we don't have an Iowa State in our backyard. Um, and so our kids have to do what they can with what we have here. Megan, you mentioned this briefly, but uh mention it again. when you guys go to these these large competitions like ISF and Olympiad, um it's not nec you know, we're really not competing against a lot of other public schools like us, right? Explain what that looks like. Yeah. Do you want me? Sure. Okay. Um so yeah, like we've been
022doing this for oh I think seven, eight years now. Um and we meet random instructors, teachers, and they're always like where are you from? or a lot of times they're like, "What, you know, private school are you from?" or "What medical school are you from?" Because when you start talking to them, a lot of their students are from just a STEM school. Like that's all they do there. Um, when you start doing international level, wow, because there is money being pumped into thosemies, uh, and they're, you know, and the top of the top. Um, so it's always a fun conversation. not only a conversation of them trying to figure out where Iowa is, but then the next conversation is is that now we're a public school. Um we we're, you know, um yeah, and what's
023cool for us is we're able to do this because of the foundation. The foundation recognizes that this is a need for our kids to go above and beyond and they fund a lot of their from here on um opportunities that they have. And that's what's always quite amazing is because we'll talk about the foundation and even those private schools do not have a foundation like our public school, right? And so they're always shocked by that. Thank you guys. Thank you for all your dedication. We'd ask more questions, but I don't know that I didn't understand to begin with. It sounded really good. Make fuel cheaper. Thank you. Thank you guys. Thank you chunking it down. Making fuel. That's true. Well, all right. Uh we'll continue to move on then. The next would be our consent
024items. You should have all received those in your packet. I believe Lisa put also a few extra uh bills here in front of you this tonight. So, all financials are routine for the month. Good to know. And uh so if you've had a chance to look them over and if you don't have any questions, we need a motion then to approve our consent items. Make a motion to approve the consent items. Thank you, Tom. Do we have a second? I'll second that. Thank you, L. We have a motion to second. Any further discussion hearing? None. All in favor say I. I. I. Opposed. Consent items approved. We'll go into the superintendent report. Yep. Little leg legislative um review for us. Um and we've we've went through the second funnel. So things will really start to
025slow down. Uh the the big uh Senate file that I'll I'll talk about is Senate File 167. was passed by the Senate last Monday afternoon and then the House the following Tuesday. Um that bill provided 2% increase in SSA which is our per pupil amount. So our per pupil amounts going up $157 to uh almost $8,000. Um it increases the district cost per pupil for districts on the low end. That $7,988, you know, you would think it's the same for every district, but it's not. Um, so they're they're trying to close that gap and make it so the per pupil amount is the same and they do that every year by adding five or $10 to the lowest ones to to bring that together. Um, also it increases the appropriation of transportation equity. That's always
026important for us. Transportation equity is is uh as we travel a long ways uh to pick up people, it it's something that help balances our transportation budget and uh increases operational sharing cap from 21 to 25 students, which is which is a lot. So, there's operational sharing opportunities if you share um like a special ed coordinator like we do with Mr. um or lots of other um positions in your district and you can get up to 25 students to do that. Um 2% is is disappointing. Um you know, we our our costs certainly are going up uh higher than 2%. um one-time funding dollars that was in the house also did not happen uh which was disappointing uh because we felt that was something that would benefit our our our staff and our employees. Uh
0272%'s below CPI uh below current inflation. Um legislators, you'll hear them talk about uh 2.8%. We know they crunch numbers a little differently uh than way than we do, but that would be the the statement on that. enrollment. Um, ask the principles to review our enrollment a little bit in April in comparison to September. I think that gives us a good idea of possibly uh where we're headed into for next year. Our high school was down four, which is really a pretty good number for our high school in in April. Middle school is up nine, which is certainly a surprise and a welcome one. Lucia Wallace was down five. Bryant was exactly the same. Our three-year-olds were up one, our four-year-olds down one, prep up five, kindergarten down 10. Some of those are the same
