The Hartley Sentinel-The Everly/Royal News - Serving O'Brien & Clay Counties

The Clay Central/Everly school board on Jan. 24 approved the resignations of three elementary teachers effective at the end of the current year.

Tierny Rutt, Joan Kimball and Melissa Loving submitted their resignations to the board. Rutt teaches first grade, Kimball teaches fifth grade and Loving teaches fourth grade.

Rutt applied for early retirement, which was approved by the board. She was the only CC/E teacher who applied for the board's package this year. Kimball and Loving are also retiring but were not eligible for the package.

All three women had positive things to say about the district. Rutt has been with CC/E for 37 years.

"It has given me the opportunity to work with wonderful students and staff," she wrote. "I will treasure my memories from my time at CC/E."

Superintendent Kevin Wood noted after the meeting not all vacant teaching positions will be filled for the 2024-25 school year. CC/E is transitioning to multi-grade classrooms next year, so three new teachers won't be necessary.

Only some grade levels will be combined in the fall. The board has yet to decide which ones, and Wood noted the transition is "still in the works."

"We are still working through numbers and plans to combine certain grade levels that will work for CC/E," he said. "We should have that decided at the next board meeting."

The decision to combine certain grade levels was brought on by low censuses in some CC/E classrooms. Overall K-6 enrollment is at 51 right now, with the largest class having 11 students.

According to previous discussion, the shift has the opportunity to enrich students' learning experiences and social relationships with more peer-to-peer interactions. CC/E staff members have been studying Stratford Elementary in Stratford, Iowa, which moved to multi-grade classrooms more than a decade ago for the same reasons.

• Contract negotiations start

The CC/E Education Association (CCEEA) presented its opening proposal for negotiations of the 2024-25 master contract. At the desire of the district, the association said it would like to continue building "a positive working relationship with the district" through interest-based bargaining.

"With an ever-increasing teacher shortage, the CCEEA is interested in creating a compensation and benefit package that will not only attract but retain the best and brightest educational professionals," the group wrote to the board.

Board members were eager to utilize interest-based bargaining as the template to create a mutual agreement. The opening proposal was accepted as informational, and specific dollar amounts will not be discussed until the district is provided with health insurance costs.

"We feel we owe it to the parents and students of the CC/E CSD to provide the best instruction and programming we can to provide a world-class education not only to the students we currently serve, but also attract future students," CCEEA wrote. "Continuing to attract future students to the CC/E CSD will ensure that our district stays viable well into the future."

• Survey says...

According to initial results of a recent survey, 57 percent of responding families would like CC/E to pursue a second 7-12 tuition agreement with Sioux Central, while 33 percent picked Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn. Twenty-one families had responded as of Jan. 24.

The questionnaire came following a presentation to the board in November by parents Iesha Toft and Marlana Tewes. The duo believed Sioux Central was a better fit for CC/E for a variety of reasons.

After a brief investigation, Wood discovered it's possible for CC/E to have two sharing agreements, and the board moved forward with the formal survey to gauge opinions. It's still open to district patrons through Feb. 2 and is accessible via the district's Facebook page.

CC/E has maintained a 7-12 sharing agreement with Spencer since the district ceased offering those grades following the 2018-19 school year. It does not intend to end that agreement next year, as several 7-12 grade students attend Spencer.

Data collected from the survey will be used to determine if a second sharing agreement is feasible. It is open to any CC/E district resident.