Nodaway Valley board passes calendar, certified budget

Various legislative matters at the state capitol that are now resolved allowed school districts like Nodaway Valley to move forward with setting calendars and budgets for the upcoming year.

Nodaway Valley’s school board approved the upcoming school year’s calendar and the fiscal year 2024-25 certified budget in a meeting Wednesday, April 17 at the middle school in Fontanelle.

The approved calendar has school beginning Friday, Aug. 23 this fall — the earliest day it can start by law. School will end Friday, May 23, 2025, just before Memorial Day. Wednesdays will be one-hour early dismissals instead of two hours.

“Going back to the one-hour early out gives us a little bit of flexibility in student hours,” Nodaway Valley Superintendent Paul Croghan said. “It’s a very similar calendar to this year. There are roughly 31 extra hours left in the calendar for student hours, but for teachers, we added a professional development day so that we’re still within our 190-day contract.”

The school’s tax rate will be $13.47188 for fiscal year 2025, which is a decrease from FY 2024′s rate of $13.61817.

“That number comes from the three things the board can decide on, then the rest of it is driven by enrollment and the forumula from the state,” Croghan said. “This budgeting process requires two public hearings now, which is new this year.”

A late setting of state supplemental aid by state legislators was one factor school districts were waiting on this spring. Another was a possibility that schools could have started earlier, although that didn’t happen.

A measure reforming Area Education Agencies (AEAs) and another raising teacher pay were two additional points school districts were paying close attention to at the state capitol. The AEA reform is likely to have impacts on how various student populations receive services, while the teacher pay point sets new minimum requirements set for new and experienced teachers in a step-up format the next two years.

“TWe’re working that within our negotiations process and are trying to get contracts out to teachers and staff in the near future,” Croghan said. “That’s a big highlight. Does it benefit our district to be able to pay teachers more? Yes it does, but we have to figure that out and understand that process moving forward for this year, next year and moving forward completely.”