028kids. Um, you know, sometimes we'll have some kindergarten who will go to prep and and vice versa. Overall, the district we're we're minus five. Um, so again, that that's not a bad uh dipstick of looking at our attendance for moving into next year. All right. Is that any questions for Joe? All right. Um, we'll continue to move on then to our administrative report. And tonight we have Mr. Cecil here for the high school. I most enjoyed the middle of Emerson's answer to you. She said, "It's pretty simple." Yeah. Seems seems simple. [Applause] Yeah. Seems simple. All right. We are about one month away from graduation time. Um May 18th, 2:00 is graduation day. This year's uh motto for the seniors is how lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard. That's
029that Winnie the quote. So good good quote by them. Um, and I have 123 students listed in front of you. The pending pending final completion of all credits. I'd look for an approval to to award some diplomas to them. That the biggest class we've ever had for a long time. Uh it certainly seems like it in in all of our financial forecasts and we've talked about we are we have built those on a negative 20 certified enrollment last year. That that's the reason why 123 going out. We don't have 123 coming in. I make a motion to approve the graduation list. Thank you Andrea. Do we have a second? A second. Thanks Jay. We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion hearing? None. All in favor say I. Opposed. Graduation list approved upon
030finishing all upon completion of all credits. All the credits. Good. Um, also as always looking to to figure out who else might uh be on the stage to help with that process. And I'll I'll plan to be there. I'll nominate Jake. And Jake's graduating. I'll try and he's got a graduate. Is that how he gives a speech to? No, I don't give a speech. That was a good nomination, Triber. I think you should. I think I can I can help hand out the poor way. You don't have to decide tonight, but that's there's a motion on the floor. I guess very good. I'll shoot out the uh the quote again to whoever's whoever's speaking around. I'll just send it to you and if it's not you, you can pass it along. Good. Very good. Congratulations
031to the And besides Jay and I, I mean, we'd love to have the board members attend and proceed in with the staff as we have in the past. Like to sit with the faculty, that's a welcome welcome invite into those reserved rooms as well. Yep. So, please if you can be there also. Very good. Thanks, J. All right. Thanks, Jared. All right. Let's see here. We're going to go into uh old business. We got second readings. Yep. Second readings. Um first uh financial accounting system. It's now called the governmental accounting practices and regulations. It resends policy 8011, changes it to 70104. Second change is with capital assets. Uh we need to update the paragraph limit from $3,500 to 5,000 uh which is our auditor's recommendate recommendation to do that. And those are the changes the
032changes on this second reading of these policies. Okay, we have no further discussion. We need a motion then to approve uh the second readings. So moved. Thanks Jay. Do we have a second? Second the motion. Thanks Tom. We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Hearing none. All in favor say I. Opposed. Second readings approved. Also looking to do a first and second readings of the policies 103 long range needs assessment. Yeah, this is a policy that should be reviewed annually. Um that has slipped through. It hasn't been reviewed annually for us. Last was in 2020. There are no changes to the policy. Um it's uh it's as we typically do. We involve our community. We do that through the SCAK process um to look at some of our our data and even
033make proposals if if needed. Um we do need this policy for our desk audit. That's how the department of ed reviews some of our policies and other and classes we teach and schedule that we use and so on. Um so one of this policy was part of the desk audit this year um to be reviewed which is why we need the first and second meeting that we can approve tonight. Correct. We can we can I make a motion to approve first and second reading of policy 103. Thank you Andrea. Do we have a second? I'll second that. Thanks Land. We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Hearing none. All in favor say I. I opposed. First and second readings approved. Uh okay. Looking to approve the 26 FY 26 budget. So the
