Sheldon, Iowa — The Sheldon Community Schools Board of Education held a pair of meetings Wednesday evening, their annual meeting and an organizational meeting.
The school board annual meeting is the time used to wrap up the previous fiscal year’s business. All of the reports for the fiscal year that ends in June are due in September, which requires the annual meeting to take care of final housekeeping items for the previous year.
The organizational meeting opens business for the new fiscal year, and includes the election of a Board President and Vice President. During Wednesday’s meeting, Kecia Hickman was reelected by the school board to serve another year as board president, and Susan Rensink was reelected as vice president. In addition, the school board is tasked with appointing a board representative to each County Conference Board in the school district. Kecia Hickman was reappointed to the Sioux County Conference Board, while Lori Richards was reappointed as the school board’s representative on the O’Brien County Conference Board.
In other action, the board accepted, and approved, early graduation requests from a pair of Orab seniors during Wednesday’s meeting. The board also voted to accept the superintendent’s recommendation that they expel an unnamed student from school for the remainder of the 2020-21 school year and the first quarter of the 2021-22 school year, for violating the school district’s Code of Conduct. The board was told that the student’s parents have voluntarily entered into an agreement to waive their right for an expulsion hearing with the school board and accept the consequence of expulsion.
The board also voted to accept a $36,404 grant from Sioux Rivers Regional Mental Health & Disabilities Services. The funds are from CARES Act monies received by Sioux Rivers, and the district’s entire grant request amount was accepted. School officials say the funds will be used to increase hours for school nurses and assist with the salary of a school social worker, a position the district hopes to fill very soon.
