The Hiawatha School Board met Monday night and started its meeting with recognition of the Red Hawk Booster club.
Board President Tom Simmer thanked the Booster Club and presented representatives Jeremy Stover and Jodi Twombly with a certificate of appreciation for their continued support. He noted the Booster Club donated more than $25,000 to HHS teams for uniforms, banners, equipment and more.
Stover thanked the board for the recognition and also said they could not have provided the funds to HHS teams if not for the generous support of the local businesses. He said they worried that sponsorships would decrease due to COVID, but was happy to say they actually got three new businesses to sign on for their sponsorships.
The board also visited with Jerry McCall of Educational Consulting Services of Lincoln., Neb., on long-range facility planning.
McCall had attended a board meeting and toured the district more than a year ago to provide recommendations on options the district had for the future. With an aging elementary and high school, along with over-crowding issues at the elementary — the district is looking at ways to improve that infrastructure.
McCall said he had not returned in the last year due to the COVID pandemic, but wanted to touch base with the board again and review many of his initial recommendations for improvements to the facilities of the district.
McCall suggested three phases of infrastructure improvements and these included utilizing property adjacent to the middle school in order to help spread out third and fourth grade students to alleviate overcrowding at the elementary school.
He said before the district were to make any move toward restructuring or even building, a building team or committee would need formed and a traffic study conducted on the areas affected. McCall said just those two things could take up to a year to accomplish and planning stages another year.
The board thanked McCall for his service and no action was taken as McCall was providing information only at this stage.
In other business:
Tim Gilbert with the district IT discussed the need for additional Chromebooks for the district. He said many had fallen into disrepair, especially due to the remote learning and need to take the Chromebooks home. He had 175 on hold for purchase and with the 125 he had in stock, that would allow for total replacement at the middle school and for the district to stay on track for replacing Chromebooks at the high school. The board voted to approve 175 Chromebooks at a cost of $48,300.
The board tabled accepting a bid on the brickwork tuckpointing at the Hawthorne House due to questions about the company not being bonded with the city.
The board reviewed several bids on the Hiawatha Elementary School parking lot — one from JB Contractors for the entire project and several individual bids for dirtwork, electric and concrete. Following discussion about the potential savings and convenience of utilizing one contractor versus honoring past services performed by some of the individual contractors. The final vote was 5-2 to accept the entire project of $65,561 from JB Contractors with Andrea Groth and John Wright voting no, as they were in favor of breaking up the bids to other individual contractors.
Work is expected to be completed by early July.
The board also reviewed and accepted several curriculum changes at the high school and listened to a curriculum presentation by Jean Brintnall on science resources.
Superintendent Lonnie Moser discussed student count and how it affects final budgeting.
Athletic Director Kim Lillie discussed spring sports, which got underway at the beginning of the year, and the continued challenges of dealing with COVID. As the sports are all outside, she determined there would be less concern of spacing and masks will be required if fans are in the bleachers. There will not be any tickets sold for any of the spring events.
HHS Principal Lori Fordyce reported that prom planning was continuing for the April 17 event. She said the meal would be in the Fisher Center gym with tables and chairs being torn down following in order to set up for the dance. She said this would involve more sophomore servers and volunteers. She said there will still be the red carpet promenade and they are excited to be able to offer prom to the students this year, since last year it had to be canceled.
The board set the date of 11:30 a.m. on March 30 for a facility tour.
Following three executive sessions totaling more than an hour, the board voted to accept the following resignations: Eddie Hanson as HHS Kitchen Aide (after 19 years), Sidney Mackey as HHS Kitchen Aide, Cassie Smith as HMS Assistant Track Coach, Nicki Mathewson as HHS Assistant Volleyball Coach, Linda Barnhill as 6th Grade ELA Teacher, Jill Hrencher as 7th Grade Math Teacher (retiring after 15 years in the district), Halee Handrushchenko as HHS ELA Teacher, Kendelle Runer as 3rd Grade Teacher and Ryan Bauer as Tech Systems Administrator.
The board also voted to hire the following: Kelli Cheek as HHS ELA Teacher, Kent Michel as HES STEAM Teacher, Regan Jacobson as 4th Grade Teacher, Michael Downard as HHS Boys Tennis Coach, Mikaela Lehew as HMS Assistant Track Coach and Hannah Hoffman as HMS Assistant Track Coach.
March 12, 2021 at 01:00AM
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School Board thanks Booster Club for continued support - Hiawatha World
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