T-R PHOTO BY ALLISON GRAHAM — South Tama County Superintendent John Cain speaks to the board of education during their regular meeting on Monday. Under a newly announced operational sharing agreement with North Tama, Cain would begin splitting his time between the two districts next school year. Pictured next to Cain is School Board President Elizabeth Dolezal and Board Secretary Katie Mathern.

TAMA — In a move presented as a cost-saving measure for both districts, the South Tama County Board of Education introduced and ultimately approved a new sharing agreement with North Tama for three positions — including superintendent — during its regular meeting on Monday evening.

Under the arrangement, current STC Superintendent John Cain would divide his time at the beginning of the 2024-2025 school year — 60 percent at South Tama and 40 percent at North Tama. Cain is in his second year at STC after being hired to replace Jared Smith in 2022.

Additionally, the agreement proposes sharing the services of South Tama Maintenance Director Steve McAdoo and Assistant Business Manager Katie Hulin, who will focus primarily on assisting North Tama with payroll. The time split for these two positions would be 80 percent South Tama and 20 percent North Tama.

As previously reported in the News Chronicle, Cain has proposed over $1 million in cuts without eliminating the positions of any current staff members as the board prepares to finalize the district’s 2024-2025 budget. The sharing agreement is estimated to yield savings of just under $275,000 per year.

At a special session meeting on March 11, the South Tama school board voted in a split decision to approve advertising for a curriculum director position. Currently, Samantha Peska serves as South Tama’s director of curriculum and student services and would continue in her capacity as the director of student services.

The rationale given for splitting that position and hiring a standalone curriculum director was due to the anticipated changes being discussed by the Iowa Legislature to the state’s Area Education Agencies (AEAs) with concern that special education services currently provided by the AEA might not be available in the future and that Peska may need to absorb some of those duties in her role.

The decision to advertise for a new administrative position drew criticism from some South Tama staff members, two of whom were present Monday to address the board during the public comment portion near the beginning of the meeting before the sharing agreement was announced.

High School Science Teacher Audrey Roth discussed what she felt have been mixed messages sent to staff around the recent budget cuts.

“I think we need to step back and look at the ways we communicate in general,” Roth said. “I pay taxes in town and in this county, and I’m truly perplexed by the happenings over the last couple of months. First, we were told that there was an anticipated budget shortfall of a million dollars and that cuts would need to be made. We wanted those cuts to be equitable across all departments. However, last week, when we decided to open up that new administrative position, it appears we’re not valuing those people who work for us every day. I will say that I think many of us who are employed here are questioning the wisdom of the board to advertise and hire a curriculum director when we have been asked to eliminate positions in our own building. It’s tough to believe that what we do as staff is appreciated and valued when those kinds of positions are eliminated but yet another administrative position is created. We need to keep people in spots that serve our students every day.”

Secondary Instructional Coach Seth Koch spoke on the topic of staff morale and how it’s related to some recent budget decisions made by the board.

“I think we need to recognize the great things that our staff is doing,” Koch said. “I mean, you have a staff working extremely hard and they’re being asked to do more and more with fewer resources all the time. And I think that was pretty evident last week with some comments that you guys made. I think we need to spend more time looking at some of the successes that we’re having, rather than dwelling on everything else that’s going on in the district. If you really want to see continued growth, you need to look at your staff and want to keep your staff here. I got asked to write three letters of recommendation this week. Those are people I don’t want to see leave.”

After announcing the North Tama sharing agreement at Monday’s meeting, Cain said the only reason he felt comfortable proposing a separate curriculum director position was because of the cost savings being realized as a result.

South Tama’s school board unanimously approved the agreement with minimal discussion following Cain’s announcement. Up until that point, it had not been made public which district STC would be working with and which positions were being considered for operational sharing.

In February, it was announced that North Tama Superintendent David Hill had been hired to fill the same position at Waverly-Shell Rock. North Tama previously operated under a similar sharing arrangement with Gladbrook-Reinbeck from 2016 to 2020, when Hill served both districts. Since 2020, his position has been entirely with North Tama but in a 3/4 time capacity.

Cain said the agreement had been discussed by North Tama’s school board and that they were generally in favor of it. It will now go before the North Tama board for formal approval at a special session sometime in early April.

North Tama savings

In an email sent Tuesday afternoon to the newspaper, Hill said that if the operational sharing proposal is approved by the North Tama school board, no North Tama employees would lose their jobs as a result.

“The ‘other business official’ position and ‘maintenance director’ position will be new additions for North Tama,” Hill said. “But because of state sharing incentives, our district will actually make money by adding these positions.”

Under the proposal, North Tama would pay for 20 percent of the total salary and benefits for the two positions.

“We’ll have access to their services approximately one day per week on average,” Hill said. “The operational sharing incentive dollars provided by the state will be greater than the dollar amount that North Tama spends on our portion of the salary and benefits, so we’ll actually be ahead financially by adding the positions.”

The shared business official, Hill said, would take over payroll processing for North Tama.

“This will reduce the workload for North Tama’s [school business official] Sarah Forrester, which is a good thing since she may have some additional duties added to her list of responsibilities with a shared superintendent,” Hill said.

North Tama’s current transportation director, Joel Larsen, is set to retire on June 30, with Mike Morrison hired to replace him. Morrison’s position will not be affected by the proposed operational sharing proposal, Hill said.

“The ‘maintenance director position’ will supplement our current custodial workforce. South Tama’s current maintenance director has vast experience with major facility projects and has a proven track record of identifying opportunities for efficiencies in facility maintenance and operation. This will be a real benefit to North Tama as the district embarks upon the construction of a new high school addition and other facility upgrades,” Hill said.

At presstime, a date had not yet been set for a special session of the North Tama school board to address the sharing proposal, but Hill said the district would ideally like to move on it soon.

“I’ve polled the board members about their availability for the entire week next week. We’d like to get the sharing ‘locked in’ as we truly believe it will be beneficial for North Tama,” he said. “With the sharing incentives added in plus the sharing in the cost of all three positions, it is my best estimate that the financial boost will amount to about $1 million for North Tama over a five-year period.”