034budget's been presented on two dates. We presented it on March 21st. We also presented it um on April 14th. U the tax rate for FY26 is $10. You know, it's 102 is what we say. remember uh when I showed that in the the public hearing, but no one's tax rate will be 102. Um that's that's the blended rate. The former Alona's rate is $9.93. The former Lever's rate is $9.76 and the former Titanka's rate is $11.20. the difference in those um Titanka still has a general obligation bond uh that they're paying which will expire in 2027. Lever's uh uniform levy which in year one was a dollar below the 540 to 440 and then ours gets changed to the same dollar amount the same um rate. Uh so that's that's the difference between R our
035two and then those both will become 540 after next year and we'll have the same rates. So it is it is confusing with the three different tax rates but um something we'll get through in the next couple years. Also, we're approving total expenditures, which I mentioned previously. Instruction, a little over 17 million. Total support services um a little over 10,400,000. Non-instructional programs 975,000. Total other expenditures of 3,952,000 and total expenditures of 36 over 36 million. And again, when you look at total expenditures in comparison to previous years, the the previous years are much larger around 50 million. That's due to the fieldhouse dollars coming through as part of that project and and that process. So the 36 million um is certainly more accurate of uh annual expenditures. All right, any uh questions or discussion? Hearing
036none, we need a motion then to approve the FY26 budget as presented. I'll make a motion to approve the FY26 budget. Thank you, Jay. Do we have a second? Second. All right. Thanks, Andrew. I have a motion in a second. No one asked, but any further discussion? Hearing none. All in favor say I. I. Opposed. Budget approved. Looking to approve a budget guarantee, which we've done for many years. Yeah, the district is not currently on budget guarantee, but this is a procedure that's done annually in the event that the district would qualify. Um there's a resolution um that that we need to pass that uh board of directors of the Alona Community School District will levy property taxes for fiscal year 2526 for the regular program budget adjustment as allowed. So B it was saying
037if if we would qualify for a budget guarantee which is 101% of the dollars you had the year before that other 1% comes from property tax is where that happens. We are not on the budget guarantee for next year. Just good practice to practice. When does the budget guarantee kick in? We lose when we lose students. Yes. So, next next October, um, we do our certified enrollment. Maybe we drop 20. Like we said, if the state funding, like we just talked about the 2%. If that 2% didn't get you above what you had the previous year, then budget guarantee kicks in to give you 1% more than you had the previous year. And to get you that amount, that's that's a property tax. So oftent times for taxpayers it's it's cheaper if the SSA goes
038higher so that local property taxes don't kick in for budget guarantee because if your SSA amount takes you over what you had the year before then there is no budget guarantee and there is no increase on the local property taxes to produce that unless we drop 200 students a private school opened up in town. Yeah. Yeah. And then then there's a lot to make up in that case. Yeah, true. We were on budget guarantee year before the one year after reorganization we were on budget guarantee but um once again the SSA amount increased enough to get us beyond the 100 101%. Just a safeguard and like Mr. Cecil just just said we 123 seniors going out and not 123 kindergarten coming in. What has happened to our district over the last year is there's a
039lot in between though. There's a lot of things that happened in between, a lot of movement in could happen again. That's why we wanted to count. Um I would say our numbers reflect that has happened that we've had we've had kids move in. We naturally have uh a decline that happens. Um, so being closer to where we are is is probably a good sign for that. So I have to read that statement or I I uh do we have to ask? It's always good practice to read it. Yeah. Resolved that the board of directors of Alona Community School District will levy property taxes for fiscal year 2526 for the regular program budget adjustment is allowed under section 25714 code of Iowa. Very good. Thank you, Todd. Do we have a second? I'll second. Thanks, Brent.
