There were a number of concerned citizens that were at the School Board meeting at Remsen on Monday (May 15). Morrie Marks spoke on behalf of the people present as that they would like Junior High baseball and softball and the Middle School play to be played in Remsen and High School balls be played in Marcus.
The wrestling program was brought up again. It was approved to not be in the Cherokee CSD wrestling program but to begin our own wrestling program at both the Junior High and High School level at MMCRU separate of the Cherokee CSD starting in the 2023-2024 school year.
The Local Government Risk Pool insurance policy for natural gas that had been tabled last month, was now approved at this meeting. More information on this in the Superintendent’s report.
MMCRU Schools have had Plains Area come to both schools with their mental health services. It was approved that Plains Area continue to provide their services. Their service provides school based therapists for MMCRU students and families. The cost for the program at MMC is $38,000 and for RU is $30,0 00. This past year these costs were paid with ESSER funds. This year the costs will be largely paid for with At-Risk and Dropout Prevention funds.
The list of those graduating in 2023 was approved as long as those on the list met MMCRU requirements.
The MMC Sales Tax Bond & PPEL Issuance Engagement with Piper Sandler was discussed. Piper Sandler was approved as the placement agent and Ahlers Cooney as the bond counsel to issue sales tax bonds and a PPEL issuance to cover the costs necessary to complete the building project due to increased costs due to inflation to finance building improvements.
It was approved for an additional assistant bowling coach due to higher numbers in the bowling program. The amount paid for this position on the extra duty schedule would be $1,935.00
Natasha Young as Assistant Volleyball Coach and Mariah Wurth as Head Dance Coach were approved. Driver’s Education contracts were approved for Alex Wimmer and Rockie Bork. Alex teaches both the classroom and behind-the-wheel and is compensated at $245/student. Rockie teaches only behind-the-wheel and is compensated $162/student.
Resignations of Emily Pederson as Paraprofessional and Ben Aberson as Archery Coach were approved.
Because of a large number of participants anticipated in football, additional equipment is needed. It was approved to purchase new football helments and shoulder pads at the cost of $9,295.00. Since this amount is over the $5,000 limit that can be approved by the superintendent, there had to be Board approval.
The MMC Board approved a trip for qualifying students to attend the Skills USA Nationals in Atlanta, GA along with Mrs. Youde and Mr. Long as chaperones. Students qualifying are Kaleigh Gravenish, Alyson Ball and Kennedy Tentinger.
Summer School/ESY MMC ESY teachers are Angeleah Roling and Brenda Bird. Paras are Becky Geerdes, Amanda Harnack and Rose Reimert as the 2023 Extended School Year Paraprofessionals. MMC Summer School Teachers are Jen Nieuwenhuis, Dawn Roberts and Heather Youde. RU Summer School Teachers are Mindy Ruhland, Becky Hilbrands and Pam Schneider.
One of the RU items dealt with was purchasing a personnel lift for the custodial department at RU. This would be for getting up high in especially the gyms to fix items such as lights, ceiling tiles, retrieve stuck ball, etc. Currently they are using a scaffold which is very time consuming and forces the custodians to climb the scaffold up high.
Toby Young, MMCRU Middle School/Remsen Elementary Principal reported the following: The 2022-2023 school year is coming to a close. Numerous activities are planned for the final 9 days of the school year for our elementary & middle school students. The final day of classes will be Thursday, May 25. The teachers’ last day will be Friday, May 26. Our staff has done an outstanding job providing quality instruction, feedback and resources to allow our students to move forward to their learning throughout the school year.
We have received our (3rd-8th) ISASP scores (ELA, Math, Science) for the 2022-2023 school year. This information is only a small snapshot of how our students progressed from one grade level to the next. We will continue to unpack more reports once we receive them and will use that information throughout our professional development next year. Once we’ve gone through all of the testing data, we will present that information to the board in an upcoming meeting.
We will continue to work over the summer to fine tune our schedules and PD (Professional Development) calendar to get ready for the beginning of the 2023-2024 school year. Overall, it’s been a very successful year, both for their work and all they’ve done for our students and MMCRU: Jeannette Davis (Teacher), Sharon Tentinger (Para).
Extended School Year—will begin the week of June 12 and run through July 13. Summer Reading Program—will begin the week of June 19 (1 week in June, July & August).
New Staff Hires are Blake Stubbs—Elementary Special Education and Cheyenne Olson—5/6 Science and MS Play.
2023-2024 Openings are: Middle School Long-term Substitute (2), Paraprofessionals, Substitute Paraprofessionals and Substitute Teachers.
Projected Class Numbers for 2023-2024 School Year are:
PS—22 (2 sections); TK—10, K—15, Grade 1–25 (2 sections); Grade 2–22; Grade 3–15; Grade 4–21; Grade 5–56; Grade 6–37; Grade 7–35; and Grade 8–48.
MMCRU Marcus Principal Brandon Weisert reported the following: the 2022-2023 school year is approaching quickly, seniors will be taking finals this Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Graduation rehearsal and senior brunch will be held on Thursday and graduation on Sunday, May 21. Grades 9-11 will run an altered semester exam schedule May 23-25 to finish off the semester. In the elementary, we have the Mark Brighton relays coming up on May 23 with Remsen students coming over for the day.
On Tuesday, May 9 we held our senior awards ceremony in the high school commons. We had a great turnout of seniors, families, and award presenters. The event went very well and a lot of free money was given to our MMCRU students. It took nearly 2 hours to get through the whole program, which is a long time but a testament to the strength of our communities and school district. This program is long because of all the supporters of our school that come to speak and hand out awards and scholarships.
