March 19, 2024

NCSD board to meet in new building

Administration to present on impact of salary increases

The Newton Community School District Board of Education is set to meet Monday evening at a place where area residents shopped for groceries for many years.

Monday’s regular meeting, set for 6:30 p.m., will be the first major public meeting in the board room of the newly remodeled E. J. H. Beard Administration Center, formerly the Hy-Vee West building. After a one-year remodeling effort that has cost the district more than $2.4 million, administrators and district staff have begun moving into the building recently, and the center will also house the district’s alternative programs beginning this fall.

The agenda for Monday’s meeting only includes a handful of major action-only items.

One of those items is consideration of approval of superintendent’s compensation. The board voted unanimously at its June 13 meeting to increase all administrators’ compensation in 2016-17 by 2.25 percent. Callaghan was paid about $167,000 in 2014-15.

Callaghan will also present a report on 2016-17 teacher placements.

Prior to Monday’s meeting, Callaghan and director of business services Gayle Isaac are set to conduct the district’s monthly Learning Leadership Workshop at 6 p.m. The topic will be “Impact of the compensation package increase on the approved salary schedule — steps, lane and base.”

The board will consider approval of a Newton High School internship contract with the University of Cincinnati’s Sport Administration Program. Director of K-8 Curriculum Jim Gilbert will describe a seventh- and eighth-grade “ELA reading and Writing Curriculum” through the purchase of a three-year digital study through McGraw Hill. The board will consider a purchase associated with the program.

Gilbert will also discuss the district’s spring 2016 Iowa Assessment data.

Newton High School’s DECA program and the Newton Pacesetters Dance Team are proposing various fundraiser programs. The Pacesetters will also ask for the board’s blessing and funding to compete in the Dance Team Union National Championships, set for early February 2017 in Orlando, Fla.

The Newton High School state-qualifying girls soccer team will be introduced and recognized at Monday’s meeting.

The board will consider approval of student handbooks for all NCSD campuses for the upcoming school year. There will be a few board actions to take place as state requirements leading up to the Sept. 13 election for a $26.9 million general-obligation tax bond.

The bond committee is set to meet at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday at the Beard Center. The next regular board meeting is set for July 11.

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