She told the board members about different services that could be lost and how people will be impacted as a result of the bill.

“There’s been some criticism (that) [AEAs] have morphed or evolved into something beyond their initial recognition,” she said. “I think we can all recognize schools, communities, children and our classrooms have significantly changed since the 1970s.”

HSB542 is on its way to the education subcommittee in the legislature, Thoms-Starr said.

“My opportunity tonight is to give you some information so you can advocate, to the best of your ability, for your staff and students in Marshalltown Community School District,” she said.

Central Rivers AEA Regional Administrator Amy Thoms-Starr tells the Marshalltown Community School District Board of Education about House Study Bill 542, which seeks to reorganize the AEAs across the state. She said it would have a tremendous negative impact.

Many services offered by Central Rivers to school districts, including MCSD, will fall apart with the passage of the bill, including curriculum instruction, school technology and diverse learning, such as aspects of special education.

One service which will be lost, Thoms-Starr said, was recently very significant. The AEA has a crisis response team, which went to Perry after the Jan. 4 school shooting. The team does not only respond to school shootings, but also suicides of staff and students and weather disasters.

“As Central Rivers AEA, over the last year, we have had to enact the crisis response team 11 times,” she said. “In my three years as administrator here in Marshalltown, we have had the crisis response team on site four times. That will no longer be a service AEA can provide.”

Board member Sean Heitmann asked who would provide the lost services — the state or the MCSD. Thoms-Starr told him the funding for the AEA services will go back to the state, leaving it up to the school district to find and pay for the services.

Flow-through dollars to the AEA, including $700,000 for the MCSD, will not go to Marshalltown, Thoms-Starr said, but instead to the state of Iowa’s general fund as of June 30. Therefore, she said the $700,000 of AEA services the district receives will have to come out of the district’s general fund.

Numerous jobs at Central Rivers will be at risk if HSB542 is passed as the AEA has close to 60 employees assigned to the MCSD. Showing the board slides of AEA employees who are familiar with the district, Thoms-Starr said 20 of those positions will be terminated by June 30, including her own.

“These are highly skilled, highly educated people,” she said. “These are hard resources to find. Every year there are fewer and fewer of these people available. Many of them, with their jobs on the line and this degree of uncertainty, they are looking outside of education.”

Upon passing, Central Rivers property will also be transferred to the state on June 30. Thoms-Starr highlighted the brand new, state-of-the-art hearing booth in the Marshalltown office in which many Marshalltown children have been tested to determine whether or not they had hearing loss.

“We’re really proud of our Marshalltown office,” Thomas-Starr said. “We host a lot of professional learning for Marshalltown staff as much as agency staff. It also employs people in this community. Our secretaries, our custodial staff — they also will be terminated and the building will be surrendered to the state.”

Superintendent Theron Schutte added that the 909 S. 12th St. location belonged to MCSD before the district gifted it to Central Rivers.

After Thoms-Starr’s presentation, Schutte said when he attended the annual education meeting with legislators in December, he confronted Senate Education Committee Chair Ken Rozenboom (R-Oskaloosa) about how HSB542 would essentially dismantle the AEAs.

“He took offense to the use of that comment,” Schutte said.

The school board approved a resolution, written by Schutte, which he read during the meeting — “Preserving Educational Support Services and Ensuring Effective Communication.” The resolution touched on how HSB542 will affect MCSD. Some of the effects include:

Additional responsibility placed on the district to administer special education services;

The district will have to search for alternative mental health services for students, and;

There will be a lack of trust between the district and the Iowa Department of Education.

Essentially, the resolution is asking legislators to take a step back and think about the bill before the quick passage, which would reduce the services students and staff receive. Schutte added that it is not realistic to require districts to make a decision by April 30. HSB542 requires districts to opt in or out of an AEA system by that date for a two-year period.

The board approved the resolution written by Schutte. Thoms-Starr stressed that she did not give the presentation to advocate on behalf of the employees of AEA. She wanted to give assurances that even though the bill is hanging over their heads, the Central Rivers staff are dedicated, and services will not be disrupted.

Thoms-Starr was asking for the board to advocate on behalf of MCSD students and staff before the bill is passed and control is given to the state.

“Instead of local control, it will be state control,” she said.

In other business, board members:

• Approved the 2024-25 Marshalltown High School course guide.

• Approved the purchase of 20 NUC computers for the Welcome Center. The computers can be used for e-sports.

• Approved the 2024-25 school calendar.

• Approved a March 5 election to renew the Physical Plant and Equipment Levy (PPEL) Director of Business and Operations Randy Denham said the current PPEL will expire June 30, 2025. The district is only allowed certain times when the election can be held, and the next available date is March 5. PPEL is used for buildings and grounds, such as annual repairs; safety and security, such as security cameras; transportation; technology, such as non-instructional software. The district has spent $5.9 million during the last five years on the four areas. Denham said the money is necessary to meet needs such as annual project repairs, getting safety assessments, purchasing replacement buses and phone and intercom system upgrades.

• Approved submitting a request for $1.6 million Modified Supplemental Amount for Dropout Prevention.

Contact Lana Bradstream at 641-753-6611 ext. 210 or lbradstream@timesrepublican.com.