By Rich Wicks | Times Vedette
At the joint meeting of the Adair-Casey and Guthrie Center school boards on March 19, a public hearing on the proposed school calendar for school year 2025-2026 was held. No members of the general public attended.
Superintendent Josh Rasmussen explained that the date of the first school day for the upcoming year may still be changed, depending on what the Iowa legislature does.
“There are bills in both the House and Senate to change the start date. I don’t think there’s enough support, specifically in the House, to get it done,” Rasmussen said. “But if they would move that start date up, we would probably come back to the board with a little different calendar, probably starting that Wednesday after the State Fair.”
“We had a group of parents come up and… they want to take on replacing our dugouts down at the baseball field,” Rasmussen said. “Along with that, I think the bleachers can probably also be refreshed.”
Rasmussen said the group is willing to volunteer to do the work on the dugouts if the school provides the needed materials.
Later in the meeting, the fitness center/weight room maintenance plan was discussed. It was estimated that maintenance would cost approximately $1,000 per year.
Board member Brian Sheeder asked if any of the maintenance money would be used to assure safety. He then brought up another safety concern.
“There’s an elementary playground that’s 30 years old, made of wood and held together by nails,” Sheeder said. “We know what happened. It’s a proven safety issue, ripping kids’ legs up… There’s not been any conversation about keeping that stuff up; we want to buy new… Neglecting and overlooking that is going to put guilt at our feet, and I’m not going to be part of it.”
Rasmussen said he’ll look into what’s needed at the playground.
Regarding the recent school days canceled due to late winter storms, Rasmussen explained how those have been handled.
“We missed two days earlier, and the plan is to bring teachers for two days, and students won’t make those up,” Rasmussen said.
Rasmussen added that the “virtual day” schoolwork seems to be going well when needed due to weather cancellations.
Austin Sonntag, representing Snyder & Associates Engineering, presented information about the roofing project to be done at the Adair-Casey school building. He said the cost of the project is expected to be around $500,000. Sonntag said bids for the project will soon be sought, and he described the expected timeline.
“The construction period is basically your summer break,” Sonntag said.
The Adair-Casey School Board formally approved bid letting for the project.
On March 24, two public hearings are set regarding the proposed property tax rate. The hearings will be 6 p.m. at Guthrie Center High School and 7 p.m. at Adair-Casey Junior High.
The next regular meeting of the boards will be Wednesday, April 16 at 7 p.m. at Adair-Casey. The public is welcome.