In the high school, we had Freshman orientation on Friday, May 12. Mrs. Schoeder has the master schedule and course guide updated and scheduling for next year has begun. We were presented with an opportunity to join Cherokee to provide EMT courses for students next winter through WIT. For the elementary, I shared the master schedule with them last Wednesday with the goal of creating a common MTSS time to intervene with students and put together a leadership group to go to PBIS/SEBH training with the NWAEA next school year.
A special shout out to Ms. Bird and NHS (National Honor Society) for organizing our community service day this year; Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Penning for all of their work to get graduation ready; Les & Linda for continuing to be flexible and proactive to get ready to move at the end of the school year; and Mrs. S. Schroeder and FFA students for organizing Ag Safety Day. Finally, Mrs. K. Schroder and Mrs. Penning for getting all of the certificates and awards organized for senior awards night.
The construction project is moving along. We are going to be operating on a very tight schedule getting the North Hallway emptied and ready for construction to begin on May 29. Our teachers have been working to purge unneeded items and begin packing things into boxes to be moved. It’s going to be a huge undertaking to get moved out in time and back in before August 23, be we will find a way.
For the summer Mrs. Roling and Mrs. Bird will be teaching our Extended School year students over in Remsen and Mrs. Roberts and Mrs. Nieuwenhuis will be teaching summer school for the elementary. Letters for summer school went out late last week and we will begin placing students in groups and assigning times for summer school in July.
Spring sports are wrapping up with golf and track that had district and regional meets last week. Summer sports have begun with baseball and softball beginning games in a few weeks. This year we have 27 out for baseball and 28 out for softball.
Our FFA Biotechnology Team of Torey Tentinger, Sophia Hohbach, Kaden Neddermeyer, and Emma Vasher won the state contest this month. Skills USA also had Alyson Ball, Kaleigh Gravenish, and Kennedy Tentinger qualify for nationals in the Promotional Bulletin Board category.
I would like to take a moment to recognize Kathy Pedersen on her retirement. She has been a wonderful special education teacher and great person for our building, congratulations and we hope she will become a sub for us. I also want to thank Stephanie Kruse and Emily Pederson for their years of service and wish them luck in their next endeavor—they have both been consistent people in our building and preschool classrooms the past few years.
Current Openings: Elementary Paraprofessionals, High School Paraprofessionals, Head Custodian, Flexible Custodians and Substitute Teachers/Paraprofessionals.
Superintendent Dan Barkel reported the following: Tonight we have the audit presentation from KRP. It was a long time ago when they actually were on site doing the audit work, but they have also struggled with staffing issues, and therefore their presentation will be done tonight vs. their usual scheduled time in February. The audits of our districts’ finances are required by Iowa Code.
We are feeling very blessed with the retention of our staff for the upcoming school year, and also very blessed with our ability to attract teaching talent. We still have important positions to fill for custodial positions at MM and also many para positions that will need to be filled for the upcoming year. Also, we need to find substitute bus drivers and recruit new drivers for the day when our current drivers retire. Let me know if you know of someone who may be interested in any of these positions.
Tabled from last month is the agenda item to renew the Local Government Risk Pool for MMC. We recommend renewal so we can leverage management funds to pay for our natural gas needs and avoid using general fund dollars which more directly affect instruction and academic offerings in our districts. Next year’s gas costs for our new facility is unknown, so that alone may be a good reason to renew the plan.
Work on the Marcus facility continues to move swiftly this past month. Much work has been done in the south wing of the high school. Much work has also been completed in the new elementary/daycare. New windows have been placed in many areas of the new facilities. A critical piece for completion of the high school is the delivery of an electrical switchboard. It was already ordered over a year and a half ago by Thompson Electric, and is scheduled to be shipped in late July.
The RU Building committee met before the regular board meeting to discuss updated numbers from CMBA for some renovations and updates to RU Building which would be done in 2024. Depending on the result of that meeting, a separate special meeting of the RU board may be called in the near future. We will not have complete numbers until an asbestos inspection is done on June 6 by Terracon. Work will begin on the HVA project at RU as soon as the school year is completed on May 26.
Tonight we present the class list of graduates of the MMCRU Class of 2023 to be approved by the MMC board. We are proud of their accomplishments and wish them well as they begin their adult lives beyond high school.
Tonight we are seeking approval from our boards for purchases that exceed the authority of the superintendent to approve. The first is shoulder pads/helmets for high school football for MMC. The second is to approve a bid for the middle school locker room hot water heaters which are leaking for RU, and finally, the purchase of a vertical personnel lift to maintain items up high in gy;ms for the RU building.
May is School Board Recognition Month. We thank you for your service to our districts and the students and staff that inhabit our school each day. Thank you for the extra time and effort that you give to govern our districts and ensure a quality education for our students at MMCRU.
Tonight we we are voting on whether to begin our own wresting program at MMCRU separate of Cherokee CSD. This will need to be voted on by both boards since it encompasses both a middle school and high school program.
Both boards will also be voting on approving the school-based mental health program. Many students and parents have benefited from this program this past year provided by Plains Area with ESSER funds. We would like to continue the program again for next year with board approval.
The MMCRU Staff is winding up the busy 2022-2023 school year. I am honored to serve with so many selfless individuals who work extremely heard to bring the best educational experience they can for the benefit of our students. We are blessed with an excellent staff who really care.
(The meeting closed with—the next Board meetings will be at Remsen for June, July, and August and maybe September due to construction work on the high school.)
The Marcus-Meriden-Cleghorn Community School District Board of Directors met in regular joint session on Monday, May 15, 2023 at 6:30 p.m. with the Remsen-Union Board Members at the Remsen-Union Media Center.
R-U Board members present: Loutsch, Penning, Krier, Tentinger, and Harpenau. Absent: No one.
MMC Board members present: Prunty, Olson, Staab, Leavitt, and Dreckman. Absent: No one.