MAC board hires music teachers, debates start times
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Personnel decisions and school start times were among many items of discussion at the regular meeting of the Mount Ayr Community Schools board of directors Monday, April 14.
Personnel
The board approved a long list of open positions filled since their last meeting.
Giovanni Walker
5-12 Band Director
Topping the list was the hiring of the husband and wife team of Jacy and Giovanni Walker as K-12 choir and 5-12 band directors, respectively.
Both are graduates of Culver-Stockton College in Canton, MO, and were married when both taught in school districts in southern Missouri. Jacy Walker is currently the choir director in the North Andrew school district in Rosendale, MO. Giovanni Walker is currently teaching in the Mound City, MO, school district.
Other positions filled at Monday’s meeting include Josh Vanderflught as middle school baseball coach and Jacob Brewer as assistant high school baseball coach for the upcoming 2025 summer season.
Filling positions for the 2025-26 school year include Nick Ekel as high school cross country coach, Mitch Doolittle as girls wrestling coach, and Kelly Shaffer and Amanda Cannon as middle school girls basketball coaches.
Jacy Walker
K-12 vocal director
In a separate item related to personnel, the board approved salary schedules for certified, non-certified and administrative positions. District finance director Stephanie Newton explained the schedules represented an approximate 2.36% increase for each group.
School start times
On a 3-2 split, the board approved the district calendar for the 2025-2026 school year, with members PJ West, Craig Winemiller, and Zach Lynch voting yes and Russ Schuitema and Samantha Elliott voting no.
The main point of dissension focused on the earlier start times for the elementary and secondary buildings.
Next year school will begin at 8:15 a.m. at the elementary and at 8:20 a.m. at the middle/high school.
Both represent a 15 minute earlier start at both buildings. Dismissal times of 3:20 p.m. at the elementary and 3:25 p.,m. at the middle/high school will remain unchanged.
At the elementary, students will be allowed in the building at 7:45 a.m. and be given the choice to head directly to breakfast or wait in their designated area until 7:50 a.m. when they can enter their classrooms.
Bus routes will be adjusted five minutes earlier than presently scheduled.
Superintendent Jason Shaffer explained the reasoning behind the change was two-fold.
First, the change would provide additional instructional time when students are already in the building.
Second, the change would correct a clerical error in the way the district reports minutes of instructional time in state reports. Since Iowa began allowing districts to count instructional time in minutes rather than days, the district had reported 3:25 p.m. as its dismissal time at the elementary. Technically, the elementary uses a staggered dismissal time of 3:18 p.m. to facilitate younger students boarding busses before the older students are dismissed at 3:22 p.m. to board busses which leave the building at 3:25 p.m.
“We want to make sure it’s correct moving forward because of the way this calendar end date is,” Shaffer said.
Shaffer explained that if the district came up short of minutes at the end of the school year, time missed would have to be made up after Memorial Day. The change in start time would help prevent that necessity.
Board member Russ Schuitema questioned why not just add the additional minutes at the end of the school day.
Shaffer replied that the earlier time captures more instructional time especially at the middle/high school because more students there are gone in the afternoons for school events and other reasons.
Other business
In other business, the board:
• approved the hiring of Vantage Architects to design the CTE Career Academy building to be built on the lot south of the middle school parking lot. Vantage will be paid $127,820 for its services.
• approved the sale of obsolete equipment to include pottery wheels, two vans, a bus, a mower, and a wood joiner. The district will use Purple Wave to conduct an online auction.
• approved a large number of updates to board policies as recommended by the Iowa Association of School Boards to comply with recent legislation. The majority of the changes removed the words “gender identity” from all policies.
• approved the quote of $14,894 from Maryville Glass to install two new ADA compliant double-doors at the east and west entrances to the middle/high school building.
• approved a quote from Rick Stull to make structural repairs above three large windows on the north side of the elementary building for $14,570.
• approved a quote of $43,900 from Alva Bontrager to replace all sheet metal on the bus barn.
• approved the district’s special education delivery plan and the Career Academy plan as presented.
• approved the 28e sharing agreement with Southwestern Community College to offer concurrent enrollment classes in the areas of arts and sciences, carpentry, auto collision repair, electrical, welding, and health sciences.
• approved a purchasing agreement with Green Hills AEA for food, small wares, and other items.
• approved out-of-state trips for the senior trip to Kansas City and for Aubree Shields to compete in the Kansas Invitational Track Meet.
