BENTON COMMUNITY SCHOOL DISTRICT 

IN THE COUNTIES OF TAMA, BENTON, AND IOWA, STATE OF IOWA 

BENTON REGULAR BOARD MEETING, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 19, 2019, 7:00 PM 

BENTON COMMUNITY CENTRAL ADMINISTRATION OFFICE BOARD ROOM 

304 1ST STREET, VAN HORNE, IOWA 52346 

CALL TO ORDER: 7:00 P.M. 

ATTENDANCE: Directors Feuerbach, Ludeking, Stepanek and Thompson. 

ABSENT: Directors Becker, Nolte, and Reinhardt. 

The meeting was called to order and a quorum declared present. 

ALSO PRESENT: Rob Arnold, Gary Zittergruen, Doug Embray, Mike Timmerman, Sue Gates and Mary Jo Hainstock. 

DELEGATIONS, COMMUNICATIONS, CONSIDERATIONS OF ADDITIONAL ITEMS FOR THE AGENDA/ OPEN FORUM: 

The School Board President from Vinton CSD presented Gary Zittergruen a recognition resolution honoring his service to the public school system and tenure at Benton CSD. (Proclamation included for board record.) 

President Stepanek presented Superintendent Zittergruen IASB retirement plaque recognizing years of service to public education. 

President Stepanek read a ‘thank-you’ card from participant leaders for Relay of Life Event conducted at Bobcat Stadium. 

President Stepanek read a ‘thank-you’ card from Superintendent Zittergruen for the Board’s retirement reception held for him. 

Superintendent Zittergruen shared that Tim Lyons was awarded the ‘Tom Horn’ Transportation Award, which will be presented at the July Iowa Public Transportation Conference held in Des Moines. This award recognizes outstanding director leadership of school district transportation departments. 

Action #204 APPROVAL OF AGENDA 

Motion by Ludeking and second by Thompson to approve the agenda as presented. 

MOTION CARRIED 

ALL MEMBERS PRESENT VOTING AYE 

Action #205 APPROVAL OF MINUTES: 

Motion by Ludeking and second by Feuerbach to approve the minutes of the May 15 Board Meeting and the May 30 Special Board Meeting. 

MOTION CARRIED 

ALL MEMBERS PRESENT VOTING AYE 

Action #206 WARRANTS 

Motion by Thompson and second by Feuerbach to approve warrants as presented with addition of $144.00 Music Association invoice to Activity Fund. 

MOTION CARRIED 

ALL MEMBERS PRESENT VOTING AYE 

Action #207 FINANCIAL REPORTS 

Motion by Feuerbach, second by Thompson to approve financial reports as provided. 

MOTION CARRIED 

ALL MEMBERS PRESENT VOTING AYE 

Action #208 SALES BOND DOCUMENT APPROVAL: 

Motion to “RESOLUTION APPOINTING TRUSTEE, APPROVING THE TRUST INDENTURE AND AUTHORIZING THE EXECUTION OF SAME” And “RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING AND PROVIDING FOR THE TERMS OF ISSUANCE AND SECURING THE PAYMENT OF $3,668,000 SCHOOL INFRASTRUCTURE SALES, SERVICES AND USE TAX REVENUE REFUNDING BONDS, SERIES 2019, OF THE BENTON COMMUNITY SCHOOL DISTRICT, STATE OF IOWA, UNDER THE PROVISIONS OF CHAPTERS 423E AND 423F OF THE CODE OF IOWA, AND PROVIDING FOR A METHOD OF PAYMENT OF SAID BONDS,” And “Approval of the Tax Exemption Certificate.” 

Motion by Ludeking, second by Thompson to approve sales bond document. 

ROLL CALL VOTE: Feuerbach, Ludeking, Stepanek and Thompson. 

MOTION CARRIED 

ALL MEMBERS PRESENT VOTING AYE 

Action #209 SET BUDGET AMMENDMENT HEARING FY 20: 

Motion by Thompson, second by Feuerbach to set Public Hearing on FY’20 Budget Amendment. This action will address the refinance of 2009 bond set for July 17, 2019, Board Room Central Office, Van Horne. Topic: FY’20 Budget. 

