By Elaine Rassel
The School District Attorney approved for MMC was Steve Aver of Spencer. The District Depositories approved for MMC were Farmers State Bank, State Savings Bank, and United Bank of Iowa, UMB, and ISJIT as depositories for the district with a limit of $7 million.
Newspapers of record were approved Marcus News for MMC and Remsen Bell for R-U. Level 1/Level II Investigators approved were Alecia Regenniter (school nurse) and Travis Sprague (MMC Principal) as Level 1 Investigators. Level II Investigator approved was Brian Flikeid of Marcus Police Department.
Kayla Schroder was approved as the 504 Coordinator and Liz Koenig (elementary counselor) as the Homeless Liaison Coordinator.
The Annual Review of Attendance Center Data was given to the Boards by MMC Principal, Travis Sprague as follows: MMCRU Marcus Elementary_There are 173 TOTAL students with 92 male students, 81 female students. Student National Origin: 173 United States (All Students). Races are: (White) 167; (African American) 7; (Hispanic) 2; (Asian) 1; and (American Indian) 1. There are 22 Special Education students. Course Enrollment Breakdown: Elementary students take all the same courses as their grade-level classmates.
MMCRU High School There 193 TOTAL students with 92 male students, 101 female students. Student National Origin: There are 189 United States; 2 students from Germany (Foreign Exchanges; 1 student from Italy (Foreign Exchange) and 1 South African. Races are: (White) 190; (African American) 6; (Hispanic) 9; and (Asian) 1. There are 25 Special Education students.
Course Enrollment Breakdown (Electives): Agriculture: 6/4 female/male ratio: and 1 special education student. Business (non-required courses): 5/4 male/female ratio: and 2 special education students. FCS: 6/1 female/male ratio; 4 special education students; 2 Hispanic students, and one African American student.
Industrial Tech: 3/1 male/female ratio; 10 special education students; 5 African American students, and 3 Hispanic students.
Art: 4/1 female/male ratio; 8 special education students; 2 Hispanic studens, and 1 African American student.
Band: 2/1 female/male ratio; 4 special education students; 1 Hispanic student, and 1 Asian student.
Choir: 7/3 female/male ratio: 7 special education students; 1 Hispanic student, and 1 Asian student.
Delegates for the IASB (Iowa Association of School Boards) Delegate Assembly were not selected at this time.
The 2021 IASB Legislative Resolutions included Student Achievement and Accountability; Educator Quality; Fiscal Responsibility and Stewardship, and Governance. (These Resolutions each had several sub titles under them.) An example for under Governance_one was, Expanding Educational Opportunities. Supports providing the flexibility to expand educational opportunities and choices for students and families. Educational options must remain under the sole authority of locally elected school boards charged with representing community interests and accountability, IASB supports efforts including: (1) Investment in magnet and innovation schools; expansion in flexible program offerings; and greater partnerships among schools and community organizations. (2) Establishment of charter schools under the direction of the locally elected public school board; and (3) Establishment or use of online schools or classes while maintaining per pupil funding. Supports opportunities for continued collaboration between public and nonpublic schools; however, the association opposes the use of additional taxpayer funds for the creation of vouchers or educational savings accounts or an in crease in tax credits or deductions directed toward nonpublic schools.
Elections: Supports a minimum of four special election dates per calendar year for bond referendums, votes on levies and revenue purpose statements and filling school board vacancies.
Sharing and Reorganization: Supports continuation of sufficient incentives and assistance to encourage sharing or reorganization between school districts including the establishment of regional schools. Supports expanding the positions eligible for operational sharing incentives.
Home School Reporting: Supports requiring parents/guardians home schooling their children without the support of a certified teacher, to register with their public school attendance centers.
The Resolution Directing the Advertisement for Sale, Approving Electronic Bidding Procedures and Approving Official Statement was discussed by the Board. A resolution directing the advertisement for sale of not to exceed $10,000,000 general obligation school bonds, series 2021, approving electronic bidding procedures and approving official statement was approved by the MMC Board.
Resignations approved were those of Kylee Preuss and Christine Bush as Para-Educators. Also approved was the resignation of Darin Rinehart (TK-8 Physical Education Teacher) from the position as the Assistant High School Boys Track Coach.
