Keota School Board Discusses Donating Rooms for Daycare

KEOTA – During the rescheduled Keota School Board meeting on Jan. 24, the board talked extensively about donating part of the school as a daycare. The current plan is to wall off the two preschool rooms and convert them into a daycare, to be run by a private business. Under this plan, the preschool classes will be relocated to the current Kindergarten rooms and other elementary classrooms will move down the hall to compensate. Ideally, this new daycare will be run with little needed oversight from the school.

Elementary and Middle School Principal Seth Milledge stated that he wants to require any daycare service hosted on school property to be registered with the Iowa Department of Human Services. He noted however that it is hard for a private entity to jump through those hoops. Superintendent and High School Principal Lisa Brenneman noted that the daycare consortium, which was created with representatives from the towns of Sigourney, Richland and Keota to create and manage daycares, could help with this. She noted however that the consortium is still in its infancy and may not be ready for several years. Board members Jim Tinnes and Billie Kindred noted that it is important to have the daycare open by August, to coincide with the proposed switch to a four-day school week. Tinnes further noted that he remembered one applying teacher he’d spoken to, who had removed their application due to the community’s lack of a daycare.

Brenneman and Milledge are members of the consortium board. Both noted that they wish to leave the consortium board, due to a lack of time to dedicate to it, with a member of the school board possibly taking their place. Kindred stated that the consortium is “spinning its wheels” and that the district should help new daycare operators get the ball rolling if needed. Brenneman stated that she and Milledge do not have time to walk a new daycare operator through the registration process and definitely do not have time to start a daycare from scratch.

Milledge noted that part of the reason the consortium was struggling to make progress was because the different cities were at different points of the daycare process. Richland’s daycare is set to be built in April, while work on Keota’s daycare cannot begin until the end of the school year and Sigourney doesn’t have a building yet. He stated there are “chasms” between the different cities, when they need to “be in lockstep.” He noted the consortium could be great, but is not at that point yet. Milledge brought up the idea of working with the Washington YMCA, who help manage a daycare in Washington and help manage the new city pool. Milledge stated he would meet with the YMCA to discuss this.

Brenneman brought up the current legislative plans to revamp the state’s Area Education Agencies by cutting services and giving school districts the option to use their AEA flow through dollars to hire outside companies to provide services. She stated that the AEAs provide good service and that these changes could hurt rural schools. Brenneman relayed a story told to her by an education lobbyist, who claimed to have seen one legislator explaining what AEAs did to three other legislators who did not know. Brenneman also brought up the bill’s planned raises for teachers, stating she was concerned about the sustainability of these raises. She noted that the state has offered to give additional money to schools during the first year the raises go into effect, but not afterward.

Milledge stated that he didn’t understand why AEAs were looked down upon and that the district could not do without the help of AEA consultants to improve teaching and help troubled kids. Milledge stated that the AEAs have grown over the years because schools asked for more services. Milledge stated that, in his opinion, restructuring the AEAs was a “grave mistake,” that would increase costs substantially by forcing schools to rely on outside help, and cause the “chasm between rich and poor schools” to grow bigger.

Brenneman stated that the new online alternative program, where struggling students take online classes in the school computer lab until they are back on pace, was working well and had saved six potential dropouts. The superintendent also discussed the success of the school’s Edgenuity digital classes. Currently, the school offers more than 100 core and elective classes for students through the online service, which students are able to take at their own pace. Brenneman noted that one student had enjoyed the Spanish class enough to finish it in only three weeks.

The board met with Brian McMillin of Neapolitan Labs, a company that creates websites for schools, cities and non-profits, to discuss creating a new school website. McMillin claimed his company would make the school website more user friendly and modern, work better on mobile devices, and be easier to update. A new website will cost $6,000 to design and $1,500 per year for the hosting and maintenance costs. The district’s current website provider charges $2,250 per year.

Brenneman explained that the district had already used its five built in snow days and that the district was allowed to have up to five virtual snow days in the future. Packets will be sent home with children containing work to be done on virtual snow days, with teachers available for remote office hours. Virtual snow days will be announced on new stations.

The board discussed revamping the district’s travel reimbursement policy, which currently pays 43 cents per mile. Brenneman noted that employees rarely travel for conferences. Kindred stated he didn’t know why the district should raise the rate if employees don’t travel much. Board member Hammen suggested matching Washington’s rate of 50 cent per mile, $125 for hotels, and $35 per day. A new written policy will be presented at the next board meeting.

The board approved filing an application to request an increase in At/Risk Dropout Prevention funding from the state by $74,141. The board approved joining the Teacher/Para Educator Registered Apprenticeship Program, a state program designed to fast track associates to become teachers. Associates will be able to attend classes at William Penn University to become certified teachers, paid for by the district and reimbursed by the state.