ROLL CALL VOTE: Feuerbach, Ludeking, Stepanek and Thompson. 

MOTION CARRIED 

ALL MEMBERS PRESENT VOTING AYE 

STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT REPORT: 

The Board received a Student Achievement Summary for the 2018-19 school year. 

Anna Upah shared that under ESSA, states must identify public schools that need improvement. Iowa’s federal accountability system will identify schools as Targeted, Comprehensive or Not Identified based on the following indicators: 

● Student Participation ● Academic Achievement ● Student Growth ● Graduation Rate ● Progress in Achieving English Language Proficiency ● Conditions for Learning ● Postsecondary Readiness 

Five Components of MTSS in Iowa: 

1. Evidence-based curriculum and instruction at the universal tier ; universal screening; evidence-based; instructional interventions at targeted and intensive tiers; progress monitoring; and data-based decision making collaboratively developed. 

2. Alignment of components of MTSS & spokes of the Bobcat Wheel. 

3. District specific – system specific 

4. Quarterly PL provided around MTSS 

5. Common vision and direction grounded in evidence and purpose. 

ADMINISTRATOR REPORTS: 

Mr. Arnold shared Elementary Board Report for June 2019. 

There was a lot to celebrate year-end in our Elementary Schools. It was amazing to see the smiles and tears as they leave the building on the last day of school. It’s a great reminder of the impact we have. 

At Norway we culminated our last day with our field day. There were many stations for kids to work through including a gym-wide hungry hippo, kickball, tug of war, Jenga, iPad station, and steam room. Was really a 

culmination. Also special thanks to Ali Galbraith and the PTO who also supported Kona Ice Truck, which was much appreciated. 

Norway held their annual talent show on May 29th. So many kids took a risk and performed various acts from singing solos, the rubix cube challenge, dancing, and it was definitely highlighted by a 4th grader nailing Vanilla Ice’s “Ice Ice Baby”, which I never thought I’d share with a school board. Thanks to Cindy Nelson for providing the opportunity for our kids to showcase their talents. 

We also awarded our PBIS Students of the quarter at the Assembly. This has been a great success this year. Each homeroom teacher writes a short description of 1 student and that description is then read as we award them a certificate. The descriptions have been fantastic and speak to our best examples of great bobcats. 

In Atkins, they are doing Summer school running from July 8 – August 1. 

Keystone has 25 K-3 students taking part in Summer School. Keystone is providing ARC of Eastern Iowa to four Special Education Students. We transport to and from Cedar Rapids for this all summer long. We provide Extended School Year SE support to 4 or 5 other students in district as well. 

The Janitorial staff is going hard at getting rooms torn down and cleaned and put back together. 

Shawn Pfiffner reported on the following: 

It has been go, go, go at the MS/HS with maintenance, cleaning, and construction projects. The door installation project is moving forward nicely. They have framed up all the doors and started adding dry wall. They added a second door to Mr. Anderson’s room because of the size of his room and getting it up to code. The Gym floor looks amazing. FLR came in and redid the floor last week. They took the finish off, painted all the lines again and refinished it. (Looks brand new!! 

The custodial crew is hard at it with lockers, floors, and usual summer work. 

Baseball and softball are one month into their season already. Both teams are young, but making improvements. Postseason is exactly one month from today for baseball and three weeks away for softball. 

Summer camps and workouts are in full swing right now. We have over 100 boy and girl athletes lifting and speed training on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Great things are happening. 

Benton Theatre Rising Stars is performing Friday night at 7:30 with “OBSESSED with Internet Cats 2019.” It is directed by Mary Horst with the help of Theresa Thompson, Lois Deerberg, and Luke Petersen. There is great help from our HS students as well. There are a lot of kids of all ages performing. 

FCCLA Nationals is June 29th thru July 2nd in Anaheim CA. Maya Sahu qualified and will be joined by FCCLA sponsor Kailyn Botkin. 