040We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Just a regular or roll call? What's that? Roll call. Roll call. Okay. Yes. Owen, yes. Davis, yes. Wimble, yes. Mitchell, yes. Na, yes. Yes. We approve the budget guarantee. All right. Looking to approve a association of educators tenative agreement. Yep. This is with our teachers association. Initial proposals were exchanged and agreed upon. Rodney uh was with me for that process. Um the base wages would be increased $2,500. uh the minimums increase uh so they they need to be increased $2,500. Um so a BA is $50,000. That's the minimum that we can uh pay a full-time teacher. The second part of the agreement is $2,250 will be added to the extra duty base wage, which is the generator for like coaching contracts, for example, which are
041a percent of that extra duty base wage. Third agreement is a 2225 2250 increase for all teachers which is a 3.14% increase. Some language changes that the change is in the blue italics. Can can I ask so the increase is a total expenditure to our school of the 3.1%. Total uh salary total benefit package increase of 3.14%. Because like if you add so if somebody's making $50,000 Y and you add $2,250 that's a 4 point whatever 2% increase on their salary. Yeah. So this is this is with all everything included when we take all of our people and raise them 200 $2,250 or the to the minimum whichever is more uh with FICA hypers and insurance which insurance is a 0% increase which pulls that percent down. Uh it's a 3.14% total package increase. So
042that's total expenditures total package per person or per total total. So 3.14 total districtwide districtwide for for all teachers including all things included in the master contract would which would also be the supplemental contracts for coaching. All of those will increase 3.14%. So some teachers are seeing a bigger increase than others percentage wise. Percentage wise. Yeah. Percentage wise. Yeah. Yeah. So, somebody who's making $100,000 a year is seeing a less percentage increase because everyone's getting $2,250. Yes. Good question. In the language, the language change is in the blue and italics. Previously, a teacher could not take a personal day during a professional development uh in service day such as before school starts. uh we've run run into problems um with parents taking their kids to college, moving into college, and we certainly want them to
043to be a part of that process, but they they couldn't take a personal day. It had to be a no pay day. So, what this language says is that a personal day may be granted um to move a child to college and then they're responsible for the learning and work of that day. So, simple change that I think is good for our people. Another addition, uh, middle school yearbook. Um, we didn't have that position. It was just kind of absorbed into some other things, whereas in high school, we had it separated out. So, we separated it out at 4%. Um, language change number six, this is something we, again, the blue is the change. We've had it in our contract that if the teacher um doesn't we we take them from their prep period to
044go cover a class, we pay them $22. If the class is longer than 42 minutes, we pay them 33. The reason for the change is when we put it in, it's when we had 82 minute blocks and the number was 44, but we don't have 82minute blocks anymore. So, it doesn't need to be $44. It needs to be 33. And the last one, um, that didn't happen. So, we don't need to worry about number seven. The onetime dollars did not did not occur. Got a question. So, we're going to 3.14% increase and we're getting 2% from the state. Then we are going to bring down our unspent balance. Correct. Not in this case. Typically, yes. But we had 36 new students. Okay. So, new students is what allowed us to move beyond um just just
045the two 2%. These raises fall within our new money. All the raises we talk about today um will fall in our new money. But I thought we had to or I thought we were working towards lowering that unspent balance or am I not correct? Uh not not with not reoccurring, I guess. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We this won't eat out eat that unspent balance. Um we'll look at that, you know, maybe next year, probably the year down the road. Um we still, you know, have that that big count for this year. So money that's the money for next year. We still feel good about where our balance is right now. We we would probably re or uh uh forecast that it's going to go up again next year. Then we have to look at spending that
046down. Can you can you stipen people with that money? Just a onetime stipen? You could. I would caution at this time because we know that um we're looking to overspend in a few years down the road. On number four, Joe. Yep. Uh I'm trying to kind of understand the language there. So, if I'm reading this right, it kind of it basically says we're not going to allow a personal day. um to be taken during professional development for any kind of activity or or graduation. Is is that that's how I'm reading it? That is what the language says. So, we're adding in blue that we are going to allow that specifically to move a a child to college. Is there any addition I mean how often are we running like I mean to not allow them
047to take a personal day to go watch their child graduate. I I I think there's some verbiage missing up there because it um the way that reads cannot use it for on those days for graduation and stuff. The way that reads Yeah. I might have not have taken some because I I just kind of pulled some pieces out to reflect where it would fit in. The example you just gave of going to see your child graduation is an exception that we allow. We allow. Okay. Okay. Still like individual based what's happening. I mean, yeah. I mean, I know you can follow the letter of the law, but it's like they can still approach you and be like, can I take a personal date for this reason? And and that's why this was my idea to
048add this language because I don't want um language to prohibit me from doing something that we should do for people. So I I went to them and said, "Let's create language that gives me flexibility to do that." We already had the graduation piece in there. Okay. Actually, the graduation piece extends um not just to child too. It goes a little bit. Yeah. Children, siblings, grandchildren. Okay. I was I was reading it that we aren't allowing that. So we do allow that. We do um but not to attend Alona Community School District activities which it should be to attend. Personal leave is not available during a a workshop or parent teacher conference. I'm going to see more activities in the actual country to attend. They they do have that because if your child goes to state
049wrestling, you're able to for examp that that could possibly happen. It says, however, an employee may take personal leave on these days to attend any Alban Community School District activity which involves their immediate family to find a child. Okay. And it's just on workshop days. We're not saying you can't take it. It's just called on P day. Yeah. Got it. Okay, I think that clears up. Yeah. Do we believe we have it right? I mean, everybody understands it's clear. Okay. This is me pulling from the contract. That's good. Well, all right. Well, I make a motion to approve the contract changes for FY 26. Thank you, Andrew. Do we have a second? Second motion. Thanks, Dom. We have a motion and a second. Um, any further discussion? Hearing none. All in favor say I. I.
