North Nodaway BOE

The North Nodaway R-VI Board of Education met in open and closed sessions on August 21 to handle the following school district business.

The tax hearing was held before the start of the regular meeting. Assessed personal property valuations in the district are $241,070 lower this year than last. This will cause the district to have an approximate $12,000 deficit in revenue.

Discussion was held on tax dollars which will be coming to the district from the windmill construction. The board is unsure when those taxes will be coming in. Superintendent James Simmelink plans to talk to Nodaway County Assessor Rex Wallace in January about the situation.

The board decided to stay at $4.0605 per $100 assessed valuation, the same as the pervious year. This was approved later in the regular session.

During the open session, 12 school board policies and regulations were approved including one with medical marijuana provisions to protect the school district. Another requires the district to put its financial information on the school website.

New school board members, who come on after August 1, will be required to complete an additional 2.5 hours of board training. Existing board members will be required to complete an extra hour of training, to update their original training.

Simmelink reported two new school buses were slated to arrive. He was hoping two of the older buses would start and be traded in on the new purchase. He has instituted a policy of having routine bus maintenance performed each summer to help extend the life expectancy of the bus fleet. The blacktop roads in the district are deteriorating, however, gravel roads have had new gravel applied and are in better shape.

The renovations to the propane line have had a few hiccups. The live line was capped, instead of the dead one, which caused the school to be without propane. This situation has been corrected. All of the units on the second and third floors will need a new regulator because of an increase in pressure from the lines being run correctly.