WACO approves two sharing agreements with Washington

BY BROOKS TAYLOR

Mt. Pleasant News

WAYLAND ? Agreement renewals and awarding bids for roof repairs highlighted the ?to-do? list for the WACO School Board Monday night.

During the board?s regular meeting, the board approved the renewal of the 28E agreement with Washington Community School District for transportation and maintenance services.

Washington will provide a transportation director for WACO through the 2018-19 school year. By sharing the post, WACO will receive $32,580 in state funding, which they will pay Washington for the services.

?I met with the Washington superintendent (Jeff Dicks) and we had a good discussion,? WACO Superintendent Fred Whipple told the board. ?We could not even come close to covering our own costs for a transportation director. Even if this is not as good as we would like, it is better than what we can do.?

WACO will receive $19,710 in state funding, which again, will be paid to Washington, for a maintenance director. The maintenance director will work in the WACO district eight hours per week. Currently, WACO does not have a maintenance director. The agreement is for the 2016-17 school year.

Whipple and the board also talked about sharing other positions with another school district, namely guidance counselors. ?I put out feelers about sharing guidance counselors and received two replies from districts who would like to share an elementary counselor, but none for junior high or high school,? said Whipple.

He said the reason for seeking the sharing of other positions is cost savings. ?Money-wise, with enrollment going in the other direction, you are going to have to run the school on the same money as last year. This is one of the areas where I thought we could save money.?

The superintendent told the board he would keep working on sharing possibilities.

Modern Builders, of Janesville, and Cedar Service, of Cedar Rapids, were awarded bids for roof repair at the junior-senior high school building in Wayland and elementary school in Crawfordsville, respectively.

The district received three bids for repair work at each site. Modern Builders submitted a total bid of $176,310, which was considerably lower than the remaining two bids. Cedar Service will be paid $39,580 for work at the elementary school. The bid was over $16,000 less than the next lowest bid.

?These are great bids,? Whipple said. ?We estimated the total cost at $200,000, so we came close to that figure.? He said work would begin after school has dismissed for summer vacation, noting that the roofs cannot be repaired while there are students in the buildings.

In other agenda items, the board accepted a request from Chrysta Alvine to not charge her rent for the wrestling room. Alvine has a tumbling group that practices weekly in the room. Alvine said she had already established her participation fees before the board approved the new rent charge for the wrestling room. If Alvine were required to pay rent, she said it would amount to $1,500, which would be cost prohibitive.

Transportation matters saw the board approve the sale of two school buses and purchase of two buses currently leased to WACO.

Final action saw the board hire Michael Stutzman to provide snow removal service at $10 per hour. The board also cast its vote for Jim Hussey of the Mid-Prairie School District for the Iowa Association of School Boards District 9 seat.

WACO board members meet again in regular session on Monday, Jan. 18, 2016, at 6:30 p.m., in the media center at the junior-senior high school.