The Camanche School District’s Board of Education held their regular monthly meeting on Monday, October 19th. 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 and the principals shared information about the District’s ongoing use of the Hybrid Learning Plan. Generally, things have been going well with students learning in this type of learning environment. At this time the District intends to continue following the Hybrid Learning Plan and the school board will continue to monitor this situation. Data that is used to make the Learning Plan Option decision revolves around Clinton County’s Revolving 14-day COVID-19 Average, guidance from medical experts, and guidance from the chart provided by the Iowa Department of Public Health. While the school district is not limited to these data sources in making decisions regarding learning options, the administration believes that we have been successful in meeting our goal of providing our students with a quality learning experience while providing an environment that is as safe and healthy as possible.
- Business Director Aude provided the Board with an overview and explanation of the information provided by the Iowa Association of School Boards regarding the Camanche School District’s annual financial data.
- Superintendent Parker reviewed student enrollment count and trends from the recently completed statewide student count. Although the trend of seeing a decrease in resident student count continues, the number of students who open enroll into the Camanche School District continues to be a benefit to the district. As of the statewide count day on October 1st, Camanche serves a total of 980 students.
- The Board started the process to renew the Instructional Support Levy (ISL). This is not a new tax and Camanche, along with a vast majority of school districts in the state, use this funding source to support student instruction. The Board passed a Resolution to indicate its intention to act upon renewing the ISL at its next regular meeting in November and to hold a public hearing regarding the same during that upcoming meeting.
- The Board took action to enter into an agreement with the Mississippi Bend AEA to provide Drivers Education for Camanche students. In the past, the District was able to hire a teacher to provide this service to the community, but recently was not successful in finding another teacher to fill this position. Also, a local driver’s education provider was not able to meet our needs at this time. The AEA has provided drivers education for several school districts in our region for many years and Superintendent Parker indicated that he believed that they will provide a quality service to our students.
- The Board took action to allow the District to apply to the state for supplemental funding to offset additional expenses from our special education and limited-English proficiency programs.
- The Board received an update from Bray Architecture regarding the Facilities Enhancement Project. Matt Wolfert told the Board that there have been subcommittees formed in order to receive input from various stakeholders regarding the development of the enhancement plans. Bray Architecture will continue to update the Board as we move along the process of enhancing our facilities.
- The Board approved the administration’s recommendation to use funding available in the preschool program to purchase additional iPads for our preschool students’ use.
As is usually the case, the school board completed the meeting by approving administrative recommendations regarding personnel.