LA PORTE CITY – Greetings from the Union Community School District! The summer has come and gone. As we begin the 2024-2025 academic year, I wanted to once again reiterate how grateful I am to be the superintendent for such a wonderful district. As in past years, my goal is to provide appropriate and timely communication to stakeholders in the district through this newsletter.

Start of School

We began school Friday, August 23, 2024, and I have been very pleased with the attitudes and efforts of our students and staff. As I have stated multiple times, in probably hundreds of settings, we have great students and excellent staff at Union.

School Calendar

Early last spring,, the Union Board of Education approved the school calendar for 2024-2025. This year’s calendar is different from last year’s as we reverted back to all day professional development for our teachers/support staff. There will be no school on the following dates for students: September 16, 2024, October 14, 2024, November 11, 2024, January 20, 2025, February 17, 2025, March 17, 2025, and April 21, 2025.

Summer Projects

Since the start of the summer, the district has completed multiple facility improvements– in all buildings. Here are just a few:

-Installation of a new playground and basketball hoops at DG.

-Painted walls and lockers at UMS

-Installed new fencing at the softball field at UMS

-Replaced carpet in four classrooms at LPC and UMS as well as some concrete sidewalks and

stoops at UHS

-Repainted the gym floor and activity entrance pillars at UHS

A big thank you goes out to the board, the companies and district personnel that completed/helped with these projects, and we look forward to improving more of our facilities going forward.

New Teachers

This year the district is welcoming more new teachers than we have had in a long time. Here is the list:

-Ashton Bohlen: DG 2nd Grade

-Nolan Brand: UMS Math

-Emily Damro: UHS Ag Ed

-Lanie Dawson: LPC 4th Grade

-Hannah Erickson: UMS ELA

-Rachel Hellman: LPC 5th Grade

-Anne Kemen: UMS Special Education

-Kelsey Murphy: LPC 5th Grade

-Jarrett West: UHS/UMS Vocal Music

If you have an opportunity, please welcome them to the district. After meeting with this group and being in their classrooms, I am extremely confident that they will do a fantastic job for our students.

Thank You

I want to publicly thank all our full-time and summer custodial staff. Their commitment and hard work are both shown by how great the buildings, buses and grounds look! I am very proud of them!

Bond Issue

On Monday, August 12, 2024, the board of education accepted 144 signatures from eligible voters and voted to call an election for a general obligation bond for this coming November. This number (144) was 40% more than the amount we needed by law, which was great to see. This will be the first school bond issue/referendum in the history of the Union Community School District.

The referendum calls for voters to approve $20.5 million dollars to address the following:

Dysart-Geneseo Elementary School and La Porte City Elementary School

-Replacement of the fire alarm system

-Preventative maintenance for the mechanical systems

Union Middle School

-Roof improvements and replacements

-Renovation of the public restrooms

-Installation of air conditioning in the gymnasium

Union High School

-Replacement of the HVAC systems to improve air quality, comfort, and dehumidification

-Replacement of the steam boilers

-Renovation of 2 science rooms and family and consumer science room

-Relocation and renovation of the library, kitchen, and commons

-Construction of a practice gymnasium and new locker rooms

-Renovation of the public restrooms and current locker rooms

These facility improvements, as you can definitely see, will greatly enhance our buildings and benefit our students, staff and communities now and into the future. More information regarding the bond issue will be in future newsletters as well as on the district’s website and social media pages.

Fall Activities

Good Luck to all our fall activity coaches, sponsors and participants. There is no question all will represent themselves, the district and our communities well.

Thank you, as usual, for your support of the Union Community School District! Go Knights!