School Board Summary - 10/21/19

The Camanche School District’s Board of Education held their regular monthly meeting on Monday, October 21st.  Please note that these are not the official minutes.  The official Agendas and Minutes from the Camanche Community School District school board are available and posted on our school district website (camanche.k12.ia.us).  

Items to highlight from this school board meeting would include:  

  • The state’s count day was October 1st and Camanche currently serves 1005 students.  Of these students, 171 open enroll into Camanche, which results in a net gain of 97 students for the Camanche School District.  The number of students who choose to come to Camanche through open enrollment does have a positive impact upon our student count numbers.  Overall we have seen a continuation of a trend that most schools in Iowa are seeing, which is a slight decrease in number of students served.
  • Superintendent Parker reviewed the time line for the upcoming school board election.  The election will be on November 5th.  Current Board members Albert McManus and Brad Weber are running for re-election; while Travis Baker, Shane Bark, and Justin Sampson are also running for election.  There are four seats available.
  • The school board discussed their impressions of the “Community Engagement Meeting” about school facilities that was held on October 16th.  School board members were impressed by the turnout of community members who attended and appreciated the input these folks provided to the school district and the architects.  A survey will be mailed to every address in the school district to increase the amount of input from our community.  Everyone is encouraged to complete the survey, as this will provide the school board with valuable feedback regarding the direction the community would like to go in addressing school facilities.
  • Superintendent Parker reminded the school board that the Iowa Department of Education’s Director, Dr. Ryan Wise, will visit the Camanche School District on the morning of October 22nd.
  • Superintendent Parker informed the Board that as a part of planning for the partnership between Clinton County school districts to form a Regional Career and Technical Education Center, there has been much conversation regarding developing a Common School Calendar for all involved school districts.  Individual school districts would retain control of their calendar, but much emphasis would be placed upon creating a school calendar that would work for most county school districts for most school days throughout the year.
  • The Board approved the membership of the School Improvement Advisory Committee (SIAC).  This is a group composed of parents, students, teachers, administrators, school board members, and community members that review, discuss, and recommend various initiatives geared toward school improvement that could be recommended to the school board.
  • The Board authorized the administration to solicit bids for the baseball field lighting project.  The school district has secured a $100,000 grant from the Clinton County Development Association that will be applied to the cost of this project.  Once bids are obtained, the school board will then decide how they wish to proceed with this project.
  • The Board approved applying to the State for Supplemental Funding to offset the cost of the Special Education deficit and also to assist with providing support for English Language Learners. 

As is usually the case, the school board completed the meeting by approving administrative recommendations regarding personnel and also approving open enrollment requests into the Camanche School District.