School Board members approve bus monitors, facility improvement process

Daily Reporter Staff

Spencer school board members gave the go-ahead to grant a request placed before them designed to "enhance safety and avoid many discipline problems experienced last year" Monday night as they unanimously approved positioning "monitors" in two of the school district's buses for up to two hours each weekday afternoon during the upcoming school year.

The move comes in response to an initial request made by lead bus driver Terry Johnson, who asked that a "school employee who would be familiar with and to students" be placed in one specific bus that has had "some difficulty with unruly students."

"We all know that a small percentage of students are problematic, but they can bring out poor behaviors in some other students," Johnson wrote in a memorandum addressed to Operations Director Mark Bauermeister, Superintendent Greg Ebeling and Spencer Elementary Principal Lucas DeWitt. "This makes for an unpleasant ride for everyone. Hopefully with another person of authority on board, it will help control damage to the bus interior and lower the frustration level for all the passengers and the driver."

Bauermeister followed up on Johnson's request Monday night, reporting to the board that he rode a handful of bus routes as a monitor over a monthlong period and experienced firsthand a "significant improvement in student behavior" when he did so.

"The buses in question especially are the larger buses we have that go between Fairview and Johnson and between Lincoln School and the YMCA."

"It's really in the afternoons that we experience most difficulties, and that's what I'm really asking for here is a monitor on each of those larger buses where it's very difficult for the driver to manage that number of kids," Bauermeister told board members.

"I know we have cameras and we can see things that are going on. It certainly wouldn't replace our disciplinary system," he continued. "In fact, one thing I want to enhance is the system we have in place, and to make sure that we really enforce that program next year - that being the bus report that goes through if you have a disciplinary action, and the proper way to handle each one of those infractions is through the principal, through myself and, if necessary, with the parents and the superintendent if we need to.

"But, what this does is it allows immediate correction of some actions which really can make a very large difference overall in the rest of the kids and how they're acting. And, it promotes a positive environment when the kids are most apt to have disciplinary problems."

The annual cost for this could run up to $7,920, Bauermeister estimated, presuming the individual monitors would be teacher assistants paid at an hourly salary of $11 per hour. When asked how this would be paid for, Ebeling answered it would come from the district's general fund.

"The one thing I'd like the board to realize is that we have been consciously working hard at not hiring more teacher associates than we need. This year we had several resignations that we did not replace. I think 12 teacher associates that were on staff last year will not be on staff this coming year," the superintendent explained. "...To me, this is a good use of dollars. Your option is to run more bus routes and make the buses a little bit less crowded. But that is not going to be a cheap venture by any means."

"Money aside," replied Ed Ver Steeg, "our mission and vision is to provide a safe environment for learning. That includes buses. So, if we have to have somebody riding on a bus to provide that safe environment, then (so be it)."

Board members directed Bauermeister to offer a status report on the approved action in a few months. They also intimated the possibility of volunteers taking over the additional supervisory roles on the school district's buses in the future.

In other action taken Monday night, the board set a 7:30 a.m. special meeting on Friday, Aug. 10 to approve specifications, call for formal bids and approve a financing stream for the facility improvement measures (FIM) recommended by Energy Services Group (ESG). Quotes for a roof overhang at Johnson Elementary will also be acted on at that meeting.

Board members approved a contract with Piper Jaffray to act as the district's representative on financing the ESG projects. Ebeling explained the contract is similar to what was used for the Spencer Middle School bond project.

"We're approving a little bit different situation because we're trying to potentially save dollars by not actually having to go through the bond issue process and formal selling of bonds like we did for the middle school," he clarified. "This, actually, is twofold. One, a little bit cheaper version, is if we can do the loans locally for our ESG facility improvement measures. It is obviously less expensive for a Piper Jaffray-type company to not have to go and sell bonds and do all this other work that's required. The kick is that you have to have local groups come in at what Piper Jaffray considers to be market value. If they don't, it's going to be a better deal for us to go out and sell the bonds and actually go through the bonding process."

According to Tim Oswald, the district's Piper Jaffray representative, Spencer would need to issue nearly $1.29 million "Energy Management Capital Loan Notes" and $2.3 million Local Option Sales Tax Bonds to fund the various energy-efficient upgrades being proposed.

