(Griswold) The Griswold School Board approved a Pandemic Pay Resolution and the 2020-2021 Budget and School Calendar at their meeting Tuesday evening.
Superintendent Dave Henrichs said the Pandemic Pay Resolution is in the light of the Coronavirus situation and the Governor’s proclamation to shut schools down.
“The Board approved a Pandemic Pay Resolution that states all contracted employees will be paid their normal and ordinary pay through April 12th. If the school closure is extended past April 12th then the Board will reconvene and address how to handle that at that time,” explained Henrichs.
Henrichs said within that resolution it also gives the Superintendent authority to modify any board policies that are not in violation of Iowa or Federal law that simply don’t apply during these unusual times. There are also a set of parameters for employees and that includes if they request employees to report to work they are required to do so and if they happen to be ill during that time they would be asked to use sick leave time.
The 2020-2021 Budget was approved following a public hearing. Henrichs said in general terms the budget is identical as much as can be to this school year.
“Total levy rate is $14.01. That stays below what we promised our Stakeholders when we passed the Bond Referendum that it would be under $14.02, so basically the total levy rate remains the same,” said Henrichs.
The 2020-2021 School Calendar was also approved following a public hearing. Henrichs said their school calendar is very similar to this year. He said next year’s calendar contains 1,170 hours. The first day of school is August 24th.
“On that first day, as well as the second day, we have a 2-hour early out and Wednesday, August 26th is 1-hour early out for PD. The reason for those early outs is simply that first week can be very long, especially for those younger students, so we wanted to allow some adjustment period,” explained Henrichs.
Henrichs said they will end first semester December 22nd and kids return from break on January 5th. There will be three days off in the middle of March for spring break, they will take Good Friday off and the last day for students is May 21st. Graduation is set for May 16, 2021, at 2:00 p.m.
In other activity, the Board discussed the Middle School/High School principal search. Henrichs said they will conduct live interviews with six people on March 30th and 31st. There will be three committees; each committee will consist of 10 people. The three groups will be spread out through the building as much as possible so there will only be 10 people in a room and they will use the largest room that they have so they can spread out even more to practice social distancing. The three committees consist of Board and Administration, Staff, and a combination of Students and Parents.
