T-R PHOTO BY ROBERT MAHARRY — Marshalltown Community School District (MCSD) Technology Director Amy Harmsen and Annamarie Snider of Invision Architects address the school board during Monday night’s meeting.

The Marshalltown Community School District Board of Education approved a pair of motions related to Miller Middle School during Monday night’s regular meeting — one for architectural services for “owner provided scope work” as part of the Reimagine Miller bond project and the other for asbestos abatement at the building.

Marshalltown Community School District (MCSD) Director of Technology Amy Harmsen, flanked by Annamarie Snider of Invision Architecture, explained that the owner-installed items include systems that are “extensions of platforms we already use” to make it easier for district staff to manage them.

When a project surpasses a threshold of $196,000, it becomes a capital improvement project and requires an architect’s services.

“This one, specifically, it’s talking about the security system, which would be door access where you use badges to unlock the doors, and then security cameras as well, so that would be one of the projects,” Harmsen said. “And then the other one would be audio enhancement, and that’s bells, intercom, paging, notification system. So those projects both individually were big enough that they qualified for a capital improvement project, so we still need to work with an architect to help us through this process.”

Snider then further explained the proposal for services, which would come at a cost of $54,500 and be paid out of construction project funds, and noted that Invision and Boyd Jones have already been intimately involved in the Reimagine Miller project.

District Finance Director Randy Denham said Monday night’s approval was the first step in the process, which will include public hearings in the next few meetings before a contract is awarded. A motion to approve the agreement passed 6-0 with Sara Faltys absent.

Superintendent Theron Schutte then asked Harmsen if the aforementioned work would be done in phases or toward the end of the project.

“We think we’ll buy the bulk of the equipment ahead of time as it works out for the warranty,” she said. “The goal is to buy the equipment so that we can try to lock in some prices sooner than later, and then, of course, it won’t be installed until as the phases go along. The hope is to have all the access control working when that phase is finished and all of the audio enhancement working when that phase is finished.”

Next up was Jeff Moats of Iowa Environmental Services Inc. to discuss asbestos abatement at Miller over the next four years in an amount of $72,230.24 with the low bid coming from Earth Services and Abatement of Des Moines, and he said the majority of it would be done this year.

Board member Eric Goslinga asked Moats if any of the work would happen with students in the building, and Moats said it was all currently scheduled for summer. If it would happen to go into the school year, the areas being worked on would be closed down. Schutte noted that the district does have summer school as well. The contract was approved by a unanimous 6-0 vote.

In other business, the board:

• Approved an out-of-state travel request for the National History Day competition in College Park, Md. but discussed having a more consistent policy for such requests going forward.

• Approved the consent agenda as listed.

• Approved a recommendation on changes to the Schedule Request and Course Change Procedures and Table of Content in the MHS Student Handbook.

• Approved a certified budget amendment.

• Approved a 2.29 percent pay increase for administrators, other hourly employees and administrative assistants, other salaried employees and transportation employees as well as the following pay rates for substitutes: new full-time substitutes receiving a salary of $150/day and returning full-time substitutes receive a salary of $160/day with temporary employees serving as teacher substitutes receiving a salary of $150/day which increases to $170/day after subbing 400 hours for the 2026-2027 school year.

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Contact Robert Maharry at 641-753-6611 ext. 255

or rmaharry@timesrepublican.com.