Spring break part of 2022-23 calendar approved by Glenwood City School Board
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GLENWOOD CITY — Following a few months of discussion, input from district parents and a few tweaks, the Glenwood City Board of Education officially adopted the 2022-23 school calendar during its March 14 meeting.
Next year’s calendar features a week-long Spring break which is slated for March 13-17, another week-long respite for Thanksgiving and six days off over the Christmas and New Year’s holidays.
School is scheduled to begin with transitional days on Monday through Wednesday, August 29 to 31. The official first day of school will be Thursday, September 1. The last day for students will be June 2, 2023 barring any make-up days.
Graduation will be held Saturday morning May 20, 2023.
The calendar also has eight early release dates including two in September (2nd and 30th) and one each in October (13th), November (4th), February (9th), March (3rd), May (12th) and June (2nd).
“We took a survey (of district parents) and tried to listen to it as much as possible and still meet the parameters for our school calendar,” stated district administrator Tim Johnson.
The Board also gave its approval of an amended version of the district’s “2021-22 Safe to Return to School Plan”.
Johnson told board members that the plan is a requirement for the ESSER (Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief) Funds that identifies categories and how the district will address them within the guidelines of safety.
“Things are as back to pre-COVID as we can while still keeping in the reality that we may need to go back,” stated Johnson.
The newly amended two-page plan covers components in 11 areas including universal and correct wearing of masks and masking plan, modifying facilities to allow for physical distancing, hand washing and respiratory etiquette, cleaning and maintaining healthy facilities including improved ventilation, efforts to provide vaccinations to school communities, provide appropriate accommodations for children with disabilities with respect to health and safety policies, coordinate with state and local health officials and provide a continuity of services to address student academic need and well as student and staff social, emotional, mental health and other needs.
The school district will no longer be contact tracing, conducting disease investigations, providing notifications to parent of close contacts, or requiring masks to be worn to return to school prior to the end of a quarantine period for a close contact unless ordered by the federal, state or local authorities. Glenwood City will also discontinue updating the dashboard on its website.
Individuals, however, that test positive for COVID must complete the quarantine period of either five or ten days according to CDC guidelines. Students exhibiting obvious signs of COVID will be sent home and can return after a negative COVID test and are symptom free for 24 hours.
Updates and improvements to the high school baseball field are on target to begin June 1st.
Johnson told the board that the permitting from the State had come through that gives the district the amount of cubic yards that needs to be moved because of the wet lands.
He said the proposal is to move the baseball field about 30 feet to the south creating a purposeful drainage area on both sides of the field. The entire field will also be raised a foot in height to improve drainage which will be aided by drain tiles throughout the infield and outfield areas similar to the one that was installed in the football field.
Fencing will be replaced and footings poured but Johnson said that due to high material costs, some structures like a concession stand would likely have to wait. The goal he said was to have the field playable for the 2023 season.
The board has also began to work on next year’s staff compensations package.
Johnson told the board that the district pays approximately $4.8 million in salaries. He noted that for the past few years, the district has tried to use the Consumer Price Index (CPI) as a guide for salary hikes. But Johnson said that will be difficult to maintain this next year as the CPI is currently 4.75 percent with each percentage potentially costing the district about $50,000 in additional wages. In addition, the district will start the next fiscal year with $190,000 less due to declining enrollment and no new state aids.
In other business the board:
•Approved the retirement requests of Buildings and grounds coordinator Bob Swanepoel and paraprofessional Diana Sanders. Johnson told the board that the pair have over 60 years of combined service to the district. Sanders retirement will become effective at the end of the school year while Swanepoel’s end date will be June 30.
•Approved Jim Williams, Robert Vanderloop and Randy Ketola as volunteer track and field coaches.
•Approved Ryan McVeigh as a volunteer coach for baseball and Sarah Kaiser as volunteer coaches for softball.
•Accepted the resignation of Caitlin Weeks as the high school marketing and business education teacher/DECA advisor. In a related matter, the board approved a posting to fill that vacant position.
•Learned the district was awarded a $15,000 food service supply chain grant and a $19,000 “Get Kids Ahead Initiative” grant to support mental health training.
•Athletics director Jake Score gave a review of the fall and winter sports season which included participation numbers broken down by class and gender and a snap shot of academic achievements.
