The Callaway Public Schools administrative team got a nod of approval from the school board at the March 10 regular board meeting, as the contracts for High School Principal/Activities Director Heath Birkel and Elementary Principal/Special Education Director Brittany Jesseph were renewed for the 2025-26 school year. Both administrators also unanimously were given a raise.

Board members Liana Hrupek and Rhonda Pandorf serve on the board’s personnel committee and made a recommendation on behalf of that committee to give both Birkel and Jesseph a three percent raise.

In addition, the committee recommended giving a stipend to Jesseph to compensate for her SPED role in the amount of $7,510.

The contract for the school superintendent is on a timeline different from that of the principals and is due for renewal in June. Following discussion and input from board members, the superintendent evaluation tool that was presented for consideration was approved.

Each year, school policies are reviewed and updated as needed, oftentimes to align with new legislation that has gone into effect that year. Several of those policies were presented to the board for review, and another handful for approval on the first reading. We will take a closer look at some of those policies in the March 20 issue of the Courier.

Principal Birkel asked the board for guidance on the dress code for Prom. “I just want to make sure that the message I am relaying to the kids is accurate,”

cont. PAGE 3: School Board Birkel explained. The board had discussed the dress code at a previous meeting, and further conversation at Monday’s meeting confirmed for Birkel that nice jeans would be allowed.

During the superintendent’s report, JD Furrow shared that the district is a little over $300,000 behind on incoming funds from where they were this time last year. Tiana Bonde reached out to the county treasurer and learned that an increase in property tax breaks has created a decrease in what people owe in taxes.

“The state is recouping that, but they don’t recoup that on a monthly basis so that gets behind,” Furrow explained. “Tiana got word today that on the 14th we will have the first of those payments put into our account of $432,000. So our total March amount from the treasurer will be $725,000. So, we should be good.”

Furrow also told the board that the state aid and SPED payments for the upcoming year have also been received, and there was no significant difference in those amounts.

The superintendent informed the board that three teachers will become tenured on their next contract - Kaylee Brogan, Crysta Anderson, and Charmayne Popp. Furrow then went into an update on the properties the district is working on purchasing. He shared that he has not been able to get any response from anyone associated with the Garlick property, and when he contacted Russell Title, they shared that they have also been unable to contact anyone.

“Our emergency is not necessarily their emergency, so we are at the mercy of their timeline, and I don’t like that,” said Furrow. “We have plans for that ground. Garrett (Hrupek) is working on a fairly large grant possibility that would help possibly finish the construction of that greenhouse and maybe even put some stuff in it, so hopefully we will have everything by that time.”

Other pieces of property being discussed are 101 S. Needham and 103 S. Needham. Furrow explained that the board’s current policies do not specifically give the superintendent permission to sign on behalf of the district for the purchase of real estate or property. Later in the meeting, the board approved the action item granting permission for Furrow to sign and close on the purchase of the 101 S. Needham property. Furrow is also working on purchasing the 103 S. Needham property and shared that “this is in the works”.

He concluded his report with an update on the installation of the kitchen’s new walk-in freezer, and on projects being planned for summer.

The next meeting of the Callaway school board was set for April 14 at 8 p.m.