Board votes to renew agreement with Drake’s Head Start program

While the Newton Community School District board of education didn’t take action on any high-profile decisions at Monday’s regular meeting, the board covered a lot of ground.

One of the topics addressed was renewing its operating agreement with Drake University’s federally funded Head Start program — although there was also a lengthy discussion about how Head Start might be impacted by the district’s planned reconfiguration at the start of the 2016-17 year.

The board voted 7-0 to renew the agreement for the 2015-16 school year. Associate Director of Secondary Services Tina Ross said there are about 15 to 20 students in both the morning and afternoon sessions, which presumably could be affected by reconfiguration.

While the board decided to renew the arrangement for this year, the relationship with Drake will need to address facilities changes before the beginning of the 2016-17 school year.

Superintendent Bob Callaghan said he believes the playground equipment currently at Emerson Hough, which is not addressed in NCSD’s contract with Drake, belongs to the Head Start program, and would follow the program — not a building or a district. Newton’s preschool program is scheduled to move to Thomas Jefferson Elementary School next summer as part of reconfiguration, though Callaghan said he’s seen arrangements before in which Head Start programs were not necessarily housed adjacent to a preschool.

“The playground has been part of the discussion with Drake,” Callaghan said regarding the district’s longstanding relationship with the university’s Head Start. “We realize that’s an area that has to be completely transparent. We don’t want any secrets or hidden agendas.”

Monday’s meeting was the board’s final regular meeting before board elections. A candidate forum will be held at 7 p.m. Thursday in the Newton City Hall council chamber, and voters go to the polls Sept. 8.

Incumbents Donna Cook and Bill Perrenoud and two challengers are competing for three at-large seats on the board. The board will next meet Sept. 14, and, presuming the Jasper County Auditor has announced three winners, the outgoing board will handle old business, then vote to approve the election canvass, and then the new board will take its seats.

At least one of the challengers will win a seat, as board member Nat Clark is not seeking re-election.

In other business Monday, the board:

• Heard from Callaghan and several board members and administrators about a presentation made by Dr. Donna Beegle, who made a presentation last week at a back-to-school program. All who shared at Monday’s meeting spoke highly of Beegle and her knowledge of working with children who live in poverty, and Callaghan said there have been requests from within Newton to get more of Beegle’s books and to hear her speak again.

• Heard from Callaghan regarding the recent discovery of mold in a Berg Elementary classroom. He said Midwest Indoor Air Quality was called out as soon as possible to run mold-spore tests on a 15-classroom area, and two classrooms that showed high levels were thoroughly air-scrubbed, from textbooks down to pulling the carpeting up. An aging air-delivery system was found to be not dehumidifying properly and was repaired, and the classrooms, which had a mold issue in 2013, were tested again last week — after the repairs — and found to be at reduced spore levels.

• Voted 6-1 to jointly administer a consortium for special education along with the Grinnell-Newburg School District. An inter-area program, hosted on Grinnell-Newburg campuses, will aid special education students with mental-health issues, according to Ross, and there is no cost to Newton until the district sends a child to Grinnell for services. Perrenoud was the lone board member to vote against the motion.

• Heard from Callaghan regarding the press-box project at H.A. Lynn Stadium. The exterior of the press boxes were completed in time for last week’s scrimmaging, and the interior requires only some minor finishing touches. The entrance at both ends of the Frank Gilson Press Box on the home side is an awkward height, and Callaghan said the board can decide on one of three proposed remedies for that step at a later date.

• Heard from Katie Brown of Employee & Family Resources regarding anti-substance abuse events that took place on Newton Community School District campuses last year, along with goals and plans for this year. Keeping parents and faculty informed about new developments in illegal drugs — such as how vape pens can be used to smoke marijuana — is a key element to drug education, she said.

• Held a lengthy discussion regarding Board Policy 702.2, or student eligibility for bus service. The district is only set to take in about $5,500 is bus fees this school year, and might consider waving the fees if the policy is revised. No action was taken on the policy at Monday’s meeting.

• Gave Callaghan guidelines for what sort of people to choose for the bond committee, which will meet with an architect to discuss the rebuild of the Berg Complex. The board suggested that the committee, which will have 18 to 25 people, will have about seven district staff members, two City of Newton officials, seven at-large members of the community, two members of the Newton business community and three board members and some administrators who will act in an advisory capacity only. Callaghan will choose from an unpublished list of about 72 names to come up with the committee.

• Heard a 25-minute leadership presentation from Newton High School Athletic Director Scott Garvis before the regular meeting. Garvis discussed the finance side of athletics, from the way money is allowed to flow, and not to flow, and how it can be spent, to the ways companies like Under Armour help out high-school athletic programs.

Contact Jason W. Brooks at 641-792-3121 ext. 6532 or jbrooks@newtondailynews.com