050Opposed. Contracts approved. Or Yeah. All right. We're going to move into the associates agreement. Right. This is uh our second agreement with our uh Alona Educational Services Association agreement. This is our special ed associates. Um the proposal was for teacher associates. um included an increase in their hiring base. Uh so increasing the hiring base from $13.70 to $1,450. That would also include anyone who wasn't making 1450 um after the raise to go to 1450. Also included is a raise of 53 cents per hour for all current teacher associates. So 53 cents for everyone. Um, we'll also a section will be added to compensate associates working with a level two special education student. So, they'll get an additional 25 cents per year if they work with a level two student. If they work with a level
051three student, they would get an additional 50 cents per hour for that year. Um, annual determination recalculated each fall. Uh, that contract's five-year contract starting July 1, 2025. Uh this is also a 3.1% increase for our teacher associates. I'm cur curious, Joe, with our teacher associates, are they are they participating in professional development and doing some additional training and that kind of stuff as well? I know we talked about this a while ago. Most of the time. Most of the time. Yeah. Um I would say the the pre-ervice before school for sure. Um it's not always um on our Monday PDS. Uh they always have the opportunity to come. Their contract does not require them to come. And they're compensated if they come. If they come, they are compensated. Yes. Yes. All right. Any other
052questions? Hearing none. Do we need a motion to approve the associates agreement? So moved. Thanks, Lanny. Do we have a second? I'll second. Thanks, Toby. You have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Hearing none. All in favor say I. Opposed. Associates agreement approved. And now we're looking to approve all wages for staff not covered under a master contract. All wages for staff not covered under either of those collected bargaining agreements. Uh recommended 3.1% salary increase. Uh those employees include building principles and administration Jared Cecil, James Rotor, Rudy Week, Jill Shuter, Brad Sudall, Janie Aishin, and John Heer. Also, Lisa Chapman, Jed Freeberg, Tyler Lighting, Nick Lane, Jeff Gish, Jill Nelson, and all custodial and food services employed by the Alona Community School District. all bus drivers and all secretaries and employees that are
053on the Mitchell system which would be Denell Van Gorham, Stephanie Keer, Megan Tuttle, Aaron Keer, Vicky Steinhook, Maria Bradley, Laura Seasons, Lea Shuter, Karen Seni, and Liz Bradley. This 3.1% aligns with the teacher salary and teacher associate salary increase. Now, salary or package? Uh, salary. Yeah, salary. Yeah. Okay. So, it's going to be a little higher than 3.1 at the end with F and I present it. Yes. Yeah. Yes. That's more than what the teachers are getting. It's 3.1. Yes. Yes, it is. Three. Yeah. Teachers equal 3.14. But pretty. Well, with the teachers is teachers isal total total. Yeah, that's what I mean. This is strictly salary salary. So fers is on top of this. All right. Um I'm fine with it, but we've always matched in the past. So what was this is how
054we've always done it in the past. Y So a motion to approve. Thank you, Brent. Do we have a second? I'll second that. Thanks, L. We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Hearing none. All in favor say I. I. I. Opposed. Motion carries for all others not covered by M master contracts. Uh looks like we have a bus bid to look at. Nick Lane, transportation direct director requested three bids for an 84 passenger type DFE school bus. Uh two bids were received. one from Bluebird sales at 199,000 and one from truck sales at 191,000. Uh Mr. Lane does recommend the board accept the Bluebird sale of 199 as the truck center sales does not meet the spec specifications we requested such as with suspension, rear axle weight, um alternator, um engine horsepower,
055you know, a number of things. I make a motion to approve the Bluebird sale at $199,134. Thanks, Andrea. Do we have a second? Second the motion. Thanks, Tom. We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? How does that compare to the last bus we bought? Uh, that was 190ish, so very comparable. These are always out. We would expect delivery January 26. Uh we received one this fall that we approved not the May before but the May before that. So pretty comparable. They they shot up really fast after 2020. It's balancing out a not a lot now but they they're very expensive. All the buses we buy are 84 passenger now. We have all bought 84 passenger. Um, Nick did a lot of research on size that we need, specs, um, air conditioning, some
056of those things. I think we'll get to a point we don't always need an 84 capacity for what we have to replace. This time, he felt best for this, but he he did a lot of work to make sure we not just purchasing that big one, but we're getting what we need. I guess I don't even know what the difference would be if between a 70 or an 80. From the 84 it goes to I think it's uh 65 which would be kind of a traditional um not stub nose. Mhm. And that and when we say 65 that's three in a seat just like 84 is three in a seat. You know we don't ever put 84 people on one of these school buses. I don't know. It's it's probably closer to 60 maxed out.
