It’s back to square one for finding a superintendent for the Mount Ayr Community school district.
A possible three-way superintendent sharing agreement with Bedford and Clearfield fell apart when the Bedford board voted Tuesday night not to share superintendent Joe Drake with Mount Ayr Community, which would have been the third part of the sharing agreement.
The board also made a new statement of athletic sharing philosophy for the future with the Diagonal school board, increased meal prices, accepted the resignation of ag instructor Justin Akers, and handled several other items at the special meeting.
Superintendent sharing
The board discussed a three-way superintendent sharing agreement with Bedford and Clearfield at the meeting, but the discussion proved to be in vain when a telephone call was received from the Bedford board declining the addition of the Mount Ayr Community district to the current sharing arrangement.
School board president Rod Shields and board member Larry Giles had attended a discussion with Bedford superintendent Joe Drake and two members each of the Bedford and Clearfield school boards Wednesday, April 26 in Bedford.
Several possible sharing arrangements had been discussed.The Bedford board’s proposal would have had Bedford and Mount Ayr Community each paying 42.5 percent of Drake’s total compensation package and Clearfield paying 15 percent.
Mount Ayr Community’s savings of $49,195 under the plan would have been split with Bedford, leaving the district with $24,597.50 in savings.
The Mount Ayr Community board had suggested each board pay a share based on school enrollment. The total savings for Bedford and Mount Ayr Community would be added together and divided by the two districts.
The Bedford board stuck with its proposal and board president Rod Shields noted that he understood why as it would take Drake more than half of his time getting up to speed in the MAC district the first year.
Larry Giles said that he felt it was good to have Clearfield board representatives at the meeting. Clearfield board members Becky Kerns and Patty Parrish were at the meeting Monday night in Mount Ayr as well to see how the discussion progressed.
Rod Shields noted that there had been some contacts from people in the community expressing the idea that the district should have its own full-time superintendent. He noted that he had invited them to come and share their concerns at the meeting, but none appeared to be present.
When the meeting was opened up for people to make comments, no one present expressed anything but support for the sharing of superintendent Drake.
Superintendent Reiter said he had a conversation with Drake about being willing to keep in contact after he moves on at the end of the year because of several projects that will be underway such as the roof project at the high school and the FEMA tornado shelter.
At this point in the discussion, board president Rod Shields was contacted by a Bedford board member by phone.
The Bedford board member told Shields that at this time the Bedford board did not think it was in their best interests to share Drake’s services.
The disappointment in the room at the news was very evident.
The deal breaker, according to people like Michelle Sobotka of Clearfield, a supporter of the sharing who was in attendance, was a call to Drake over the weekend. She noted that she had talked directly to Drake, and there appeared to be a lack of trust from the Bedford board created by a call froom a Mount Ayr Community board member to Joe Drake after the tentative plan had been worked out.
Sobotka said that the board member had made overtures to Drake to see if he had interest in being hired to serve only the Mount Ayr Community school district. Once this was heard by Bedford board members, the degree of trust needed to have a sharing agreement was gone, she said.
Mount Ayr Community school board member P. J. West responded that it was her concern that whatever had been stated was not a board decision. “I am shocked and discouraged that something like this happened,” she said.
Board member Larry Giles said he had had a conversation with Drake over the weekend when Drake called him to say that the Bedford board would be staying with the decision to split the sharing money the MAC board would receive from the state.
“I asked if the boards did not agree on a sharing agreement, what would be his status and he said he would stay in Bedford,” Giles said.
“There was no discussion of specific dollars or no contract offer,” Giles said.
Rod Shields noted that he had had conversations with Drake, but only about how he should respond to interviews with area media about the proposal.
Clearfield board member Becky Kerns noted that the process of discussions had been a roller coaster ride.
“I felt that everything was good coming out of the Wednesday night meeting but what happened over the weekend blew the trust that was needed to make a sharing agreement work and this kind of an agreement will not work if there isn’t some trust between the groups going in,” she said.
“Bedford and Clearfield are very happy with the sharing arrangement they have had over the last five years and our boards were content to leave the situation the way it has been for the last five years,” she said.
Once the news that the sharing arrangement would not solve the MAC superintendent issue, the board quickly decided to try a search for its own superintendent.
P. J. West noted that in Drake the board felt that it would have had the right person for a sharing arrangement, but that she had not seen any other sharing options that would give the district the time, commitment and potential long term support.
“I agree we need to go the superintendent search route,” board member Duane Schafer said. “We put all our eggs in Joe’s basket and hoped someone didn’t screw that up but that’s not going to work now.”
The board voted 5-0 to open a superintendent search and plan to advertise for the opening this weekend.