The Activity Calendar is pretty much set for next year. There are a few things to add and clean up yet. It’s hard to believe we are almost to 2019-2020. We will be looking to start printing calendars next week. 

Benton Community will be hosting the BC Ed Camp on Tuesday, June 25th. We are very excited as Dr. Ryan Wise, Director of the Iowa Department of Education, will be in attendance for this again. Thanks to Anna for all of her work organizing this event! 

Jane Svestka shared district nutrition program overview with the board. Highlighting budget, facilities, goals, evaluations, data points on meals served and commodity purchasing/use. A handout was included for board record. 

Mr. Arnold shared a statement recognizing Superintendent Zittergruen’s administrative leadership and development of the District Administrative Team. 

Action #210 PERSONNEL RESIGNATION(S) 

• Sue Lovik – Preschool Associate at the Atkins Center 
• Kelly Serbousek – Special Education Associate at the Atkins Center 
• Joseph Hankins – Drum Line Coach for Marching Band 
• Ann Franzenburg – Spring Play 

Motion by Thompson, second by Feuerbach to accept resignations as presented. 

MOTION CARRIED 

ALL MEMBERS PRESENT VOTING AYE 

Action # 211 RECOMMENDATIONS 

• Rebecca Rieck – Bus Stop Supervisor at Blairstown 
• Katie Dirksen – Kindergarten Keystone Elementary Data Team Leader 
• Bridget Speer – TAG/Tech/Media Data Team Leader 
• Kory Winsor – Social Studies Data Team Leader 
• Sabrina Lovell – MS/HS Food Service 

Motion by Ludeking, second by Feuerbach to accept recommendations as presented. 

MOTION CARRIED 

ALL MEMBERS PRESENT VOTING AYE 

Action # 212 BOARD POLICY 

The board reviewed policies from the 600 and 900 Series. 

Motion to accept board policy as presented striking second paragraph of current policy #602.8 and adding IASB last three sentences of second paragraph of model policy, maintain #602.8R1 regulation as review with no adjustments from IASB model policy, add to policy #904.3 ‘with approval from superintendent or designee too last sentence and deleting ‘has been obtained from the board’, rescinding policy #904.4 as this is duplicate in respect to cross referenced policy #504.4 Student Fund Raising, and deleting second paragraph policy #904.5 and replacing with noted paragraph two of IASB policy 904.1. 

MOTION CARRIED 

ALL MEMBERS PRESENT VOTING AYE 

Action #213 STUDENT FEES FOR 2019-20 

I recommend that student fees remain the same for the 2019-20 school year. 

• K-6 Registration $55.00 (book rental = $55) 
• 7-8 Registration $70.00 (book/technology rental = $67, Towel fee = $3) 
• 9-12 Registration $105.00 (book/technology rental = $67, Towel fee = $3, Activity Ticket = $35) 
• 9-11 Grade Class dues $15.00 
• Senior Class Dues $35.00 
• K-8 Activity Ticket $35.00 
• 5-12 Instrument Rental $120.00 

Motion by Ludeking, second by Feuerbach to approve fees as presented for FY’20 

MOTION CARRIED 

ALL MEMBERS PRESENT VOTING AYE 

Action #214 HOT LUNCH PRICE RECOMMENDATION FOR 2019-20: 

I will be recommending the following increases in hot lunch prices for the 2018-19 school year: 

• K-8 $2.75 
• 9-12 $2.95 
• Breakfast K-6 $1.75 
• Breakfast K-12 $1.95 
• Breakfast Adult $2.50 
• Adult Lunch $3.75 
• Second Lunch $3.50 
• Milk $0.40 

Motion by Thompson, second by Feuerbach to approve nutrition price recommendation as presented. 

MOTION CARRIED 

ALL MEMBERS PRESENT VOTING AYE 

Action #215 DRIVERS EDUCATION FEE RECOMMENDATION FOR 2019-20: 

It was recommended to maintain the driver education fee at $425 for the 2019-20 school year. 

Motion by Ludeking, second by Feuerbach to maintain driver education fee at $425.00 for the FY’20 School Year. 

