By Elaine Rassel
After driving a school bus for 30 years, Clark Rainboth informed the MMC School Board that he is retiring as of the end of this school year. The Board approved his resignation and thanked him for his years of service.
Sydney Hart was approved by the Board as a Para. The resignation of Katie Petts, Title 1 Reading Teacher, was approved.
The Special Election Results were approved by the MMC Board. School Board Director at Large to Fill Vacancy was Belinda Leavitt. 898 votes were cast with Leavitt receiving 861 votes and 37 votes were scattered.
“Shall the Board of directors of the Marcus-Meriden-Cleghorn Community School District in the Counties of Cherokee and Plymouth, State of Iowa, be authorized to levy annually a tax exceeding Two dollars and Seventy Cents ($2.70) per Thousand Dollars ($1,000), but not exceeding Four Dollars and Five Cents ($4.05) per Thousand Dollars ($1,000) of the assessed value of the taxable property within said school corporation to pay the principal of and interest on bonded indebtedness of said school corporation, it being understood that the approval of this proposition shall not limit the source of payment of the bonds and interest, but shall only operate to restrict the amount of bonds which any be issued?”
There were 1034 votes cast with 703 votes for the aforementioned and 331 votes against.
“Shall the Board of Directors of the Marcus-Meriden-Cleghorn Community School District in the Counties of Cherokee and Plymouth, State of Iowa, be authorized to contract indebtedness and issue General Obligation Bonds in an amount not to exceed $18,000,000 to provide funds to demolish the existing elementary wing; to construct, build, furnish, and equip an elementary addition to the existing high school building; and to remodel, repair, renovate, improve, furnish, and equip the existing high school building and improve the site?”
There were 1034 votes cast with 714 votes for the aforementioned and 320 votes against.
“Shall the Board of Directors of the Marcus-Meriden-Cleghorn Community School District in the Counties of Cherokee and Plymouth, state of Iowa, be authorized to contract indebtedness and issue General Obligation Bonds in an amount not to exceed $2,100,00 to provide funds to construct, build, and equip a daycare addition to a school building and to improve the site; it being understood that it is contingent upon the approval of all other Public Measures for the School District submitted to the electors of the School District on this date?”
There were 1026 votes cast with 618 votes cast for the aforementioned and 408 votes against.
The information was done at Cherokee the county seat of Cherokee County, on the 9th day of March, 2021and signed by the Board of Supervisors and Kris Glienke (County Auditor and Clerk of the Board of Supervisors).
Jill Alesch, board secretary, administered oath of office to Belinda Leavitt.
The Board approved the 2021-2022 District Calendar. (Reason for change is in Supt’s report.)
The FY22 Budget Hearing and FY21 Budget Amendment Hearing date was approved as Monday, April 12, 2021 at 7:45 a.m.
The Board approved levying property tax for the fiscal year 2021-2022 for the regular program budget adjustment as allowed under section 257.14, Code of Iowa.
Tabled until the April meeting were the Lawn Care bids.
Connection’s bid for chrome books and cases was approved.
The HVAC project for the competition gym as approved.
Mr. Toby Young, Principal for MMCRU Middle School/Remsen Elementary reported on the projected class number for the next school year. PS is projected as 10-15 students; TK for 17-29 (2 sections); K for 20-22; Grade 1 for 22; Grade 2 for 22; Grade 3 for 24 with 2 sections; Grade 4 for 12; Grade 5 for 33 with 3 sections; Grade 6 with 52 with 3 sections; Grade 7 with 51 and 3 sections; and Grade 8 with 50 and 3 sections.
Current Openings for 2021-2022 School Year include a TK teacher and K-4 Title 1 Reading Teacher.
Travis Sprague, PK-4 and 9-12 Principal of MMCRU Marcus Elementary and MMCRU High School reported the following: The MMCRU Marcus Elementary and MMCRU High School has concluded its third quarter. A lot of events have occurred over the past month including the Girls Basketball Team qualifying for State!
Current Openings for Assistant Softball Coach; High School Secretary (2021-2022 School Year); and High School Science (2021-2022 School Year).
Superintendent Barkel reported the following: We were fortunate to pass all three questions on the referendum in the MMC district. This yes vote on all three measures is very rare and was huge for both districts, and sets up MMCRU very well for the future. I wish to thank all members of our communities who had a part in encouraging our residents to vote. We have begun the design process with CMBA Architects, and will be sharing a tentative timeline for the design phase and also the sale of bonds from Piper Sandler. I have shared those timelines in the board packet. The daycare in particular will be an asset for the community and a potential game-charger for enrollment in the MMC district.
The federal government will be shoveling cash our way that we can utilize for COVID-related issues. Our first priority is to “improve the air quality” in our buildings by installing or replacing HVAC systems so we can have air conditioning during the warm months. The agenda item to amend next year’s calendar is in order to change the date of our multi-district PD in Cherokee to March 11. Cherokee CSD changed the date of that event, so we need to follow their date in order to attend that event.
The RU board is being asked to approve the sale of our tractor so we can purchase a smaller tractor that will allow us to move snow, but can also be used for mowing, which will allow us to not renew our rental agreement for our mower on that campus.
There has been some discussion regarding our mask mandate that was put into place as a means of avoiding contact tracing. We have chosen to leave our current policy in place and not put the mask mandate on the agenda for the following reasons:

1. Although our COVID positivity numbers have been low, according to Tara Geddes at Plymouth County Public Health, they are rising now again in Plymouth County and especially amongst persons of the age of our younger parents.
2. We don’t want to open the door to need to do contact tracing or quarantine. Neither of our building principals want to go down that route again, and our school nurses are also opposed to lifting the mandate.
3. We had a situation in the RU preschool last week, that had we not had the mask mandate in place, would have meant a quarantine of one of our sections of preschool because of a positive test of a parent who was present at Dad’s Donut Day.
4. Athletic activities will take place outdoors for the rest of the year. No masks will be required for participants or spectators at those events.
5. Our plan for graduation is to hold the ceremony at the football field so that masks will also be unnecessary for that event.
6. Tara Geddes from Plymouth County Public Health encouraged me in a phone call on March 11 to please stay the course through the rest of the year. She is confident that in the fall of 2021 masks will no longer be necessary because of the prevalence of the vaccine.
   Again, we thank the boards for your steady support and encouragement during 2021.