School Board Delves Into Spending
By Mari Radtke
Aaron Giese, School Business Officer, explained a detailed graphical analysis of school district spending, enrollment and other significant measures over a period of years. The reports give the board insight into a history of financial performance over the years, since about 2010.
The High School Publications, represented by Alexandra Grimm, Editor and Anderson Harms, Assistant Editor gave a presentation about their process of putting together their “Wolverine Roar” each month. Grimm described the process as being quite long and takes everyone involved to get it done. The pair described how stories and photos are collected, processed and use InDesign to create their pages. The pages are then published in the local “O’Brien County’s Bell-Times-Courier” for the public to enjoy. Also in attendance were the business team managers, Carter Halverson and Alex Griebel. They talked about the weekly slide show in the commons.
Highlights of the Elementary School thank Nicholson & Edwards Grain of Primghar for “High-Five” Friday. 21st Century Skills included O’Brien County Naturalist and Ag in the Classroom. The 5th Grade worked on coding robots. A food drive was held and first grade students wrote letters to Santa (published December 18 in the “O’Brien County’s Bell-Times-Courier”).
Positive work environment activities included a successful fundraiser reaching a profit of $12,000. A Friendsgiving potluck for staff, dress up days with activities as a countdown to the holidays was held and the holiday concerts were upcoming.
Individualized reading plans for each student were to be sent home for the break. It was noted that several different kinds of student observations were made and including diagnostic testing which will be shared in January. Certified teachers discussed data. Ice cream treats were given to students as a reward for reaching PBIS goals.
21st Century Skills at the JH/HS building was met by holding a career panel with O’Brien County Workforce Development. Building “Climate and Culture” was met by having the DISCOVER create 300+ placememats for assisted living and area nursing homes. The dangers of vaping was presented to 8th grade students by Angela Loursch of Community Health Partners, a South O’Brien themed tree was worked on during home room by students and dress up days themes were “Save Christmas”, reindeer hunt and hot chocolate bar.
For support and improvement activities interventions for writing, science and math were offered during DISCOVER 4, teachers continue using AEA staff and individualized curriculum. They align assessments with “I can” statements. All grade level teachers are reviewing the math curriculums.
Superintendent Wade Riley updated the board on the construction. The Primghar building is undergoing small tweaking to finalize the projects. In Paullina, the construction on the south and west are expected to be complete before the start of the next school year. Academic classrooms and the new offices are priority. The central offices are expected to move into the current high school office space over the summer with the 1925 building to come down starting summer 2025. There is some flexibility built into some components of the south and west without intefering with function as the project progresses.
South O’Brien is asking the state for $225,829 for modified supplemental funds. These funds are used primarily for credit recovery and other drop out prevention efforts.
The board considered 500 series policies to approve, amend or remove, where allowable. There was a lot of discussion regarding how to make the final decisions whether or not to include staff and/or members of the public.
Early retirement packages were considered by the board. Early retirement is available only to certified staff. Qualification of 5 to 30 years of service to the district and be at least 55 years of age were presented as requirements. Employees accepting the early retirement option can receive $8000 per year for 5 years and a one time payment equal to the current salary x .5 of 1%% x years of service for certified staff with 20+ years. Riley pointed out that early retirement does not need to be offered annually and it does not need to be the same package every time it is offered. The discussion centered on a goal of making the benefit a little tougher to earn. The goal is cost saving to the district. Need for savings would be the driver whether or not to offer early retirement in any given year. The board approved early retirement package of the $8000 per year for 5 years and one half of one percent of salary for certified staff who have served the South O’Brien District for 20 years or longer and are at least 5 years of age. Board member Richard Radtke abstained.