057All right. Uh, any more discussion? We have a motion and a second. Um, all in favor say I. I. I. Opposed. Bus bid approved. Uh, approve the audit for 2024. Um, you know, the the audits attached very lengthy. Um, but I'll review some of the um the findings. There's really four main pieces. First thing, our certified budget. It was noted that uh the district needs to file an amendment um prior to the district exceeding the budget. If you remember back, we did amend our budget um to increase it, which we'll also do this year. And then that's a typical practice, but the date that we amended it was post when it went over. You know, it's a timing thing. So, we have to make sure that we amend it prior to that happening. Second, certified
058enrollment. there were variances. Um enrollment was overstated by three. Again, that that's something that um variance one way or another. I think the year before it was it was uh understated, but uh so those corrections have already been made by the department of ed. The third is the district adopted a depository resolution um to increase how much we we have in the bank, but we have to do it before we exceed the limit. Um, so that correction's already been made. And then the last is the interest account in the student activity fund must be cleared out prior to June 30th. And then the funds used for students. So that correction has also been made. The these are pretty small findings in the audit overall. Um, none of those are big deal. We have resolved um
059segregation of duties which was in our audit for a number of years. Um, we've been able to resolve that and no longer appears in our audit. On the student activity fund one, is that just something best practice every year? I normally do forever. Oh, easy peasy. I missed it with you. So, is this something like they they look until they find something? Is there ever a perfect audit? I mean, is there ever I don't think so. You know, I'll take little things, though. Yeah. I think he's going to he's going to make sure he finds four things to put down for us and and certainly there could be a lot more than four, but when an audit looks good like ours does, he's going to find four things to put down. Well, and it seems
060like over the it's it's gotten, at least since I've been on the board, shorter and shorter and shorter. And not much to this at all. Kudos to you, too. All four of these things you're doing were done. It's a it's a timing thing of days when they occur. Okay. There's four more that he found this year. You're just waiting for next year. Yeah, probably. Right. Did our our our lunch one didn't make that or did you just not put it on here? Because normally our It had a single audit. No. Yeah, it did have a single audit, but there wasn't any funding on it. Okay. Yeah, we're good. Doesn't mean we don't have originated balance. Yeah. Yeah, we still have Yeah. I make a motion to approve the audit. Thanks, Todd. Do we have a
061second? Thanks, Jay. Okay, we have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Thank you for all your good work, Alisa. All in favor say I. I. Opposed? Motion carries. Um, prove some open enrollments we see in front of us. We have seven open enrolls. All of those have met requirements. They're all kindergarten students. Um, so actually the the deadline of March 1st does not apply to a kindergarten student. Their deadline is September 1st. Do you know are these a lot of these clear on the east end of They're all kids except one. Yeah. I don't know exactly where they live. Okay. They're all way over there. They none of them attended school here or preschool here. And some have siblings that go that way. They might work that way. They show up as a
062chunk. Again, this is this is some paperwork that Lisa has cleaned up because there shouldn't be open enroll paperwork until they're in kindergarten. Um, so a chunk of them, this is how it should look that you have a chunk at once. Um, sometimes, um, that paperwork was pushed through prior to kindergarten, which isn't valid because there is no open enrollment prior to kindergarten. Motion opens. Thank you. Do we have a second? Thank you, Brian. I'll second. Thanks, Todd. We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Hearing none. All in favor say I. Opposed? Open enrollments approved. Um looking at some first reading of board policy, no action, but yeah, first read um we'll recommend a change to 90052, the nicotine tobaccof free environment. Um there's a language revision that is um recommended by
