Camanche Community School District

The Camanche School District’s Board of Education held their regular monthly meeting on Monday, June 15th.  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:

•  Superintendent Parker updated the Board about the district’s Return to Learn (RTL) Plan.  The state is requiring that their RTL planning document be submitted by July 1^st.  Mr. Parker reported that the plan is progressing and that three main options are being developed.  The first option would revolve around students returning to school for in-person instruction with the schools open; the second option would be delivering instruction to students on-line in a fashion similar to this past spring, but student participation would be required for all grades; and the third option would be a hybrid system which would use a combination of on-line instruction with in-person instruction, most likely using a rotation of students to limit the number of people physically in our buildings at any one time.  The safety and health of our students, staff, and visitors, while providing a quality education, would be priorities when deciding which option would be used when the 2020-21 school year begins as scheduled on August 24^th.
• The Board heard updates from the architects and Mr. Parker regarding the Facilities Enhancement Project.  A September 8, 2020 election date to present this proposal to the voters is planned.  The Board established that they do not want this project to exceed a levy amount of $2.70 per $1000 valuation.  Based on current land valuation in the school district, the adjusted amount of funding that this levy is projected would raise would be approximately $13.4 million. The Board plans to continue providing the community with information about the proposed project to allow voters to make an informed decision.
• The Board is considering installing the Raptor software in each of the school buildings.  This software scans each building visitor’s identification to be sure that they are not on the Sexual Offenders List.  The Board requested that a representative from Raptor be invited to next month’s meeting to answer questions regarding this software.
• Superintendent Parker reported to the Board that the school district’s tennis courts were in need of repair and resurfacing.  We would prefer to have this take place no later than this fall because we don’t want the winter to have more of a negative effect on the courts to cause more costly repairs.  The Board requested that the superintendent develop a formal recommendation to present to them at a future meeting.
• Superintendent Parker updated the Board about ongoing committee work and the Goal Setting Committee presented their work to the Board.  The goals presented by this committee will be formally placed on the Board’s agenda for next month.
• The Board took action to purchase a new school bus from School Bus Sales for $110,208.  The District received a $25,000 grant from the Volkswagen Settlement that will help in offsetting the cost of this new bus.  The bus should be delivered in early fall.
• The Board accepted the highest bid of $543.21 from Mike Yackshaw to purchase the 1996 GMC Safari van. 
• The Board took action to renew the school district’s membership in professional organizations that support the school board such as the Iowa Association of School Boards (IASB) and Rural School Advocates of Iowa (RSAI).
• The Board approved increasing the price of an adult lunch by 10-cents to $3.85 to comply with the Paid Lunch Equity requirement.  Lunch prices for students will not change for this upcoming school year.
• The Board heard the first reading of several new, revised, or reviewed school board policies.  Most of these changed policies are revisions that comply with new or updated laws.  A second reading of these policies, with action to adopt them will be considered at next month’s meeting.
• The Board approved soliciting bids to develop a three-year lease for technology devices.  This would include the option of purchasing the devices at the end of the lease if we wish to do so.  This lease is a cost-effective way to fund our 1:1 Initiative that allows Camanche students in grades 5 -12 to have a technology device assigned to them for their use during the school year.  This lease also allows us to provide classroom sets of technology devices for our elementary school students.
• The Board approved proposed changes in student/parent handbooks for the 2020-2021 school year.  The most significant change occurred in the high school handbook in the area of student attendance.  Modifications were made based upon our experience with the COVID-19 Pandemic.  Copies of each building’s handbook can be found on the district’s website. 

As is usually the case, the school board completed the meeting by approving administrative recommendations regarding personnel.