The North Tama County Community School District located at 605 Walnut Street in Traer, Iowa. TAMA-GRUNDY PUBLISHING FILE PHOTO

TRAER – The North Tama Athletic Booster Club will need to rethink how the organization raises money following school board action.

During the Monday, May 20 regular meeting of the North Tama Board of Education, a resolution was approved, 5-0 (David Boldt and Cheryl Popelka were absent), authorizing all revenue earned from athletic and student activity operations to be deposited in the Student Activity Fund which is part of the district’s general fund.

Previously, such funds – which include advertising revenue earned from the sale of athletic signage and scoreboard/livestream/Bound advertising – were collected by and/or funneled to the Booster Club.

As part of a presentation addressing the resolution, activities director Andrew Knaack and school business official Sara Forrester explained the district has been out of compliance with Iowa Code by allowing the Booster Club to collect those funds.

Ahead of the board vote, discussion took place surrounding how the Booster Club would raise funds going forward – advertising revenue currently comprises the bulk of the club’s fundraising. The club also sells memberships to both individuals and businesses.

“You can still line item it all out – their memberships are not affected,” Knaack explained. “We can still pull it all together. Do our big push together and then still pull their memberships out of it that way. So instead of [Booster Club] doing all the work, we’re taking on the work because by law it has to go into the general fund. So we’re taking it over.”

After much back and forth between Knaack, Forrester, and several board members including Jenny Sniffin who has held leadership roles with the Booster Club, Superintendent David Hill made it clear the matter at hand going forward was the district would be placing athletic advertising revenue into the general fund per Iowa Code. The resolution on the table would allow those funds to funnel into the Student Activity account.

As part of the board’s eventual adoption of the resolution, the section pertaining to restrictions on the use of the funds was kicked to the June board meeting. As written, the resolution states athletic advertising revenue can be used toward the payment of the following expenses: “officials, junior high activity entrance fees, any required safety equipment, and equipment required to livestream athletic events.”

Ridouts resign

As part of the meeting’s consent agenda, several resignations and appointments were approved including the resignations of both Laura Ridout and Ryan Ridout.

Mrs. Ridout was hired this past winter as the vocal music teacher; she was also the junior high track coach and assistant boys basketball coach. Her husband Coach Ridout was in his first year as the high school boys basketball coach.

As part of her resignation letter which was dated May 9, Mrs. Ridout thanked the district for the opportunity to teach K-8 vocal music.

“It was a great experience,” Mrs. Ridout wrote. “I learned a lot and really enjoyed the elementary level kids, associates, and teachers. Due to not being able to fulfill the music endorsement criteria, I decided to pursue a job in my original degree of special education at another school district.”

Prior to Mrs. Ridout’s hire, retired North Tama kindergarten teacher/piano instructor Sharon Owens served as the elementary music teacher as a long term substitute. The district had been without a permanent vocal music teacher after being unable to find a suitable hire following the late Terry Shay’s retirement at the end of the 2022-2023 school year.

While Mrs. Ridout lacked a music degree/endorsement, she was issued a temporary, non-renewable Executive Director Decision license by the Iowa BOEE on Dec. 21, 2023, with K-8 and 5-12 music endorsements. In an interview with the newspaper last January, Ridout said after completing additional coursework, she planned to apply for a two-year conditional license while working toward her music endorsements.

In his own resignation letter, Coach Ridout wrote: “It was truly my pleasure to serve in this role and I enjoyed my time as the coach for this program. I certainly appreciated all the support throughout the season as a new head coach.”

This past season, Coach Ridout was named the Iowa Star South Coach of the Year.

During the meeting resignations were also approved for second grade teacher Makenzie Pahnisch and elementary special education teacher Laura Weber, while junior high English/language arts teacher Rachel Donaldson was hired to teach Family & Consumer Science/FCCLA.

Superintendent Report

As part of his report, Superintendent Hill said he had consulted with incoming, shared Superintendent John Cain about summer office hours. North Tama’s main office will be open Monday through Thursday from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. The office will not be open to the public on Fridays.

Hill also shared that South Tama County’s board has agreed to change their board meeting dates so that North Tama can continue meeting on the third Monday of (most) months beginning at 7 p.m.; however, a decision still needs to be made regarding graduation – Supt. Cain would like the ability to attend both North Tama and STC’s ceremonies which typically take place at the same date and time.

Expulsion hearing

The board entered into closed session at 8:37 p.m. to conduct a hearing on Supt. Hill’s recommendation to expel a student. After returning to open session, the board approved, 5-0, the expulsion of the student in question for one calendar year beginning May 21, 2024, with the possibility of early readmission at the beginning of the 2024-25 second semester.

In order to be readmitted, the student must do the following: comply with all requirements of the court system; provide written documentation from a mental health professional stating, in their opinion, the student does not present an elevated threat to other students; request a hearing before the board at the Dec. 2024 meeting to explain why they should be readmitted early; pass all classes at the time of the hearing.

The expulsion includes a ban from all school property and school activities.

Other business

The following quotes/bids were approved: $33,920 contract with Advanced Environmental for asbestos removal at the three district-owned houses; $11,672 quote from WBC Mechanical to repair the 1917 building’s boiler (Hill told the board once the new high school addition opens, the boiler’s load will be lessened); $66,216.22 to pre-purchase electrical switchgear from Graybar Electrical in order to avoid supply chain issues down the road; and a $12,904.35 bid from Arctic Refrigeration to repair the outdoor walk-in cooler.