Published: September 23, 2006 12:07 am            

Central deals with budget questions

By Janet Huffman

Herald Correspondent

DEWITT — Money was center stage at both the final meeting of the retiring Central Community School Board and the organizational meeting of the new board Wednesday.

After swearing in new board member Bill Turnis and returning board members Dona Bark and Kurt Rickard, the Central Board reorganized and addressed a proposal for assisted coaches presented by Athletic Director Brent Cook.

Cook presented three options: Automatic approval of numbers-based assistant coaches when sufficient numbers of students participated in a program; splitting teams to increase participation; and cutting teams at the middle school level to lower the numbers participating.

Superintendent Carol Hansen said she supported the first option because it was in the best alignment with the middle school program, which promotes students exploring all options.

Splitting teams would be more expensive and cutting participants is against the middle school philosophy, she added.

Hansen also noted the safety issue involved when there are high participation numbers.

Board members Dennis Campbell and Jim Irwin questioned the feasibility of spending a possible $5,000 to $10,000 on the coaching positions when no money had been allocated in the budget.

“I can’t support this until we get our finances in order,” Campbell said.

Asking for “no new money” expenditures and citing four years of overspending, Campbell said approving additional expenses had put the district in a poor financial situation, and he would not support any new stream of funding until it was discussed in the budget.

Turnis said the district must provide a safe environment for the services it provides, which was supported by Business Director Jan Culbertson’s statement that if the district provides the service, it also must provide support for the service.

The board approved the first option for numbers-based assistant coaches by a 3-2 vote with Irwin and Campbell voting against the proposal. Irwin made a motion to table the decision, but that was defeated 2-3 with Rickard, Bark and Turnis voting no.

The new board elected Rickard president, Bark vice president, and adopted Roberts’ Rules of Order.

The board approved cooperative student teaching agreements with St. Ambrose University of Davenport and Kaplan University of Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; nine early graduation requests from the class of 2007; and the Title One application for $107,911, which supports three staff positions.

Change orders for the high school remodeling and construction project from Frevert-Ramsey-Kobes, Architects-Engineers, P.C. of West Des Moines, amounted to $18,805. The board approved all 10 using money from the $90,000 contingency funds.

Prior to reorganization, the retiring board discussed at length Culbertson’s financial report. Irwin posed questions on the transportation budget, summer school funding, non-public schools money, the management fund and the August budget review.

Culbertson responded that expenditures occur at various times, which makes the percent of budget spending “not always compatible with the spending pattern.”

She said for several years there have been budget deficits, and, though the balance was not what was hoped for, in the 2005-2006 school year, the district was able to stay within the generated budget.

The budget is tight this year, Culbertson said, because the board decided to stay within what was generated by the state formula for the certified budget.

She noted there actually is more than $1 million available for approved expenditures.

After a public hearing, the retiring board approved sale of the 1.213 acres of school land at Midpark in Welton for $3,000 to Ed Novak. Novak owns property bordering the area.

The board approved the following personnel changes: Resignations of Melissa Lankston from high school flag and twirling coach, William Goble from seventh-grade girls volleyball coach and Lori Walker from eighth-grade volleyball coach; employment of Goble as eighth-grade volleyball coach at $1,760, Walker as seventh-grade volleyball coach at $1,760, Stefanie Spies as assistant varsity girls basketball coach at $2,766 and Karen Bertolino as eighth-grade girls track coach at $1,760; and employment of Maria Timm as half-time guided reading teacher at Ekstrand at $11,975.

The board approved resignations of teacher associates Barb Rickard, Connie Robinson and Gloria Girod; recalled as teacher associates Sharon Buttars and Raelynn McAleer at $9.79 per hour; employed as teacher associates JoAnn Jacobs, Ann Marie Petersen and DorRae Venable at $9.44 per hour; transferred Judy Weiss to the high school as a teacher associate at $9.79 per hour; and employed Toshia Wiese as the high school flag and twirling sponsor.

Pat Lannen was hired as a bus driver at $14 per hour and Jennifer Fellows, Paul Keitel, Steve Walswick and Mary Seymour as substitute bus drivers at $12.85 per hour.

Moving up on the pay scale due to increased education hours were Maria Timm, Hans Hinrichsen, Greg Weller, Paula Schares, Tera McMain, Jamie Nielsen, Jolene Anderson, Terri Shafranek and Angela Robinson.

New Ekstrand Principal Tammy Murphy-Flynn’s contract was amended to $68,500, Deb Richmann added middle school computer supervision at $754 to her contract and Kay Goddard added junior class sponsor to her contract for $1,257.

In the audience portion of the meeting, John McDonnell questioned the administration’s accounting of funding to the board and methods of showing how funds were spent.

        

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