(Elk Horn) The Exira-EHK School Board, during a meeting on Monday, approved their 2021 Legislative Beliefs.
Superintendent Trevor Miller says the main focus is on teacher retention, recruitment, and creative licensure. “I get like four applicants for an elementary teacher which is unheard of. The state needs to come up with something to help us out in rural Iowa to get more teachers that want to be in the profession. I’ve talked to a few colleges and there were 40% less students going into education the last couple of years. If we have a shortage now and there’s 40% less coming out of Universities it’s going to be hard to find teachers.”
One suggestion is to ease the requirement to become certified. “We have to be creative on licensure. The Board of Educational Examiners were looking at some different things, but I think we really need to step back and if they have a business degree how many classes can they take to be a teacher or if they’ve been running a mechanic shop how many classes do they need to teach. We really need to take a big step back and look at a holistic, systemic approach to get it where it makes sense.”
Other Legislative Beliefs centered around mental health to provide resources for families in need and school funding to be able to better compensate teachers.
Miller says the 2021 FFA Convention Trip was approved. They have over 40 FFA members and usually close to half of them attend the convention which will be in Indianapolis from October 26th-29th. Jan Greving has been approved as Board Secretary following the retirement of Tammy Jacobsen. Lexi Griffin has been hired as a Middle School English Language Arts Teacher and Dara Svendsen hired as an HR/Administrative Assistant. JoAnne Morenz has resigned her position as a High School English Teacher.
