LA PORTE CITY – Union Community School District and the City of La Porte will soon share more than just a geographic location.

During the Monday, April 1, special meeting of the Union Board of Education held at the high school, Superintendent John Howard shared that the La Porte City Council approved on March 25 a sharing agreement with Union for a director of maintenance position. The agreement will add four more students to the district’s enrollment which amounts to approximately $25,000.

“[The sharing agreement] will not affect our current staff,” Howard said.

According to the March 25 La Porte City council minutes, the agreement provides for City staff to “assist the district with maintenance and safety inspection tasks for which the City would be paid a flat fee of $10,000 per year.”

Later during the meeting, the school board also approved the agreement.

Other business

Before approving the evening’s consent agenda, board member Brandon Paine moved to amend the agenda by removing item E – Approval of New Hires. Paine said he was doing so in order to “give administration time to answer a couple questions that I had.”

New hires that were not approved included two bus driver hires, a middle school ELA position, the head varsity boys basketball coaching position, and a summer maintenance position.

The item will be revisited during the upcoming April 15 board meeting.

As part of his brief report, Howard said that teacher negotiations for next school year were ongoing. He also said the D-G playground project remained under budget despite a few additions. He met with both Boland Recreation and Cardinal Construction last week and the expectation remains to have the project finished by the start of the 2024-25 term.

A quote package from Beebee’s Floors was approved in the amount of $27,506.53 for resanding, resurfacing, and repainting the high school gym floor.

‘Truth-in-Taxation’

Prior to the special meeting, the board held a ‘Truth-in-Taxation’ public hearing which is new this year following the Iowa Legislature’s 2023 passage of House File 718.

One taxpayer, Al Schafbuch, was in attendance for the hearing, telling board members and Superintendent John Howard that the mailing he received detailing the district’s proposed property tax levy was “pretty confusing.”

Howard agreed with Schafbuch’s assessment and said many others across the state were equally as confused, leading the Iowa Dept. of Management to distribute to county auditors on Friday, March 29, a four-page guide to the mailed notices which Union made available during the hearing.

Howard said the district’s proposed property tax rate for fiscal year 2025 is $11.87 – slightly lower than the current year’s $11.91.

“Our tax levy is in the bottom third if not the bottom quarter of school districts in the state of Iowa,” board president Corey Lorenzen said at one point during the brief hearing.

“[The rate] would have gone down even lower but [the district is] levying more in the management fund because of early retirement packages,” business manager Kim Lubbert added.

The hearing lasted just over five minutes, adjourning at 6:06 p.m.