(Le Mars) — The Le Mars Community Board of Education approved a bid of $99,062 from Nohava Construction of Le Mars to re-roof the Education Service Center. Three bids were submitted for the project, with the other bids at $122,350 by All Elements of Monticello, Minnesota, and $151,000 by Moss Roofing Incorporated of West Union, Iowa. In other action during last evening’s school board meeting, the board approved the recommendation of the Meet and Confer team to allow a 3.24 percent increase in salary pay to support staff and administrators. The total amount would equal $139,003. In that same discussion, the school board approved a staggered pay scale for school bus drivers based on their number of years of experience. Bus drivers with ten years of service will receive an additional .25 cents per hour above the current schedule. Fifty cents per hour will be added to the pay scale for bus drivers with 15 years experience, and for those bus drivers with 20 years of experience will receive 75 cents per hour above the current schedule. Following the action approving the salary increase for the support staff, the school board then discussed the Activities Director position. Dr. Todd Wendt informed the school board that the district would probably be able to save more than $100,000 if the school would not hire a full-time activities director, but instead have the responsibilities be shared by four individuals. Karlton Hector will have supervisory responsibilities of the Activities Director position. He will receive a stipend of 17 percent above his salary base. Others that will share in the activities director position include Barry Borchers, Troy Caswell, and Neal Utesch.
Although the board approved the action of having the Activities Director position be shared, they also added that in the future, when financials are in better shape, they hope to hire one individual to be full-time Activities Director. The school board decided to keep the student fees for next year at the same level as they are for this year. The only exception is the price for adult lunch meals will increase by ten cents to $3.45 per day.