063the Iowa Association School Boards that we can review in the second reads next month. The rest of those, no change needed or recommended by the Association of School Boards. Okay. Uh any questions? We'll move on to to uh approve the student teaching agreement with Morningside University. Yep. Simply an agreement between Alona Schools and Morningside to provide instruction to our district while signed as a student teacher. Uh we did the same thing for Northwestern College last month and I think that you and I previously we had a multi-year group. So this is this is a great opportunity um for us to have student teachers in our district. We also always hope that um some of those people end up in our candidate pools which they have in some cases. So I recommend the approval of the
064cooperative student teaching agreement. So moved. Xavier. Do we have a second? I didn't catch the Okay, thanks Brent. We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Hearing none. All in favor say I. Opposed. Teaching agreement approved. Um, also an annual agreement approve the equipment breakdown insurance. This is the insurance we have on all electrical equipment, anything that plugs into the wall in the district except copy machines. um those are separated out which is a better deal for us and has reduced our premium quite a bit. Uh we pay this premium out of management rather than the general fund. Uh the quote for this year is 64,119. Last year it was 66,000. So we what happened is we dropped some obsolete equipment off which reduced our rate um which is a good thing. So
065I I do recommend the renewal of $64,119. Motion to approve. Thanks Jay. Do we have a second? Second. Thanks. We have a motion in a second. Any further discussion? So, how often do we use this? Uh for our Chromebooks a lot. That's that's how all of our you know thousand Chromebooks or more than that get get serviced is through this and is it exceed this amount or is it um I don't know if it exceeds it. It definitely moves the money into management instead of general. That's the big thing is it's a the way we're allowed to pay this. It creates a general fund savings. If you don't have this, we would pay all those repairs out of general fund um which would create that expense. Good questions. We talk about that every year kind
066of how why we look at this. Yeah. Was it last year we took the copy machines out? The year before. Well, yeah. Anything else we can take out to reduce the premium? I like the copy machines. Coffee machine machines is big probably, you know. Yeah, the other things. Not really. Not any big tickets. What about that clock? Couple minutes off, but yeah. All right, we have a motion in a second. Um I believe we did, didn't we? On that one. Yeah. All right. Thank you. Uh after the discussion, uh all in favor say I. Opposed. Equipment breakdown insurance approved. Uh looking at some change orders for the field comps. Yeah. And in these change orders, I included some additional information. Andrea asked a question. I don't if it was last month or the last time
067we discussed change orders about the process. So I included some stuff in here. Um so it's all to get a picture of how this worked. The first one column base cover $1,574. Uh this is work to cover the there's some exposed bolts at column bases on the view deck. Uh it will clean it up. safety thing. Visually, a good idea. The architect does recommend this addition. I put that piece in there because no change order comes to us until our it goes through our architect first. So, you're going to see as we go through here, there's some that the architect has denied and doesn't approve. And those aren't those aren't things that I'll ask for your approval on. Uh the second one is add black veneer to the exterior of the C corridor. $669. Uh
068the way the grade level worked out in this area, we have some plywood sheathing down low touching the dirt. Um this cost us to add additional concrete block to get the plywood above the ground. Um something we need to do. It's fair price. The architect does recommend it. Uh plan height discrepancies, additional wall panels needed to be ordered due to an error in our drawings. When I say are, that would be the architect's drawings. Um, Atura is still contending the actual cost, but Atura will cover that cost as it is an air in their uh in their drawings in their plans. So, in that case, we approve the change order and Atura pays pays for the change. We're not going to do anything with that. That was just an example of me showing how some
