Tony Babcock was welcomed to the South Hamilton Community School Board as its newest member at their meeting Monday night in Jewell. Babcock will take over the seat held by Dave Gordon. Gordon was recognized by the board for his four years of service as director for district 1. Both Babcock and returning board member Jay Moline were administered the oath of office for their respective terms. Joely Swenson was named board president with Leigh Miller named as South Hamilton school board vice president. Board meetings will continue to be held on the second Monday of each month at 6:00 p.m.
The South Hamilton board approved the process for the disposition of aging buses. The board will open sealed bidding at the January meeting. Buses not purchase through the bidding process will be disposed of at a salvage yard. A 12 to 15 passenger van up to $60,000 and a new school bus were both purchased. The school board approve the purchase of vape detectors for all restrooms and locker rooms in the middle school/high school building.
A request was approved to allow Paige Jewell to travel with the South Hamilton Spanish Club students due to the exceptional circumstances presented by the pandemic that required moving the trip to 2022. By law,fundraising money cannot be distributed to students not enrolled in the district.
In other matters, the South Hamilton board discussed the draft of the 2022-23 school calendar. Feedback from the teaching staff was shared. The calendar will be reviewed again at the January meeting of the board. The contract with Des Moines Area Community College and its Strive 4 Academy program was approved. The South Hamilton board approved a contract with Solution Tree for the appearance of Dr. Anthony Muhammad. He is a motivational speaker who will share his expertise on school improvement and goals. Dr. Muhammad will speak to the staff on August 17,2022. Resignations from Stephanie Vierkandt as dance coach and from Matthew Harper as assistant large group speech coach were both accepted. Vierkandt’s resignation will take affect on March 6,2022. Contracts were approved for Cole Swenson as high school baseball coach and Janeal Penning as elementary special education teacher effective January 10,2022. Early retirement requests were approved for Todd Coy, Julie Ullestad, Sue Hyland and Jolene Voga. The board thanked the four staff members for their dedicated years at South Hamilton.The retirements will take effect at the end of the current school year.
There was a closed door meeting of the South Hamilton school board for negotiating strategy purposes.