H-W sharing staff with S. Winn, N. Winn

CRESCO - After several open forum requests, see accompanying article, Howard-Winneshiek Supt. Ted Ihns gave his report at the Jan. 8 regular meeting. He first explained, starting Jan. 1, 80-20 job-sharing agreements were made between Howard-Winneshiek Community School District with North Winneshiek and South Winneshiek School Districts.

The three staff members affected are Wendy Twait, Payroll Clerk and Human Resources Director; Brian Swestka, Director of Transportation; and Larry Trende, Director of Buildings & Grounds.

Twait was recently hired to replace Robyn Lane, who took over the business manager’s position after Clint Farlinger resigned. She will be a 20 percent Human Resource Director at North Winn.

Swestka and Trende will be sharing their duties at South Winn.

The perks of the job-sharing is two-fold:

~ The other two smaller schools will be paying 20 percent of the H-W employees’ wages and benefits. In return, they receive expert advice and support for their schools, without having to hire a full-time person.

~ In addition, each district will receive credit for five students for each job-sharing position. That means H-W gets credit for 15 more students, North Winn gets five and South Winn gets 10. For H-W, that equals about $102,000.

Ihns then gave congratulations to Adeline Sopha and Eric Trautsch, who were finalists in the Iowa State Bar Association competition. He also commended Mr. Langreck for “coaching them up.”

In addition, he was happy to announce NEIC Conference Honor Band/Orchestra/Choir was to perform at Crestwood high School on Jan. 16. 

He also noted a Forecast 5 team meeting was held Jan. 9, AEA purchase services savings (H-W saved $81,000 through the program), Directors Todd Hill and Alison Holten to visit the Capitol on Jan. 24 and Joe Beckman will be presenting at a Feb. 5 Professional Development day.

• In other business from the meeting, Terese Jurgensen, Director of Special Education/Student Services, gave a presentation overview of the district's special education department. She started her presentation by saying,  “I want to give a shout out for everything Howard-Winneshiek CSD teachers and staff have done for  our entitled students in special education. I have the privilege of working with the best general and special education teachers anywhere!”

Jurgensen noted the district has seen significant changes in the past four years.  

All of the the improvements have been very positive for every student in the district, not just entitled students.  One of the main goals of the special ed program is to help students and give them the tools to succeed in school and life. If they meet and exceed the goals set by the IEP, they are staffed out. Since the 2013-14 school year, 76 students were staffed out for meeting their goals. “Very few districts staffs students out at that rate,” she said. “But we do.”

Currently, H-W has 175 IEP (Individualized Education Program) students, 12 in preschool, 81 in elementary, 27 in junior high, 34 in high school and seven from Notre Dame that are served within its doors.

There are also around 31 students being schooled outside the district, which costs H-W over $530,000.

Jurgensen said she has seen the special ed programs at Riceville, Decorah, Harmony and LeRoy. “I firmly believe we have the best special education teachers anywhere, but more importantly we are a school district that  understands and supports students from all walks of life. All of our teachers are amazing. 

“One goal is to expand the school’s program to allow the IEP students who enroll out of the district, to get their education closer to home. The other goal is to begin a program that will allow for the extended services needed for students we have at Howard-Winneshiek today. The focus for the new program will be for elementary students.”

Currently, there are 13 HWCSD students who are educated in districts closer to where they live.

In addition, there are four elementary, four middle school and one high school student who enroll at Decorah public schools and six students attend Crossroads Behavioral Academy. 

Mrs. Jurgensen showed the board the money it has been costing the district over a period of several years.  H-W has to pay for the IEP services at other districts. 

She left the board with some final thoughts including, “We have the need today for a more specialized program. Student need reflects this. Student numbers reflect this. Our district is prepared for this program.” 

• A representative of DLR Group gave a presentation on the next design phase, after putting up the athletic stadium this past year. The three projects to look at included reconfiguring the high school parking lot, which would add an additional 50 or so spaces, and updating the baseball and softball fields.

No action was taken.

• Heather Klenke of the technology department spoke on getting a website redesign. She explained with new ADA compliancy laws, the district needs to update its website by June 2018 or risk having it shut down.

Klenke recommended Finalsite to do the work as they are the most ADA compliant site she had found. It is also the most user-friendly.

The board approved her choice.

She then announced the district was able to save around $142,000 through the “E-rate” program. She later explained, the universal service School and Libraries Program, commonly known as “E-rate,” provides discounts to help eligible schools and libraries obtain affordable telecommunication and internet services. 

Funding may be requested in two separate categories of service: Category I (Telecommunication and Internet Access) and Category II (Internal Connections and Basic Maintenance of Internal Connections).

Howard-Winneshiek CSD’s upgrade through the E-rate program funded:

Category I: Fiber upgrade to connect Early Childhood Center and surrounding buildings to our main connection.

Category II: All buildings will be receiving new switches, wireless access points and battery backups.

• Transportation Director Brian Swestka presented two bids on two propane buses to replace others in the fleet. He suggested to do what he has been doing for several years, replacing two buses each year so they don’t all have to be replaced in one year.

He recommended two Blue Bird buses for a total of $194,296 or add $13,420 ($6,710 each bus) by putting in seatbelts for a total of $207,716. He noted it is not mandatory to have seatbelts yet, but it will happen sometime.

Director Todd Hill questioned the need for two buses, stating the extra $100,000 could possibly be put toward one of the three projects presented earlier by DLR Group. 

The vote was 4-1 (Hill voting against) to order two Blue Bird buses with seatbelts.

Preschool teacher Megan Merkle spoke up about the seatbelts, commending the board for ordering seatbelts. She said the preschoolers are too short for their feet to touch the floor, so when there is a bump or sharp turn, they can slide out of the seat. The belts will help keep them safe.

• Facilities Director Larry Trende gave a presentation on a new tractor. “The other tractor is 30 years old,” he told the board. He received three bids and although Koshatka Farm Equipment Inc. was the least expensive, he felt the John Deere from Bodensteiner Implement Co. would work better. 

Total cost for the equipment was $27,100.

• Director Holten brought up the need to have a better parking lot for teachers at the K-8 building, as it gets muddy. She was also concerned about the number of cars parked along the sidewalk after school. She felt it was a safety issue in case emergency personnel needed to get into the school.

The next regular school board meeting will be Monday, Feb. 12 at the High School Media Center.