—Daily Freeman-Journal photo by Adri Sietstra Webster City Superintendent Mike Sherwood discusses the possibility of moving forward with a reorganization with the Northeast Hamilton School District at Monday evening’s school board meeting. All Webster City School Board members were on board with informally moving forward with the reorganization process.

The beginning of the 2017-2018 Webster City School District’s year is off to a great start, according to Superintendent Mike Sherwood.

“We had a very good start,” said Sherwood. “We had a great staff in-service.”

Sherwood also noted positive comments from staff about this year’s professional development workshops.

“I feel good about the start of the year,” said Sherwood.

According to Dr. Adam Zellmer, director of learning in the district, the iPad rollout is going well. Three of the four buildings are completed with the process. The middle school will be done on Wednesday.

“We’ll have 1,700 iPads rolled out,” said Zellmer.

According to Sherwood, this year is the first year that students will have to use a district-issued Apple ID instead of being able to use a personal Apple ID. This is to ensure that teachers are able to have more control and flexibility on what applications students can access during the school day.

This will also enable teachers to monitor students’ use from their own screen.

“Now that they are all Webster City addressed Apple ID’s it will provide for some more classroom management and more flexibility on what apps we push out to students,” said Zellmer.

Zellmer brought up the main priorities staff will be focusing on this academic year:

• Refreshing and refocusing on their commitment to professional learning committees

• Continuing to promote a positive and supportive environment for learning

The board also viewed a video made by Dawn and Gary Scholtens. The video was a collaboration of students of all ages within the district thanking teachers and other school staff for their time and effort throughout the year. The video went in-depth to show the many struggles students face and why teachers have the ability to impact the kids they interact with each day.

The board agreed to informally go about the next steps toward a reorganization with the Northeast Hamilton School District.

The board approved agreements with the Head Start Program and Rabiner Consortium Program.

Zellmer also brought up professional development dates for the district. Three full professional development dates are slated for Sept. 18, Nov. 8 and Feb. 14.

Tentative upcoming two hour early releases and late start dates include Sept. 13, Oct. 26, Dec. 14, Jan. 11, April 5, and May 10.

Due to increased enrollment, the board approved a contract recommendation with Diane Riedemann. Riedemann will be teaching four-year-old preschool at the Webster City Daycare.

Three dates for informal board meetings with Stratford and NEH were set at Monday’s meeting. They are Monday, Oct. 9 at 5 p.m. in Webster City, Wednesday, Jan. 17 at 4:30 p.m. in Stratford and Thursday, April 19 at 5 p.m. at NEH.

Two fundraising requests from the WCHS FFA were approved. The fundraisers consist of the FFA’s annual fruit sales and the sale of homecoming t-shirts. The FFA hopes to raise $5,000 with each fundraiser to go towards leadership activities and FFA expenses.

Webster City resident Paul Dahl addressed two concerns during the public comment portion of the meeting. Dahl asked about radon mitigation in the school system.

Sherwood said that radon testing was done twice at the Riverview building. The first test indicated radon so a second test was conducted. The second test results came back negative for radon. Sherwood also stated that lead testing of the water in each building was conducted.

Dahl also asked that for every tree lost on school property that the school plant two in its place.

The next board meeting is scheduled for Monday, Sept. 11, 2017 at 6 p.m. at the school administration office board room.