—Daily Freeman-Journal photo by Adri Sietstra Sunset Heights second grader, Delaney, is pictured above showing Webster City school board members Pam Hayes and Dan Ryherd about virtual reality Monday evening.

The Webster City School Board observed a second grade technology integration presentation Monday night.

“We have some second graders who are here today,” said Dawn Scholtens, instructional coach at Sunset Heights Elementary School. “The coaches teamed up together to work with the second graders to integrate some technology into their regular learning.”

Gary Scholtens, technology integrationalist, worked with students on virtual reality. Second grade student Delaney showed the board how virtual reality worked. Members of the board even got to take a look at a piece of virtual reality on a cell phone through a special viewing object.

Michael Ross, instructional coach, taught students about circuits and technical reading.

Students Jack and Amanda brought two completed circuit examples to the meeting to show the board. They explained that it was important to follow the directions exactly in order to have a working circuit.

Jama Hisler, instructional coach, helped students learn how to program robots. Students learned about shapes, angles, and the importance of saving their work.

Students Miley and Jackson showed the board how they program each robot and presented examples of the robots going in squares and rectangles. Hisler explained this also taught students about geometry aspects like angles and degrees.

“Initially we started off with the robots not sure where the adventure would go. We went from just exploring to learning how to program the rotors to connecting it with geometry,” said Hisler.

Students learned how to program the robots to travel in squares and rectangles. Some classes have even learned how to program a robot to overcome an obstacle.

Students were assessed before they began working in each area. Dawn Scholtens explained that students did not have much prior knowledge about programming, virtual reality, and circuitry. Students will be assessed at the end of the program to see what they have learned about each topic.

“We all worked together and their teachers were very cooperative,” Scholtens said. “We also have gone from the coaches showing the kids and the teachers, to the teachers being able to work with the kids, to now the kids being able to do it by themselves.”

“This is the power of the TLC grant that we’ve been talking about,” said Dr. Adam Zellmer. “The collaboration between grade level teachers and our coaches and ultimately the bottom line impact was how it impacts the kids…I am excited about the opportunities that it’s going to afford our kids moving forward.”

The Webster City Education Association presented their initial bargaining proposal for the 2017-2018 Collective Bargaining Agreement to the board. The WCEA wishes to revisit personal leave. Concerning salary schedules, they also asked to increase each career increment by a half a percent. This would be a total cost of an estimated $4,000. They asked to increase the BA Base to $36,800, which would be a $1,040 increase on the current base.

“We just ask to retain things in the present contract except for we need to revisit personal leave,” said Trish Bahrenfuss, “A couple years ago, we added in that you could have $45 back per personal day that you haven’t used and we just said we’d re-evaluate it.”

The WCEA also asked for an increase from four to five percent in supplemental pay for Publications (High school director), Instrumental music (middle school), Vocal music (Middle school).

“This would be a 4.98 percent increase,” said Bahrenfuss.

The Webster City Education Services Association bargaining team presented their initial bargaining proposal for the 2017-2019 Collective Bargaining Agreement.

The WCESA requested the addition of a third personal business leave day. They also requested to raise the longevity stipends for full-time employees. They requested full-time employees at Step 21-22 receive an increase from $450 to $650, Step 23-25 receive an increase from $550 to $850, and Step 26 and on receive an increase from $650 to 1,050.

The board approved a fundraising request from Webster City High School special education teacher Amanda Nichols for the Special Education class to make freezer meals to sell. They hope to raise $200 to be put towards the Special Olympics.

A special education contract with Fort Dodge Community Schools was approved for the 2016-2017 school year.

A contract for student services and placement with the Council Bluffs school district was approved for the 2016-2017 school year.

The board approved a lease agreement with Iowa Central Community College.

“We had an agreement in place for a number of years. The square footage changed significantly a little over a year ago. So last year we basically used the facility rent free because of costs that we paid previously,” said Superintendent Mike Sherwood. This is just for this school year. It sets a rate of $625 a square foot. We currently lease 1,984 square feet. So approximately $12,000 in lease payment for the use of the ICCC campus in Webster City.”

An internship contract with Morningside College was approved.

The superintendent sharing agreement with Stratford was approved for the 2017-2018 school year for the amount of $44,097.

The next board meeting will be on Monday, Feb. 27 at 6 p.m.