EU School Board organizes for 2025

AFTON - The East Union school board held their annual organizational meeting for 2024-2025 Monday, Nov. 18, which reorganized various positions and abilities of the board. Little change was made to positions assigned last year.

Adam Tallmon and Carol Eckels were voted in to continue as board president and vice president, respectively. School Business Official Rhiannon Tessum will also continue as school board secretary and treasurer.

Date and times for meetings will have official changes to reflect a seasonally changing activity schedule. The third Monday of every month will continue to hold a board meeting, with the starting time of each meeting changing depending on the month. Meetings between November through March will be held at 5:30 p.m., and meetings between April and October will begin at 6:30 p.m.

The board also approved the ability for Tallmon and Tessum to officially sign for district financial purchases. The district will continue to utilize financial accounts at Northwest Bank, UMB Bank and the Iowa School Joint Investment Trust. Authority to use Tallmon’s signature for stamp contracts to sporting events and emergency warrants was given to Tessum and District Administrative Assistant Dawn Arnold.

An annual review of the board policies will take place over the next month, with a motion of review and approval. scheduled for December’s meeting.

The official newspaper of East Union will continue to be the Afton Star Enterprise. Official legal council will continue with Ahlers & Cooney, P.C.

School districts require Level I and Level II investigators who investigate allegations of abuse of students by district employees. Both school principals, Elementary Principal Joan Gordon and Secondary Principal Jason Riley were appointed as Level I investigators, and the active Union County Sheriff was named as a Level II investigator. Level I investigators gather evidence, and then turns over investigations to the Level II investigator.

The Student Achievement and Teacher Quality Act requires each district to host a Teacher Quality Committee comprised of equal representation across administrators and teachers. Superintendent Tim Kuehl, Gordon and Riley will represent the administrative portion of the comittee.

One role was discussed heavily between board members. The County Conference Board representative will continue with Tallmon. Eckels had offered to take over the position during the meeting.

Tallmon and board member Jamie Buffington were nominated to the facility committee, which will identify and prioritize district capital and maintenance projects.

A variety of coordinators were also appointed. Tessum was approved for equity coordinator, Counselor Sara Thompson was approved as homeless coordinator, Riley and Gordon were approved as 504 coordinator and Maintenance Director Mike Nelson was approved as asbestos coordinator.

In other East Union school board news...

East Union accepted the district audit for the 2023 fiscal year. Both revenue and expenses decreased from 2022 to 2023. The district’s general fund balance increased by 28.78%. A recommendation by the auditors for stronger segregation of duties around financial reporting and management was noted, with the district performing a review of their control policies.

With low participation in East Union’s junior high girls’ basketball, East Union will have their students join the Murray team. Only two players had shown interest. Kuehl described the agreement as a “one year only” plan, hoping to bring back the sport within East Union next year.

Secondary Spanish teacher Ashley Craig gave a proposal for a student trip to Peru in summer 2027. The school gave their approval for the trip, as long as logistics and responsibilities of the trip were managed independently of the school.

Two policy changes were approved. The school added an alternate diploma policy, which can help students meet the needs of a standard high school diploma through alternate preparation. The school also fixed a discrepancy between the website and handbook in regards to their graduation requirements policy. The school’s website had outdated requirements for graduation.

Work in the Infant Toddler Center will continue, with a previously unused west wing of the building to be renovated for potential future use. While the school will not use the wing when the building opens sometime after Christmas, the decreased cost for renovating the wing now rather than later made sense for the school board.

The board approved the disposal of a list of outdated and aged nonfiction books compiled by the school librarian. With the football season over, various obsolete equipment was also approved to be disposed.

The following resignations and contracts were approved.

Resignations: Mike Cooley, secondary ag teacher, FFA advisor, JH boys basketball coach (effective June 30); Steve Kinyon, elementary PE, bus route driver (effective June 30); Jake Hayes, JH Wrestling Coach.

Contracts: Alex Kalbach, JH girls track; Mike Cooley, HS girls softball; Nate McCollough, HS basketball assistant; Amber Lacina, elementary para.