Most of the ESG FIM projects to be bid out are of an electrical and lighting nature, with some mechanical pieces included in the overall package. According to Ebeling, most would take place over the next year.

Ebeling also informed the board Monday that Board Secretary Sharon Slawson has officially requested a state audit two years from now, for fiscal year 2009.

"It's going to be extremely expensive if we do it," he said. "We were thinking around the $19,000 - $20,000 range. It could be double that pretty easily. It could be as much as $40,000."

The administration's recommendation during a July 6 board meeting was to have a state audit conducted once every four years. When the board was questioned whether it would prefer staying with the district's current auditor, Clarion-based certified public accountant Bruce Frink, or employing one of the other companies which submitted bids: Williams and Company of Spencer or Nolte, Cornman and Johnson of Newton, the board agreed to pay Frink $6,500 and $6,750 to conduct the fiscal year 2007 and 2008 audits.

Ebeling told board members that three school districts in Iowa use the state for audit purposes on an annual basis. While Sheldon was billed approximately $17,000 for the 400 hours spent there recently, Ebeling indicated he was told Spencer's state audit may take up to 900 hours to complete.

"At some point in time, the board may want to revisit that. I'm not opposed to doing that, it's just much more expensive than what I originally thought," he said.

In another financial-related matter, board members, in an attempt to remain "competitive" and "comparable" with neighboring districts' wages, approved a recommendation made by the superintendent to increase substitute pay to $100 per day and to boost teachers' hourly pay for extra activities to $18 per hour.

Spencer's school board members also adopted a set of criteria established for the naming and/or dedicating of a school facility in honor of a person. Ad hoc committee members Roger Johnson, Bill Cook, Doug Conard, Carla Gates, Shelly Robison, Shari Lensing and Bob Rose compiled the potential yardstick, which would make a candidate "worthy" based on his or her "student impact" or "role model" potential, education-related status, accomplishments and community standing.

"Any of those instances would come before the board regardless," Ebeling clarified.

Board member Dean Mechler mentioned the "note" at the bottom of the criteria, which states, "A large donation to the school or any other unusual circumstance may bypass this selection criteria if seen fit by the Spencer school board and administration."

"That ought to be No. 1," Mechler said.

The board also agreed to forward four legislative action priorities for Spencer during the 2008 session. These include:

* "Supports requiring school districts to negotiate contracts with teachers and support staff every two years, commencing in 2008 (for 2008-10) and each two-year period thereafter, retaining current settlement deadlines, with a provision allowing districts to request an extension until October when second-year revenue, based on Oct. 1 enrollment, is available.

* "Supports sufficient incentives and assistance to encourage sharing, reorganization and regional high schools to expand academic opportunities for students.

* "Supports full state funding to implement quality professional development to improve student learning through each school district's career development plan. Additional days should be funded and required until a minimum of 10 days of quality professional development exists in every school district. The school district is the appropriate authority to determine the content and participation in professional development.

* and "Supports extending the school infrastructure local option tax to a statewide penny sales tax distributed on a per-pupil basis, recalculated annually to adjust the statewide average revenues per student."

In other action and discussion during Monday's meeting:

* Spencer High School Principal Joe Mueting was welcomed to the district by the full board and offered a report on what he's done since July 1. Mueting took over the secondary-level principalship from Mike Healy, who accepted a superintendent position at Bellevue Community School District in April.

* The board appointed Sharon Slawson as the district's secretary and treasurer, Steve Avery as its lawyer and chief negotiator, Spencer Police Chief Mark Lawson as the district's truant officer - a task which will be delegated to School Resource Officer Daaron Hansen, and board member David Schlichtemeier as its Iowa Association of School Boards delegate and Legislative Action Network Seminar representative. In addition, Brady Jo Hare, Brook Nolin and Theresa Rasch were among the individuals approved to serve on the district's School Improvement Advisory Committee.

* Wes Simpson said expanding the Positively Spencer Youth (PSY) group's age range down to the elementary schools has been discussed. He also mentioned that PSY is currently looking for an available route to deliver a monthly newsletter to all patrons in the district. Upcoming events PSY plans to take part in were also cited. These include the Aug. 18 - 19 Extreme Am 4 event at East Leach Park, a "parent-to-parent pledge" being offered during school registration, a Sept. 23 family forum on the "dangers of inhalants and huffing" and a return visit sometime in October by motivational speaker Craig Hillier.