Charles City school board sets salary, schedule for new superintendent

By James Grob, jgrob@charlescitypress.com

The Charles City School Board of Education agreed at its meeting Monday to establish and publish a salary range for a new district superintendent.

The salary range will be listed at $150,000 to $170,000. Current Superintendent Dan Cox’s salary is $155,225. The district will be taking applications for a new superintendent until April 29. The directors also agreed to set the hiring date for the new superintendent as Monday, May 21.

Cox recently announced his resignation in order to accept a new position as chief administrator of the Northwest Area Education Agency, based in Sioux City. Two weeks ago, the board hired Grundmeyer Leader Search to help with the hiring.

Also on Monday, the board heard public comments from sixth-grade student Josiah Cunnings, who organized a student walkout last week. Cunnings told the board he had organized the protest without help from teachers or staff, and explained to the board how the national trend of gun violence in schools had frightened him and other students, which was why he organized the walkout.

The board also heard Monday from six middle school teachers who had attended a Deeper Learning Conference in San Diego in March. The teachers shared their plans for implementation of what they learned at the conference during the next school year, and all said that the conference had a positive professional impact on their work.

In other business Monday, the board:

— Unanimously agreed to hire Taher Inc. as the district’s food service management company, contingent on approval from the state. Taher Inc. and Lunchtime Solutions both submitted bids for the job. The evaluation team recommended Taher, which currently performs the services.

— Unanimously approved the resignations of Angela Willey, sixth-grade social studies teacher; Rachel Wolf, 7-12 family and consumer science teacher; and Ruth Field, ELL instructional assistant.

— Unanimously approved the appointments of Alexandra Holbach, special education teacher; and Jodie Johnson, middle school and high school agricultural teacher.

— Unanimously approved the transfers of Elizabeth Van Hagen, Strategist I, from Washington to Lincoln; Ryan Fink, Strategist II, from Lincoln to Washington; Jodie Welter, Strategist I at the middle school, to include Immaculate Conception; and Jenisha Garden, Strategist I, from Lincoln to the middle school.

— Unanimously approved the following summer workers, at $9 per hour: Theo Arndt, Carol Cole, Misty Fielder, Terri Hay, Wendy LaBarge, Melany Pleggenkuhle, Dylan Salinas, Christine Schlader, Julie Tjabring, and Rachel Sullivan.

— Unanimously approved to set the date of May 14 for a public hearing on the proposed 2018-19 school calendar.