Oskaloosa School Board met Monday and voted to change insurance coverage to a new pool. The board accepted Arthur J. Gallagher and the Iowa Public School Insurance Program for property and casualty coverage. The school district has been a with long time insurer EMC, who insures more than 300 school districts in Iowa. Local representative Bob Walton spoke of the long history the district has had with EMC and the reservations he had with the IPSIP proposal. Business manager Chad Vink said the board looked at IPSIP last year, but felt a strong draw to remain with the local agent in Walton. This year, IPSIP will allow, if desired, to retain the local agent. Walton was asked if he would be the agent. “I just came into this on Friday,” said Walton. “I don’t know enough about this.” Board member Nik Rule asked if a decision was needed immediately. Vink said the policy would begin July 1 so a need to vote was imminent. Board member Tom Richardson and Kraig Van Hulzen moved the motion forward. All voted in favor except for Neal Hadden, who stated he had a desire to wait a year to take a look at IPSIP. Director Shawn Moyer was not present for the meeting. Board members were set to approve the tentative contract with the Oskaloosa Support Staff Association and master contract amendments. The agreement had been tabled from the June 8 meeting because new information had been received and the board had not had time to review. However, members of the OSSA had not signed the agreement so the contract has been moved to the July 13 meeting.
The board accepted the resignation of Emily Neuwsma (NEWS-MUH), who was approved at the last meeting, but decided to not sign the contract due to family reasons. The board approved the hiring of Allen Herman as a high school special education level I at a salary of $35,515.
The board agreed to allow the superintendent sell school property. The property is sections of the old maple gym floor. Superintendent Russ Reiter said there were sections of 4 by 4 and 8 by 8. He said the going rate is $1 per square foot. A 4 by 4 section would be $16 while a 4 by 8 would be $32.
Following information from Van Hulzen, the board agreed to work with realtor Lisa Tucker to sell the school-built home at 503 S. M Street. Asking price will be $185,000. The board approved a 2 percent increase for administrators. Moyer provided an email to Board president Carl Drost and vice chair Tom Richardson regarding the raises. He said he was in favor of the raises, but would like to see performance based pay considered in the future. His suggestion was that 90 percent of the students show one-year improvement on assessments in order for the administrator to receive additional compensation. Drost said he would also like to look into the issue, but the incentive was not tied to the compensation for 2015-16.
