Nodaway-Holt BOE

The Nodaway-Holt R-VII School Board met on May 22 to conduct the following business:

Superintendent Karma Coleman informed the board that Jeff Holstien donated his time and materials including fertilizer for the school’s acreage.

The donated parking lot has been sprayed for weeds and the township will take care of the tubes.

Coleman updated the board on the Cell Tower Solutions project. Holt County schools wanted to hire the company to re-evaluate cell phone towers in the area. The company stated that schools may see an approximately $400 increase in assessed valuation from each tower in its district every year. Nodaway-Holt’s portion of the fees would be a one-time fee of $1,200. The district has one tower.

It was approved to pay Toni Nielson a stipend for her help on the banquets and other activities.

The board decided to keep the breakfast prices the same at $1.

In July when Jeff Blackford becomes superintendent, he will also assume the duty of child services coordinator.

Rebekah Kuhfal was hired to teach math.

Nick White was moved to teaching business and being the FBLA sponsor.

Ryan Hutchcraft was hired as assistant basketball boys coach and assistant varsity football coach.

The school board accepted the resignation of Sarah Rohr, paraprofessional.

There was discussion about not letting hourly employees become class sponsors. The board would be required to pay an hourly employee an overtime wage instead of the extra-duty stipend. The board was concerned about the amount of hours an hourly employee could accrue as a class sponsor. Some members did not think it would be fair to pay an hourly employee more than the certified teacher for extra-duty assignments.

The preliminary budget review was tabled until the June meeting.

There was discussion about creating a policy limiting the number of vacation hours staff members can accumulate.

It was reported that the school library had 5,579 books checked out during the school year. The school library owns 29 ebooks and has access to 3,500 ebooks from Ebsco. Ebsco includes newspapers, science reference centers, encyclopedias, consumer health resources and more. The site logged 23,630 searches from the district throughout the school year. The school also has access to online news magazines.

The next regular meeting was set for 7:30 pm, Wednesday, June 21.