Charles City school board reviews referendum survey

By Travis Fischer, tkfischer@charlescitypress.com

The Charles City Community School Board reviewed the results of a community survey to inform its plans for high school renovations during its regular meeting on Monday, April 14.

The evening began with a short public hearing for the FY25-26 budget, which came and went without comment.

Following the public hearing with the regular meeting, the board teleconferenced with Matt Basye, principal architect with FEH, to go over the results of the post-referendum survey. The district received more than 600 responses to the survey asking for opinions on the failed 2023 bond referendum to renovate the high school building to gauge how the district should proceed with another attempt this fall.

Receiving a roughly even split between people who said they voted for or against the previous bond, the survey offered insight on what the community would prioritize moving forward.

Of those that voted “no” on the previous bond, the most frequently cited reason was that the $28 million project would have raised taxes too much. Many felt the additional cost of the auditorium was too high while others thought the overall project was too expensive.

For those that voted “yes,” the overall need for the high school to be updated was the most frequently cited reason, with the desire for better security, better facilities to retain staff and students, and making a better learning environment all taking high priority.

Notably, the need for a new auditorium was the least cited reason among the “yes” voters.

“This is definitely showing that we have a split there,” said Basye. “I don’t think that’s a surprise to anyone.”

Basye said he has also been meeting with members of the staff and the community about how a new project should be designed and presented, and that the information gathering may slightly push back the timetable by a meeting.

“We are still getting information so we feel we have everything we need to develop options,” said Basye.

In other business, Lincoln Elementary Principal Chealsey Moen provided the board with an update on recent happenings in the building, focusing on the school’s increased efforts to encourage parent engagement.

From recognizing students for going above-and-beyond with surprise parent visits to bringing in families for programs like Fine Arts Night and Family Fun Night, the school is working to increase parent engagement with a variety of programs and events.

The board also heard from middle school language arts teacher Melanie Ban Soelen, who gave a presentation about the Middle School Exit Survey, a long-form writing assignment that 8th grade students are working on to close out their middle school careers.

Moving into action items, the board approved an agreement with BrightArrow and SchoolBlocks to replace School Messenger Communicate and Monk Development for the district’s communications and website services, respectively.

The board also spoke with Curriculum Director Dr. Jennifer Schilling along with science teachers Julie Holub and Steph Herrell about adopting OpenSciED as the district’s new 5-12 science curriculum.

In a rare bit of public feedback, the adoption of OpenSciEd invoked criticism during the public comment portion of the meeting. Brandi Lantz, a parent in the Charles City district and teacher in Mason City, has piloted the curriculum before and reported that her students found the material too dependent on reading, without enough hands-on material to keep students interested.

“Most of them consider it boring,” said Lantz. “They were not engaged.”

The Charles City teachers acknowledged that the material could be considered dry on its own, but were confident that it could be supplemented with activities by teachers.

“Those things are things we’re going to have to pull in like any other,” said Herrell. “I took a spin on it and adjusted it to my own teaching style.”

“I am pretty confident in the direction we’re going,” said Schilling.

After approving the curriculum, the board went into a series of closed sessions for contract negotiations.