069of this uh comes through. Uh the screen panel cost um $9,840. Uh that has been rejected. Um it's it appears that the subcontractor under bid their work. They're trying to recover some cost. Um that change order has been rejected and school shouldn't be concerned with this at this time. So our the first two column base cover and the block veneer. Um a little over $2,100 is what I'm recommending for approval tonight. All right, we have a motion and a second. Brent was a motion. Thank you. I looked at Jay. I thought that's where I heard it. Andrea was the second. All right. Is Is the resting room and wait room going to be done in a month and a half or two months? J. Um I hope so. I guess that's the best. I wish
070I could give a better answer. Um I uh gave some frustration with our contractors last week. We have a meeting tomorrow to resolve their plan to resolve the frustrations I have. Um, currently the the weight room and wrestling room are sheetrocked, taped, mud, primed, maybe even painted. Um, installing duct work right now to finish them up. So, they're that close. Um, but those rooms are going to be done. It's getting everything else done so we can be fire code approved to get into them. That I think is what I'm most worried about right now. My frustration is that we've had a lot of deadlines in place that we have not met and uh you know that has to be completed for us to start the school year. Um so um that's that's what our our
071meeting Wednesday I should say is to um have a more detailed plan to make sure that we meet that those deadlines coming up and then there's a move and then there's some renovation to the current what what's kind of the hope and a prayer to have those ready that was not part of the contract that that would be done by substantial completion. So, which I I don't They hope it is. That's why they want to get that part done earlier so they can get in to repurpose those areas. Um I I I don't know. I I think that's wishful wishful thinking to get that. From what we've seen so far, it seems that way. Yeah. You know, we're still progressing. Um it sheetrocking's done. You know, the duct work going up is a big step
072so that they can paint everything. Um, you know, so once that's done, you know, uh, it's it's really finish work, you know. Then you got to get in the fieldhouse part, you got to get our wood floors in. You got to get the track in and some of those things, which they need to have the multi-month jobs. Yeah. The full the full HVAC units running to even bring the gym forward here because it has to condition before they they lay it. So, we there's some timing pieces that we just have to got to get to that point. So, it can happen. Are we going to be able to use it at all during the 25 26 school year? Oh, we need it to start the school year. So, um hopeful a month of putting hoops
073and nets and we need it by ours. Why? Because well, we need the wrestling room in the wait room to start the school year. We have class in the wait room all day long. Um, wrestling we would need for I guess wrestling practice. So I suppose there's 50 to 60 students in the weight room right now and it's not set up for that. Yeah. In the old weight room. Old weight room for classes. Four out of our five high school periods have that. We're not equipped to have that. Okay. Uh we do have a motion and second. So any further discussion? All in favor of the change orders say I oppose. Change orders approved. Uh looking at personnel, I'll approve some resignations. Resignation Nick Geeker from head boys wrestling coach, Brooke Fet, middle school cheer
074and high school basketball cheer, and Matt Stein from high school mock trial pending suitable replacement. The reason the uh pendings on those is because we have recommendations for the other two in the in this meeting. Motion to approve resignations. I'll second. All right. Brent and Todd, thank you both. Any further discussion? Hearing none. All in favor say I. I. Opposed. Resignations approved. Looking at contracts. Recommend Mike Ford, 910 girls basketball coach. Devin Curry, Bertha of Godfrey teacher. That replaces one of our retirees. Uh Jill Hope, Bertha of Godfrey teacher associate. Megan O'Brien, Bryant, teacher associate. Cody Alish and Brian Morgan as head boys wrestling coach, Michelle Penning, fall cheerleading, and Craig Larson, bus driver. I make a motion to approve the contracts. Thanks, Andrea. Do we have a second? Second the motion. Thanks, Tom. We
075have a motion and a second. Um, any further discussion? We already resigned as retirement. Good question. Um, we have a motion to second. All in favor say I. I. Opposed. Contracts approved. All right. I thank everybody for good movement tonight. I get to make a second grade concert by seven. So, that works out really well. Uh, we need a motion for adjournment. Motion to adjourn. Thanks, Brent. You have a second. Second. I'll go with it out. I don't care. We'll go with Lanny. And we are adjourned. Thanks, guys. Yep. Thank you.