Arrests and criminal charges against two former Marshalltown Community School District employees were addressed at the school board’s regular meeting Monday night.

Earlier in July, 26-year-old physical education teacher Mark Edward Farris Esquivel was arrested for sexual exploitation of a 17-year-old student. Within the following week, a Miller Middle School English teacher, 42-year-old Adam Eugene Edgington, was arrested for sexual exploitation of a 13-year-old student and he was later found dead.

Superintendent Theron Schutte said it is a gross understatement to say the school district is disappointed to learn of the allegations and will continue to cooperate with the Marshalltown Police Department on their investigations.

He said the school district is currently reviewing various practices in response to the alleged incidents.

“There was nothing within the hiring, screening or prior work experience that could have led us in any way, shape or form to know that there was potential for these sorts of things to occur,” Schutte said. “We will still leave no stone left unturned as we evaluate all of our policies, practices and procedures to make sure our employees fully know and understand district expectations and conduct themselves in an appropriate and professional fashion at all times.”

The district will evaluate reference checks to see if they need to go deeper beyond supplied references and letters of recommendation, Schutte said. The district has been in touch with their attorney firm to put on a presentation for employees around ethics, responsibilities and social media policies. All licensed staff will need to participate in mandatory online professional standards and ethics training.

Schutte said the district is also working with their attorneys and other school districts to see what policies and practices could improve teacher to student communication. One policy the district is looking into is requiring teacher and student communication to be restricted to school provided communication tools.

“A lot of times these problems can be related to messaging, whether it be through personal cell phones or personal social media pages,” Schutte said.

He said the district has been reviewing what curriculum and programs are provided to students so when an issue is presented, the student knows to seek an adult who can provide assistance. The district will reach out to Child Abuse and Prevention Services to access any supports available to prevent potential incidents in the future.

“This will be an ongoing process,” Schutte said. “Obviously it started very quickly once the district was made aware of these allegations and we will continue to work to make sure that everything that we do is geared toward guaranteeing and assuring to the best of our ability a safe, welcoming and high quality educational experience for our students.”

In other business:

• Director of Human Resources Nora Ryan gave an update to the school board regarding a need for staffing within the district. Nearly 40 certified staff positions within the school district are open and are in need to be filled, which Ryan said is alarming and concerning. “On July 19, this obviously is not something we would like to see unfortunately,” Ryan said. She said the Marshalltown district is not an outlier, having spoken to other districts who are facing the same problem. The district is sending mass emails to potential hirees, posting on job boards, contacting teacher education programs and utilizing word of mouth.

• The board unanimously approved five legislative priorities to be submitted to the Iowa Association of School Boards. One priority includes promoting equity for all students and educators by advocating for policies to address the needs of underserved children and supporting educational experiences to foster a respect for diversity as well as different cultures. Other priorities are expanding and improving access to mental health systems, supporting a school funding and state supplemental aid policy to meet the district’s education goals, and additional COVID-19 remediation resources to address negative impacts to learning as a result of the pandemic.

Contact Trevor Babcock at 641-753-6611 or tbabcock@timesrepublican.