Thursday evening many residents from the communities of Gladbrook and Reinbeck attended the special meeting/work session of the Gladbrook-Reinbeck School Board as they are interested and concerned about the future of G-R. At the special meeting the board accepted the resignations of Martin Halstead as Jr. High Wrestling Coach and Waylon Bern as Buildings & Grounds Coordinator. Halstead was offered a 1/2 time wrestling contract along with Todd Rickert. The board suggested the district look at operational sharing with another district for a building and grounds coordinator. Supt. Shawn Holloway presented the Modified Allowable Growth/Dropout Prevention Application for $145,729 for 2015-16. The funds are categorical and can be used for salaries for the Dean of Students, At Risk Associates and for certified staff salaries. Holloway said he should know in February if approved. Gary Sinclair of the Iowa School Board Association was on hand and gave a presentation on ‘understanding the “cost” per student at G-R and why it is high. Sinclair showed a comparison among neighboring school districts and showed G-R to have the highest salary benefit for the number of students served, these are students who attend classes at G-R. The district had the highest spending per students in FY13 out of 346 districts for students who were certified, these are students who live in the district but open enroll out. Currently G-R has 70 students who open enroll out of the district and 9 who open enroll in. The cost per student is $6,366. Comparing G-R to other neighboring districts, they also had the highest ranking on cost per student to operate a building. The cost per student in FY13 was $1,177 and for FY14 it is $1,131. In FY14 it cost $662/student for transportation G-R’s cost for purchased services in FY14 was $1,551 and the reason for this is the number of students who open enroll out. Staff salaries and benefits per student went from $8,419 in FY13 to $8,892 in FY14, again the reason being the number of students went down by 9-10 students. Sinclair gave comparisons on general fund teacher salaries, core cost per student for language arts, math, science and social studies. The average regular teacher salary and cost per student is $48,997 and the average superintendent and principals staffing and cost per student is $94,670. The elementary instructional staffing and cost per student is $48,082. Sinclair went on to say the number of teachers per students is an issue. He said there are cost sharing opportunities and incentives for whole grade sharing. If a district receives an incentive for whole grade sharing, they need to make progress toward reorganization for the cost sharing to continue. Joint employment is all short-term solutions. Joe Kramer and Jeff Cruz who have been facilitators for the Community Committee shared a G-R Analysis of area school districts and presented distances to possible future sharing partners in miles. Currently G-R shares classes with Grundy Center, Dike-New Hartford and Aplington-Parkersburg and currently share athletic programs with Grundy Center, North Tama and Dike-New Hartford. Kramer and Cruz also shared a comparison of the number of district buildings to enrollment and the cost per student. G-R with three buildings had a cost per student of $11,787. G-R has the highest per student operational and transportation cost in the state, they have the 3rd lowest administrative cost per student and the 2nd lowest enrollment in the area. The Community Committee which is made of 20 members from the district (10 from Gladbrook and 10 from Reinbeck) had written questions they had submitted to the board which the board addressed. The Community Committee was given to options to consider regarding the future of G-R and that was to have 7-12 at the high school building in Reinbeck and K-6 at the Gladbrook campus or to have K-6 and 7-12 both in Reinbeck. Following those questions, a discussion and questions followed from residents attending. A big concern to the community is the number of students who open enroll out and this has a big impact on the district. In the last 7 years, G-R’s enrollment has dropped by 142 students. No one wants to see a building closed. The board stressed that nothing is final and they have asked the Community Committee to make a recommendation for them to consider. There will be the regular school board meeting Thursday, December 18th at 6:30 in Gladbrook and the next Community Com