MOTION CARRIED 

ALL MEMBERS PRESENT VOTING AYE 

Action #216 BIDS NUTRITION FY’20: 

A recommendation on bids for milk and bread services for the 2019-20 school year was provided at the Board Meeting. 

Motion by Ludeking, second by Feuerbach to approve milk bid for Anderson Erickson Dairy and bread bid from Bimbo Bakery 

MOTION CARRIED 

ALL MEMBERS PRESENT VOTING AYE 

Action #217 EMERGENCY OPERATION PLAN APPROVAL: 

Mr. Arnold presented the following information regarding the school district emergency action planning: 

Emergency Operation Plan Brief 2019-2020 

Iowa Code 280.30 High-quality school building emergency operations plans Pg. 

A. High Quality Plan shall include but limited to Active Shooter and Natural Disasters. 

B. Plan is required to be published publicly with recommendations from the Department of Education and consultation with local emergency management personnel. 

C. Board will review the plan annually. 

D. Code also requires schools to drill the emergency operations plan once per school year. Can be table-top exercise, walk through, partial or full drill. 

Plan Parts: pg. 12 

Two Divisions: 

A. Basic Plan 

a. Overview of Districts EOP (Pgs. 14-55) 

b. Assigns Roles 

c. Integration of District to Specific Schools 

B. 3 Annexes 

. Functional- Specific Building Plans. 

a. Threat and Hazard – Overviews for Each Building 

b. Maps and Diagrams – Overview for Each Building 

Additional Items to Consider: 

A. Active Shooter and Natural Disaster SOP’s (Standard Operating Procedures) 

a. Attached with building-specific information. 

b. Each SOP is specific to threat (Fire, Tornado, Active Shooter, etc.) 

B. Publication of Threat Procedures. 

How staff, parents, and guardians can report possible threats. 

C. Included in Functional Annex portion of the plan. 

D. Messaging System Requirements. 

Must include ancillary employees in all emergency announcements. 

Examples are Grant Wood Staff and other outside agencies usually on site. 

E. ALL Documents are to be held as confidential and not a part of Public Record per S.F. 2364 

Motion by Ludeking, second by Thompson to approve emergency operation plan as presented. 

MOTION CARRIED 

ALL MEMBERS PRESENT VOTING AYE 

Action #218 TANAGER PLACE SCHOOL BASED SERVICES AGREEMENT: 

The Board considered a therapist support agreement with Tanager Place for school-based mental health services for students. 

Motion by Thompson, second by Feuerbach to approve Tanager contract for school based services for the FY’20 school year. 

MOTION CARRIED 

ALL MEMBERS PRESENT VOTING AYE 

Action #219 FIELD TRIP APPROVAL: 

Krystal Wright has submitted out of state travel requests for members of the Benton Community FFA Chapter for the 2019-20 school year. I recommend the Board approve these trip requests. 

Motion by Feuerbach, second by Ludeking to approve field trip requests for FFA for the FY’20 school year to Chapter Leadership Retreat, Eastman Wisconsin, National Barrow Show, Austin Minnesota, National FFA Convention, Indianapolis, Indiana, and FFA Leadership Conference, Washington D.C. 

MOTION CARRIED 

ALL MEMBERS PRESENT VOTING AYE

Action #220 RESOLUTION ON NAMING OF SOFTBALL FIELD: 

The Board considered by resolution the naming of the Benton Community Softball Field: 

“Resolved, that the Board of Directors of the Benton Community School District, June 19, 2019 here and after dedicates and name the Benton Community Softball Field located in Van Horne, Iowa ‘Zittergruen Field’ in honor of Gary Zittergruen’s service and commitment to Benton Community Schools.” 

Motion was made by Thompson, seconded by Feuerbach. 

ROLL CALL VOTE: Feuerbach, Ludeking, Stepanek and Thompson 

MOTION CARRIED 

ALL MEMBERS PRESENT VOTING AYE 

UPCOMING EVENTS: 

July 17 Regular School Board Meeting at Central Admin Office 7:00 p.m.