A rural Melvin man will fill the District 4 seat on the Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn school board.

Kyle McCarter was appointed to the seat on Monday. He was one of three individuals who expressed interest in filling the position. Preston DeBoer, of rural Hartley, and Sara Otto, of rural Ocheyedan, were others considered for appointment.

The other four board members voted by ballot to fill the position. President Scott Vollink did not state how many votes each candidate received.

McCarter immediately took his seat on the board. He replaces Scott Heetland who recently resigned after serving for 13 years, including eight as president.

Vollink succeeds Heetland as board president and will serve on the personnel subcommittee. Ryan Haack was elected vice president. McCarter was named to the buildings and ground subcommittee and will be H-M-S's representative on the Osceola County Conference Board.

• Van purchase, PK funding adjustment

In other business, the board approved the purchase of a used 12-passenger van from a dealer in Minnesota for $47,645. The vehicle has approximately 40,000 miles.

"We looked at three different ones. This seems to be the best bang for the buck," Superintendent Patrick Carlin said.

The van will be purchased with federal COVID relief funding. The district is considering other one-time purchases which qualify to be paid with ESSER funds. Those monies are currently scheduled to sunset in 2023.

"It ends up stretching our capital projects funds for future building projects," Carlin explained.

H-M-S is also eligible to apply for a pre-kindergarten funding adjustment for the current year. The amount of the adjustment is $3,613.50.

"We're one of the lucky ones who could claim it," Carlin said.

Personnel matters included issuing a contract to Brett Iverson as a nighttime custodian, primarily at the middle school, and accepting the resignations of Becky Maloney, middle school special education teacher, who is retiring at the end of the year; Kristen Triplett, elementary counselor and middle school assistant track coach; and Kari Schultz, middle school secretary.

• Open campus, assessments

Open campus for H-M-S seniors will begin on Jan. 24. Rules governing who is eligible to take advantage of the privilege to leave the high school campus are similar to those of the past five years.

According to Principal Nate Hemiller, last year's seniors "used [open campus] appropriately. We saw an increase in the grades of those students who wanted to be able to use the open campus option."

The second of the series of three assessments is being given to elementary students this month. The assessments will focus on literacy and math. Similar testing at the middle school will focus on reading, fluency and math, as well as a social, academic and emotional behavior risk screener.

"These are opportunities to see how students are growing through the year, how they compare with their peers and with national norms," said Principal Corey Ramsey. "These scores help guide our small groups and instruction during WIN and in our classrooms."

Iowa Assessments will be given to high school students during the week of April 25.