Board approves first sale of bonds

     The Baker Group of Oklahoma City was the winning bidder for nearly $10 million in General Obligation (GO) school bonds sold by the Monticello Community School District to help finance construction of a new middle school.

     The Monticello School Board approved the sale through a resolution passed at a special meeting Wednesday, Dec. 12 in the Administrative Board Room.

     The Baker Group was awarded the bid based on having a low “true interest rate” of 3.196860 percent. There were eight total bidders. Some of the other top bidders were from Philadelphia, Pa.; Minneapolis, Minn.; Dallas, Texas; and Memphis, Tenn.

     The purchased price was restructured to $9,655,000 to comply with tax laws. The remainder of the voter-approved $15 million in GO bonds, will be sold in March.

In other board business

     • The board heard a report from Superintendent Brian Jaeger about the Monticello Community School District’s Five-year Facility Projects Plan.

     The plan is updated every year, with a list of annual projects, projects that have begun, and possible future projects.

     Annual projects include the purchase of a new school bus or van, annual technology expenses, and more.

     Several projects have been started, ranging from bleacher repairs at the football field (stairs and rails), to ceiling tiles for the high school lunchroom, to LED lighting at the Shannon Elementary school.

     Among the possible future projects are LED lighting at Carpenter School, updating fire and security systems at the elementary schools, a new stage curtain at the high school, and asphalt in the handicap areas of the parking lot at the Monticello Sports Complex.

     Board president Bud Johnson suggested another future project could be paving the entire parking lots at the complex, particularly since one of those fields is to be converted to the high school softball field.

     • The board heard a report from curriculum director Gretchen Kriegel about student performance data.

     Kriegel presented a PowerPoint about student achievement in the past school year.

     Among them was a slide showing the Monticello district’s rank at various grade levels in reading, math and science among the 32 Grant Wood Area Education Association school districts.

     Monticello ranked as high as first in four of the categories: sixth-grade reading, 11^th-grade reading, 11^th-grade math and sixth-grade science. Out of 21 possible rankings among seven grades, Monticello was in the top five in eight of them and in the top 10 in 11. The lowest were 22^nd in both fourth-grade math and eighth-grade reading.

     Also, a comparison of ACT scores showed Monticello ranked third among 14 Eastern Iowa schools, with an average score of 23.2 (36 is the most possible).

     “Our high school data looks really, really good,” Kriegel said.

     • The board approved the bid of Lee Guffy to purchase the district’s used 2004, 65-passenger Thomas Bus, at a price of $1,675. Guffy is from Wichita Falls, Texas.