Approved was the hiring of Charlene Nafe and Madison Johnson as Paras, and Ellen Plagman as Cook.
The 800 Series Policy Review/Revision was approved.
The sale of Bus # 1, for MMC was approved.
The Mascot issue for MMCRU was discussed again with the decision not to have a Mascot.
Toby Young, MMCRU Middle School/Remsen Elementary Principal reported the following: The school year is off to a great start! Students and staff are settling into their classes and daily routines. Activities (Cross Country, Football & Volleyball) have begun as well and we’ve already seen great things.
PS-8 Grade Enrollment is as follows: PS (14); TK (22); K (20); Grade 1 (22); Grade 2 (21); Grade 3 (29); Grade 4 (13); Grade 5 (35); Grade 6 (49); Grade 7 (55) and Grade 8 (52).
A comparison of Elementary students was: 141 this year (135 in 2020); 127 in 2019; 129 in 2018 and 138 in 2017.
Middle School has 191 this year (202 in 2020); 205 in 2019; 198 in 2018 and 205 in 2017.
TOTAL for R-U School is 332 this year, (337 in 2020); 332 in 2019; 327 in 2018; and 343 in 2017.
Football has 33 out for it (21 from 8th grade, and 12 from 7th grade) Volleyball has 27 participating with (11 from 8th grade and 16 from 7th grade) Cross Country has 8 with (3 from 8th grade and 5 from 7th grade).
Travis Sprague, MMCRU Marcus Elementary and MMCRU High School Principal reported the following: The MMCRU Marcus Elementary and MMCRU High School have had a positive start to the school year. We are continuing the 1:1 technology push, incorporating RIPL, and striving to create engaging and interactive lessons for our students.
Ben Rudrud, of RIPL, presented tour staff and then to our elementary and high school students and we are continuing his message of building positive, impactful relationships in a variety of ways.
In terms of professional development, we have begun to review our ISASP scores and Conditions of Learning survey results at a building and district level. In addition, our focus is to utilize our 1:1 technology to incorporate more higher-order student thinking in the classroom. Finally, our district push through RIPL is also occurring.
Here is the breakdown of the number of students we serve: High School has 193 (4 Alternative school students); up 19 students from last year. Elementary has 173 students; up 15 students from last year.
Superintendent Dan Barkel reported the following: The Royals are off to a good start in the school year. This past week has been a fun experience for students and staff with homecoming. Spirits are high and the future is bright!
The process continues on the design phase of the project at MMC. The MMC Board has given the approval for the design. Now CMBA will refine the design and get ready for the bid phase.
On the agenda this month are three items that we need the MMC board to approve in order to move forward with the building project. We need to (1) Approve a resolution for sale of the GO bonds on Nov. 1. (2) Approve a resolution to distribute the Preliminary Official Statement (POS) to prospective bidders for the bond sale and (3) Approve a resolution to utilize the PARITY bidding platform for receipt of the bond sale bids.
Last week Doug Wurth and myself met with Norm Te Krony, engineer for EDA, to discuss plans for HVAC in the RU building. We will attempt to get as much done as we can with the ESSER dollars we will be receiving from the federal government. Our priorities in this order are: Classrooms, Cafeteria, West Gym, and Auditorium.
Sod work as been completed at the entrance at RU. Bike racks and benches have been ordered for the entryway area.
This month auditors from KRP are conducting the annual audit for both districts, Joe Mohning has been working very hard this past month on our Certified Annual Budget (CAB).
MMCRU has been awarded a GEER Grant from the Dept. of Education which will allow for us to contract with the Seasons Center to have therapists on site to meet with students in need of social-emotional/psychological therapy. The total of the grant award is $38,000 for the MMC district and $30,000 for the RU district. The contract will be for a two-year span. We have also begun the process of applying for a computer science grant to provide professional development for our teachers to teach basic coding at the elementary level.
We have held two Zoom meetings with Blue Horizon, EDA and CMBA to coordinate the solar project with the building project at MMC. We don’t want to put panels up there until we know exactly where the HVAC units will be placed. Otherwise, they would likely need to be moved and incur additional costs.
We will continue our discussions tonight about the adoption of a school mascot. MMC school district attorney has informed me that trademark issues are unlikely if we adopt a mascot from another high school. Colleges or professional teams likely have trademarks for their mascots/logos.