T-R PHOTO BY ROBERT MAHARRY Iowa Valley Community College District Chancellor Kristie Fisher, front left, leads a tour of renovations at the Marshalltown Community College campus for board members and district leaders after the board retreat on Wednesday.

The agenda for Wednesday afternoon’s Iowa Valley Community College District (IVCCD) Board of Directors retreat looked a bit different from a traditional meeting as there were no action items or lists of bills to approve. The focus, as Chancellor Kristie Fisher put it, was on reflecting and improving, and it gave board members and district leaders the chance to look at the bigger picture.

“It’s one of the few opportunities where we have the whole board together and we can think more long term on some of the strategic things like our board evaluation. That’s really important for our accreditation, and it also gives us a lot of room to make improvements in what we’re doing,” Fisher said. “It also is just a great opportunity to give people an update on important projects like the bond.”

The gathering, which was held in the administration office at Marshalltown Community College (MCC), focused on four main topics: board self-evaluations, the potential acquisition of OnBoard management software for board meetings, highlights of the Fund 3 study and a general update on bond projects.

One suggestion mentioned during the self-evaluation was moving meetings to Monday or Tuesday nights, but board chairman Larry Johnson said he liked that Wednesday meetings gave the board more time to prepare and do research before taking action.

As assistant to the chancellor/board secretary Barb Jennings prepares to retire at some point in the coming years, she and chief information officer Mike Mosher presented on the potential for implementing a software called OnBoard that would handle agendas and meeting materials entirely digitally at a cost of $6,300 for the first year and $5,800 annually after that. Currently, it is estimated that the district has spent an average of $7,341.27 over the last five fiscal years for those services, and OnBoard would completely do away with paper agendas and materials unless individuals chose to print them.

After breaking for dinner, the board picked up a discussion on the Fund 3 study, which mostly consists of budgeting strategies and long-term planning. Fisher wrapped up with an overview of recent projects made possible by the $32 million bond passed in 2019 and how recent inflation and supply chain issues have affected costs and timelines. She then led board members and administration on a tour of some of the improvements on the MCC campus, including Dejardin Hall and the library.

“I’d say my highlight from my tour today is the library space is just beautiful and engaging, and it has spots for our students who need quiet places to study, so that’s one of them,” Fisher said.

According to a document shared at the retreat, a total of $6,255,773 has been spent on the Marshalltown campus so far — the vast majority on the aforementioned interior improvements and the parking lots, walks and exterior entrances — and the estimated final cost for MCC is $9,749,858. The largest single project to emerge from the bond issue is a new dorm at Ellsworth Community College in Iowa Falls, which is estimated to cost just north of $8 million.

“We were cautious and conservative from the very beginning. If we hadn’t been, we would’ve been in trouble, but the good news is we’ve planned it this way,” Fisher said. “We’re going to get everything done that we told voters we were going to get done. We may do some of the things a little differently to make them more cost effective, but we feel great about how the projects are going.”

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Contact Robert Maharry at 641-753-6611 ext. 255 or rmaharry@timesrepublican.com.