School board to act on 2009-10 reductions next week

The Spencer Community Schools Board of Education will convene a special meeting at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 24 to make adjustments to potential 2009-10 budget reduction packages following feedback received during a 10 a.m. public hearing on the matter today.

The board will then meet at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 26 in the board room of the central administrative offices, located at 23 E. Seventh St., for it regular monthly meeting.

Under consent items listed on this agenda, the board is scheduled to consider approval of its Jan. 27 meeting minutes, bills and financial reports, open enrollment requests, and personnel recommendations.

Under personnel recommendations, board members will consider the hirings of Tara Johnson as a teacher associate at Johnson Elementary, John Calhoon as a middle school boys track coach, Jake Kluver as a volunteer boys soccer coach, Jim Hanthorne as a volunteer girls golf coach and Sarah Riedemann as a volunteer girls soccer coach, as well as the resignation of Chris Oponski as a high school science teacher. The board will also consider a transportation request from Don Bartlett of the Spencer Area Shrine Club for the district to provide transportation for Spencer fifth grade students on Saturday, April 18 to attend the Abu Bekr Shrine Circus in Sioux City.

Following a visitor and public forum section to Thursday's meeting, principals from the district's buildings will offer grade level-specific reports.

Spencer High School Principal Joe Mueting will then ask the board to approve a new course offering -- "Fundamentals of Literacy" -- for next year. As proposed, this required course for freshmen and sophomore students identified to be struggling with reading comprehension would serve as an elective English course and be taken in addition to English I and/or English II.

Jayson Naughton of Energy Services Group will present a $197,500 change order for a proposed classroom unit ventilator upgrade. His recommendation is to replace the existing pneumatic controls on 59 classroom unit ventilators throughout the district with new direct digital controls. These, Naughton maintains, would allow operation of the individual classroom unit ventilators to be scheduled from the energy management system, providing more flexible control strategies and improving setback and setup control during unoccupied periods.

Action on the request for implementation of an alternate $719,961 districtwide at-risk program next school year is anticipated.

Superintendent Greg Ebeling will also direct board members to appoint a committee to redo the district's special education service plan. As required by the Department of Education, this needs to be completed by next school year. Individuals recommended to serve on this committee include Ebeling, Lucas DeWitt, Kathy Elliott, Sherry Woolery, Sharon Joy, John Goede, Melissa Stell, Tammy Delaney, Onalee Wright, Amber Postma, Stevie Shively, JoAnne McCullough, Ric Dupic and Cindy Glover.

After receiving feedback from staff in all the district's buildings on it, a 2009-10 school calendar will be presented.

As a preemptive financial move, Spencer school board members are also expected to pass a budget guarantee resolution during Thursday's meeting. As written, the resolution states the board "will levy property tax for fiscal year 2009-10 for the regular program budget adjustment."

Board members will also discuss how they'd like to see potential district audits take place. While they've contemplated rotating between a state audit, which would cost approximately $30,000, and an audit by Bruce Frink of Clarion, who charges around $8,000, Ebeling is recommending the district stay with Frink for the next three years due to its "current financial situation."

The board is also scheduled to act on early retirement requests made by Sherry Clark, Patricia Quinn, Steve Steele, Molly Scott and Sheryl Patten, as well as take final action on 2009-10 district reductions and then direct Ebeling to follow through with them.

During its information and discussion segment of Thursday's meeting, the board is anticipated to converse about a $50,650 management cost relating to a construction manager proposal for the old Spencer Middle School building. Henkel Construction is serving as the general contractor for Community Housing Initiatives on the building's second and third floors, and has offered to help manage changes being proposed to its first floor.

Board members may also receive a fuel tank update from Ebeling before entering a closed session to discuss bargaining with the Spencer Education Association, district support staff and administrators.