Montezuma Board sets meeting time, legal paper

J.O. Parker
 
         The Montezuma Board of Education met in the school cafeteria on Wednesday, Dec. 10.
      Following the call to order and approval of the consent agenda, Superintendent Rich Schulte shared two good news items. He thanked the school’s dance team and the work of dance director Macy Taylor Richards for all their hard work at state competition in early December.
         Schulte also thanked the custodians and Paul Hawkins, who oversees transportation and the building and grounds at the district, for keeping the school and grounds clean. 
          In other news, the board established the meeting day and time to the third Wednesday of each month at 5:30 p.m. in the school cafeteria beginning in January 2026.
      The date was changed to the second Wednesday of the month at 5:30 during the November meeting due to a conflict with a board member’s schedule.
          That day and time would not work for the district to get ready for the meeting, so the board moved it back to the third Wednesday of each month.
          The board designated the Grinnell Hearld Register as the district’s legal publication after the item was tabled at the November meeting.
        Principal O’Rourke presented the district’s comprehensive at-risk program guidelines that cover guidance services, the parallel credit recovery program that uses Apex platform and the K-5 intervention that Molly Swenson and Josh Anderson cover. He talked about FAST assessments and multi-tiered system data that helps with identifying student’s progress.
          Superintendent Schulte updated the board on a staff survey that was developed to take a look at the school climate across several categories, such as feeling valued, communication, safety, collaboration, respect, and administration effectiveness. He also talked about the recent middle school and high school personal development day, which included teachers participating in traveling to DeJong Mfg., CoLine Mfg., and other local companies. The day was spent learning how to connect what is being taught in the classroom with the real world needs of potential employees in the areas of geometry, trigonometry, match problem-solving and communication and presentation skills. Companies stressed hiring those with work ethics and communication skills along with punctuality as well. 
Other business
         In other business, the board:
         Moved to approve the K-12 At-Risk plan as presented. 
Approved the district At-Risk plan and application authorizing the district administration to submit a request to the School Budget Review Committee in the amount of $175,313 for Modified Supplemental Amount for the purpose of At-Risk funding. The funds are to be used for salaries for the Oasis room, Elementary Counselor and portions of other individuals’ salaries who work with at-risk students.
       Approved the SBRC Application in the amount of $69, 989 in modified supplemental aid for open enrollment of students who were not on the 2024 fall OE headcount.
Moved to approve the resignation of Cal Smith as Junior High baseball coach and the appointment of Shannon Kercheval as P/T nurse.
         The board appointed Ahlers Cooney as legal counsel for the 2025 – 26 school year.