Nearly 300 families served by school district’s meals program in June

By James Grob, jgrob@charlescitypress.com

Charles City Superintendent Mike Fisher told the school district Board of Directors that the district served thousands of meals to students in need during the month of June.

“As you can see from these numbers, this is an important program,” Fisher told the board at Monday’s meeting. “There are a lot of hungry individuals in our family.”

Fisher said that in June, 296 families were served breakfast and 293 were served lunch. In total, 6,215 breakfast meals were served and 6,430 lunches were served during the month. Due to federal regulations, meals are all free and delivered.

“We’re making sure we’re taking care of people,” Fisher said. “We also need to give a big shout-out to Taher Inc. for going above and beyond and getting this done.”

Taher Inc. is the district’s food service management service. Charles City’s Summer Food Service Program will run until July 30. Participating students can receive two meals each weekday, and meals are provided to all children that attend Charles City Community Schools without charge.

Instead of meals being picked up at Washington Elementary School, as they were last summer, the district provides multiple neighborhood pickup locations.

In other action on Monday, the board approved an amendment to food service agreement with Taher Inc. for the 2021-22 school year. The amendment outlines the specific parts of Seamless Summer Option (SSO) not covered by regulations and includes language that indicates that price increases are not allowed to the price set in the contract.

The board approved the 1-year extension for food service management services with Taher at the April 26 meeting, but he contract didn’t specifically cover the summer meals.

Also Monday, the board approved a three-year contract extension for Fisher, effective until July 1, 2024, with a $3,000 salary increase plus a $1,000 travel allowance, a 2% total package increase. Fisher’s salary will now be $156,822 per year.

No salary increase was included on the initial agenda, but Director Pat Rottinghaus said that the Negotiations and Compensation committee met after the agenda was sent out, and the committee recommended that a 2% raise was appropriate. Rottinghaus said that teachers had received a 2.48% raise, and para-educators had received a 2.6% raise.

“I would have been very content with no raise,” Fisher said after the vote passed. “Thank you for the vote of confidence, and thank you to the board and the community for continuing to support us.”

In other business on Monday, the board:
• Heard an update from CCHS speech and drama coach Michelle Grob regarding the speech program. Grob presented All-State choral reading group speech performers Rosie Baldus, Anna Herbrechtsmeyer, Sophia Jensen and Makenna Jensen, who performed their winning sketch, “The Good Old Days,” for the board.
• Approved the resignation of Cynthia Caldwell, CCHS custodian, effective July 19.
• Approved the appointment of Jessica Moore, pandemic health and learning associate coordinator, at a salary of $3,000, effective July 1.
• Approved the personnel transfer of Rick Lynch, from para-educator to administrative support at-risk specialist, at a wage of $20.46 per hour.
• Approved the personnel transfer of Teresa Jensen, from educational secretary to administrative support specialist, at a wage of $19.41 per hour.
• Approved the appointment of Mason Mallow, volunteer football coach, effective July 19.
• Approved stipends in the amount of $7,500 to TLC instructional coaches Kellie Boggess, Sheila Etherington, Eric Johanningmeier, Marie Conklin and David Voves, starting July 1.
• Approved extra duty director stipends for Jerry Mitchell ($4,000, director of central services), Tom Harskamp ($2,000, director of student engagement at leadership), Joe Taylor ($2,000, director of culture) and Marcia DeVore ($2,000, director of vision and execution) all effective July 1.
• Approved contract modifications to include a travel allowance for Jerry Mitchell for $2,000 and Joe Taylor, Marcia DeVore and Tom Harskamp for $1,000.
• Approved a 1-year contract extension option with Iowa Department of Human Services and Juvenile Court Services, for the shared Juvenile Court School Liaison position. This is the first extension of a 5-year extension option in the contract.