Stalder named baseball coach at Greene County CSD board meeting

By Rick Morain
Jefferson Herald

Local eye doctor Kyle Stalder was named the newest Greene County baseball coach at the school district’s monthly school board meeting Jan. 18. Stalder has been an assistant with the team for the past three years under previous head coach Matt Paulsen. Paulsen, a Greene County High School graduate, took over reins of the program in 2020 and stepped down following the conclusion of last summer’s campaign.

Stalder is the optometrist for Central Iowa Family EyeCare in Jefferson. His son, Bryce, a 2022 graduate of Greene County, will join his staff as an assistant while he’ll also coach the middle school baseball team. Bryce is a freshman on the Grand View University baseball team. He led Greene County in batting last summer with a .476 average and 30 hits.
Kyle’s daughter Kaylee is an integral part of the Greene County volleyball team.

Other notable athletic hirings during the January meeting were Heather Schmidt as middle school full-time instructional coach for 2023-24 and J.J. Hoyle as assistant varsity softball coach and head middle school softball coach.
Contracts for the summer season were issued as follows:

• Softball: Tom Kennedy as head varsity coach, Jacque Schirmbeck as assistant middle school coach, and Heather Patrick as assistant middle school coach.
The board approved an increase in admission prices beginning with the 2023-24 season as requested for member districts of the Heart of Iowa Activities Conference. The proposed prices for the coming year are $6 for high school events and $5 for adult admission to middle school events. Students will continue to attend middle school events at no cost.
Current prices are $5 for high school events and $3 for adults to attend middle school events. Student admission is free to middle school events as it will be next year as well.

Board discusses 2023-2024 start

The Greene County Community School Board set a public hearing on the 2023-24 school calendar for next month’s board meeting on Wednesday, Feb. 15, at 5:15 p.m. in the district board room at the middle school at 101 Ram Drive in Jefferson.
The board discussed a draft of the proposed calendar, prepared by superintendent Brett Abbotts after staff polls and discussion with the superintendent advisory committee. The draft calendar calls for school to start on Aug. 23 after a week of professional development and work days Aug. 15-22. The last day of school would be May 24, 2004.
Spring break next year would be held March 11-15, 2024. Superintendent Abbotts proposes two hours of professional development next year to take place on the last two hours of Mondays, although it may work out to be on Wednesdays instead.

• In other action, the board approved the following staff changes:

Resignations: high school industrial arts teacher Joshua Carlson, middle school assistant football coach Derek Merk, and high school associate Wade Adcock.

• The board heard a review of the middle school roof replacement project timeline, with a mandatory pre-bid meeting on Jan. 26, bids due on Feb. 10, and board review and approval of the winning bid on Feb. 15 during the regular monthly meeting.

• The board approved the second reading and adopted a policy on radon mitigation.

• The board approved a fundraiser for an eighth grade bake sale to raise money for cancer victims.

• The board approved the first reading of a new revision to its policy on graduation requirements.

The board held a brief discussion on renewal of its current voted physical plant and equipment levy (PPEL), which will expire June 30, 2024. In order to continue the current voted PPEL, it will need to hold a ballot on the matter, either at a special election in September or at the general election in November.

The current voted levy, approved by the district’s voters, allows the district to levy $1.34 per thousand dollars of taxable property. However, it levies only $1.03 at present. In addition, the board has approved another PPEL of 34 cents per thousand.
The board voted to request state school budget review committee approval of two special education administrative costs for the district to pay: one for $17,211.33 for the Grandwood Consortium and the other for $754.93 for the Woodward Academy Day School Consortium.

At the end of the meeting the board went into closed session “to evaluate the professional competency of an individual whose performance/hiring is being considered to prevent needless and irreparable injury to that individual’s reputation, and that individual requested a closed session.” The board took no action when it came out of closed session. (Iowa law forbids public bodies to take any action in closed session.)
The school board meets the third Wednesday of every month at 5:15 p.m. in the board room of the middle school on Ram Drive.