Personnel tops MAC board action

At their meeting Wednesday, August 8, the Mount Ayr Community Schools board of directors approved a long list of personnel decisions.
The board approved the hiring of Diagonal music instructor Wildalys Cruz to teach elementary and high school music from 12-2 p.m. four days a week until a full-time music instructor can be found. Mount Ayr will compensate Cruz $20,973 including mileage.
Other new hires included:
• Karen Pettinger in food service;
• Delbert Stevens in food service;
• Tasha Drake as an elementary associate with additional duties handling finances for the Junior Raider program;
• Jennifer Tipton as a high school associate;
• Daniel Showalter as assistant cross country coach;
• Mabel Trujillo as varsity concession stand coordinator.
The contracts with Tina McCreary and Shannon Hauge were amended to increase their duty hours from seven to eight hours per day in food service.
Two individuals were approved as volunteer coaches:
• James Smith in football;
• Eric Ehlen in football and junior high wrestling.
Colt Thompson and Jim Murphy were approved as volunteer football coaches pending completion of their coaching certification.
The board accepted four resignations at Monday’s meeting:
• Holly Kerwin as an elementary associate;
• Stephanie Hosfield as a secondary associate;
• Dustin Larsen as middle school cross country coach;
• Kinda Larsen as assistant high school cross country coach.
The addition of three new administrators in the district required the reassignment of certain legal duties:
• Dean of Students Mike Maron and District Nurse Stacy Andreasen were named as Level I complaint investigators;
• elementary principal Amy Bautista and secondary principal Josh Vanderflught were named Level II complaint investigators in each other’s buildings.
• Vanderflught was named district Equity Coordinator for educational issues;
• Macy Jarred was named district Equity Coordinator for employment issues;
• Bautista was named district Title IX coordinator;
• superintendent Jason Shaffer retained his duty as district Affirmative Action coordinator.
In matters related to personnel, the board:
• approved an increase in substitute teacher pay to $135 per day;
• approved a memo of understanding with Western Governors University for grants to provide training for teacher associates to obtain their teaching certification;
• approved a memo of understanding with Southwestern Community College to provide a training for high school students to become teacher associates while still in high school.
Other business
In other action the board:
• approved renewal of the agreement with MATURA Headstart.
• approved the student-parent handbooks for both the elementary and secondary buildings;
• approved the handbook for the Flexible Education Program. The handbook outlines the procedures and expectations for students needing an alternative educational setting. Principal Vanderflught noted the students would still fulfill all requirements for graduation and would be eligible to participate in extra-curricular activities.
• approved a five-year extension of participation in the Instructional Support Program that provides over $366,000 per year to the district’
• approved an agreement with the Southwest Iowa Apex Consortium to provide Level III behavior services for students in sixth grade and up.
• approved the district’s Return to Learn Plan as required by the state.
• held a lengthy discussion on the large number of fund-raisers by various district student organizations. While no action was taken at Monday’s meeting, it was the consensus of the board that the fund-raisers are placing an unsustainable financial burden on district patrons.