A public hearing will be held Wednesday evening at the high school in Atlantic, with regard to a five-year extension of the Instructional Support Levy (ISL) for the Atlantic Community School District. The District received $708,671 from the ISL last year. The hearing on its renewal takes place as part of the regularly scheduled Atlantic School Board meeting that begins at 5:30-p.m. in the High School Media Center.

The ISL, as allowed by Iowa Code, may be used for any general fund purpose. As proposed, the levy would be in effect from July 1st, 2019 for a period of five-years. The proposal states: “Additional funding for the ISP for a budget year will be determined annually by the Board of Directors [Board of Education], and will not exceed 10% of the total regular program district cost for the budget year and moneys received under [the Iowa Code] as a budget adjustment for the budget year. Moneys received by the District for the [ISP] may be used for any general fund purpose, but will not be subject to collective bargaining [pursuant to Iowa Code], and will not be used for employee pay or benefits.”

In addition, “The Instructional Support Levy will be funded by instructional state aid and a combination of instructional support property tax levied annually upon the taxable property within the District,” beginning with the collection of property taxes July 1st, 2019, “And an instructional support INCOME SURTAX imposed annually for each budget year,” not to exceed 20%, and to be determined annually by the Board for each budget year, to be imposed on the state individual income tax, effective Dec. 31st, 2019 and each year thereafter.

Following the Public Hearing on the ISL renewal, the School Board will decide on whether or not to take action on adopting a Resolution to continue the ISL for a period not to exceed five-years. In other business, the Atlantic School Board will act on the resignations of: Ginger Bechtold, 6-12 Media Specialist/Teacher; Whitney Hoegh, 4th Grade Teacher; Virginia Jordan, 5th Grade Teacher, and Ben Winford, District Maintenance. They will also act on approving Contracts or Letters of Assignment for the following individuals: Ashley Bollinger, Washinton Level 3 Para; Tracy Purkapile, School Bus Monitor/Driver; Donna Green, Additional driving duties; Cassidy Coenen, and Rebecaa Drake, High School 1:1 Para’s; Kathy Wiebenga, Preschool Para; Martin McCreedy, Substitute Bus Driver, and Karen Vogl, Homebound Instructor.

Discussion items include Summer 2018 Capital Projects planning, which includes: The purchase of a propane bus; Committing $100,000 toward the future HVAC needs; replacing the high school 1:1 computer protective covers, replacement batteries for laptops and some refurbished laptops. (Est. total cost $37,000); Equipping 6th-through 8th grade students with Chromebooks ($145,000); replacement of the middle school bleachers (est. cost $108,000), and converting the high school gym lighting to LED by changing the fixtures, which result in saving of electricity.

And, the Board will act on a Resolution pertaining to improvements of the District’s Athletic Facilities, which calls for the current athletic fields at the Middle School to remain intact, with improvement being made to the current sites without the need to relocate. It also specifies the goals and commitments toward the project, the establishment of a timeline and deadlines within the timeline.