ELLEN MORTENSEN

The Callaway Board of Education has a new member as of March 11. Two individuals threw their hats in the ring to fill a vacancy left on the board by Vince Guthrie, who relocated out of the district.

Rebecca Eggleston and Kurt Berg were both present, and basically underwent an interview process by the board in open meeting. Board President Mike Reiff asked each prospect the same series of questions, including why they are seeking to sit on the board, what they feel they can bring to the table, and what they see as some of the biggest problems facing the district.

Both candidates identified teacher retention and recruitment as the biggest issue the district will be facing in the near future. Later in the meeting the board voted on which candidate to chose, and voted to appoint Eggleston to fulfill the remainder of Guthrie’s term. TR Anderson was the lone nay vote on that motion.

In other business, Reiff explained the findings of the superintendent evaluation to the board - no action was needed. As the board transitioned into the action portion of the agenda, the first item of business was the approval of the ESU 10 special education contract and cooperative service agreement.

“What we get billed each year by ESU 10 is determined by state rates,” Superintendent Bryon Hansen explained. “The biggest cost savings for us is that we are proposing that we hire our own speech path. Our projections show that we are going to have enough students to justify a five-day-per-week speech path.”

The board voted unanimously to approve the contract with ESU 10 for special education services.In an action item later in the meeting the board approved a contract for Maddison Huppert as the new speech language pathologist for the district. The board also accepted the resignation of English teacher Hannah Beck, with regrets.

There was also discussion of the proposed calendar for the 2024-25 school year. “We always like to start after SORC and end before state track. This calendar will get us to our 182 days,” explained Principal/AD Heath Birkel. The board unanimously approved the calendar as presented.

Finally, the board approved the annual cooperative agreement for boys basketball, girls basketball, and wrestling for 2024-25. The next meeting of the Callaway school board will be April 8 at 8 p.m.