After two years at the helm, Andy Elbert turned over his gavel to Sheri Benson, who will now serve as the president of the Newton Community School District Board of Education.
Benson was elected to the position in a unanimous decision by the board after she was nominated by board member Donna Cook.
Bill Perrenoud was elected as board vice-president, the position Benson previously held, over Robyn Friedman in an anonymous vote.
Before the election took place, the board handled a bit of business in its previous incarnation and voted on the four measures it feels the Iowa School Board Association should make its legislative priorities with the Iowa State Legislature.
After receiving a recommendation from Superintendent Bob Callaghan, the board decided that ensuring it receives modified allowable growth funding for its special education deficit was a top priority.
Last year, the state didn’t fund allowable growth, which Callaghan said makes the budget planning process extremely difficult for school districts.
The second priority was ensuring the state continue to provide funding for preschool programs, such as the low-income based preschool the district maintains at the Emerson Hough building.
Determining a new statewide testing metric was the third priority. Callaghan said districts are in limbo because no decision has been made on the future testing system schools will use and that the funding metrics haven’t been established either.
“We want the legislature to take on the responsibility to take on what testing measure we are going to use. We want it be meaningful, we want it to be valid and we want it to help the students in the state of Iowa grow and be more college and career ready,” Callaghan said.
The district’s final priority was ensuring that there is future funding lined up to continue supporting the Teacher Leadership and Compensation grant, which is set to expire at the end of the 2016-2017 school year.
Leadership opportunities and higher pay for teachers are some of the benefits listed in the TLC program.
In other business:
• No public comment was made on the potential purchase of a new fire escape for Woodrow Wilson Elementary School, and the board agreed to pay Marshalltown-based Hay’s Construction Services close to $40,000 to replace the old escape.
• The FFA program at Newton Senior High School received permission to attend the national FFA convention in Louisville, Ky from Oct. 28 to Nov. 1.
• FFA also received approval to attend an agriculture development event at Northwest Missouri State University on Oct. 2.
Contact Senior Staff Writer Ty Rushing at (641) 792-3121 Ext. 6532 or trushing@newtondailynews.com