T-R PHOTO BY SUSANNA MEYER Marshalltown Community School District (MCSD) Director of Human Resources Nora Ryan recommended offering a $5,000 sign-on bonus for seventh through 12th grade full time science teaching positions and for an elementary level Extended Learning Program (XLP) teaching position at the regular Monday night board meeting.

In an effort to combat staffing issues within the Marshalltown Community School District (MCSD), the board of education approved a $5,000 sign-on bonus for open seventh through 12th grade science teaching positions, as well as the open Extended Learning Program (XLP) teaching position at the regular Monday night meeting.

The sign on bonus is not the first of its kind at the MCSD — during a previous board meeting, $5,000 sign on bonuses were approved to help fill multiple other teaching positions in special education, high school French, industrial arts, and secondary math.

Director of Human Resources Nora Ryan said the district ultimately decided not to hire a French teacher for the fall semester, but that sign-on bonus is still available for all special education positions, the industrial arts position and secondary math positions.

Ryan recommended extending this bonus to an XLP teaching position at the elementary level, as well as to full time seventh through 12th grade science teaching positions, in the hopes that it will encourage more teachers to apply.

“The XLP position, for example, has been posted since December, we have had one applicant, and the Science positions, I don’t know off the top of my head how many applicants we’ve had but nothing that has been a good fit,” Ryan said. “So we’re really hoping that this $5,000 will not only attract people but you know, maybe even pull them from other districts.”

Ryan also said the bonus may appeal to new teaching graduates who aren’t sure where they want to work yet.

Board member Zach Wahl asked if the sign-on bonuses that are currently available for other subjects had helped to bring in teachers, and Ryan said there wasn’t exactly a conclusive answer to his question.

“For special ed, for example, we’ve hired some great people recently. I’ve seen more recommendations to hire coming forward, which is the process that they say ‘I want to hire this person.’ The problem is, we’re just losing more people than we’re bringing on, but I think it’s been successful,” Ryan said. “I just don’t know definitively if it’s been the one thing that’s brought people here, I don’t know. For industrial arts, obviously not yet, since we haven’t filled that position, but (in) special ed, we’ve filled several.”

Though Ryan wasn’t positive if the sign on bonus was the driving factor behind new hires, with 45 open positions across the district, she said it “definitely hasn’t hurt.” The open positions are on the statewide hard-to-fill positions list, which Ryan said is only growing.

Wahl asked what the strategy was in the long run outside of providing sign on bonuses, and Ryan said they are doing as much outreach as possible, be it by emailing potential candidates or by attending university graduations.

“We’re doing the best that we can. The more and more I meet with HR directors across the state, we are all — even the small, tiny districts to the large districts — we are all on the same boat, struggling,” Ryan said.

The bonus was approved by a 6-0 vote, as Leah Stanley was absent. While the bonus will be paid up front, if the individual leaves before three years has elapsed, they are required to pay back the bonus at a prorated amount.

There were several recognitions at the board meeting, starting with Superintendent Theron Schutte honoring the school board for their service to the community to celebrate School Board Recognition Month. The board also recognized all MCSD teachers for Teacher Appreciation Week and four students who did well at the National History Day (NHD) state competition.

Marshalltown High School (MHS) students Yessenia Alvarez Zamora and Leticia Herrera qualified for NHD nationals with their group exhibit “La Huelga: The Struggle That Brought Farmworkers Rights,” and MHS student Charlie Gilbertson won the Military History Award and was a runner-up for nationals with his documentary “How the U-2 Incident Eroded Super Power Diplomacy.”

Miller Middle School student Lucas Hagen earned a top-three finish in the state competition’s junior individual performance division with his performance titled “The Caning of Senator Charles Sumner,” and was selected as an alternate for the upcoming NHD national competition.

In other business, the board:

• Heard an update from Hoglan Elementary School and the Student School Board Representatives.

• Approved the updated 2022-2023 student handbooks.

• Approved the 2022 early graduate list recommendations.

• Approved a request from Director of Technology Amy Harmsen to seek a request for proposal for a new aquatic display and scoring equipment.

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Contact Susanna Meyer

at 641-753-6611 or

smeyer@timesrepublican.com.