Minutes of the Ames Community School District Board of Directors

Minutes of the Ames Community School District Board of Directors Regular Meeting of April 6, 2026 Attendees. Voting Members: VP Sabrina Shields-Cook, Art Baumgartner, Allen Bierbaum, Angie DeWaard, Aaron Rodriguez and Jennifer Tipton. Non-Voting Members: Scott Grimes and Sherri Ruzek. Members Present/Acknowledge Quorum. VP Sabrina Shields-Cook called to order the Regular Meeting of the Ames CSD Board of Directors at 5:30 pm. The meeting was hosted at the District Office, 2005 24th St., and open to virtual attendance in accordance with Open Meetings Laws. Approval of Agenda. Motion made by: Angie DeWaard. Motion seconded by: Dr. Allen Bierbaum. Voting results: Unanimously Approved. Public Forum. There were no comments. Consent Agenda. All items listed under Consent were enacted by one motion. Approval as presented. Motion made by: Angie DeWaard. Motion seconded by: Art Baumgartner. Voting results: Unanimously Approved. Approval of Minutes of Previous Meeting; Claims & Payroll; Contract Approvals / Resignations / Changes; Open Enrollment; and Contracts and Agreements: Ames CSD-Decker Sporting Goods Licensing Agreement. Reports. Superintendent. Staffing. Supt. Scott Grimes introduced Allison Emery, the District's new Director of Teaching and Learning. He reviewed certified staffing changes for the 2026-27 school year, noting that most changes since the last Board meeting consist of internal transfers. He explained that four candidates have been selected from the applicant pool to interview for the principal position at Mitchell Elementary. The interviews will be held at Mitchell Elementary on Friday. The candidates will be interviewed by three teams: parents and teachers, administrators and Supt. Grimes. There will be a written component to the interview process. Chief Financial Officer. Budget Guarantee Resolution. CFO Sherri Ruzek reported on the budget guarantee, or budget adjustment, resolution. She explained that SF 2201 was approved with Supplemental State Aid and the bill temporarily shifts the financial responsibility of the budget guarantee from local property taxes to state aid. She noted that Ames CSD's budget guarantee for FY27 is $172,693. Because the state will bear the financial burden of the guarantee this year, property tax relief of approximately $.04/$1,000 is realized for Ames residents. She further explained that, when the District requires a budget guarantee, it is generally a result of declining enrollment, low Supplemental State Aid or a combination of both. She recommended the Board approve the budget guarantee. Dir. Art Baumgartner and Dir. Ruzek briefly discussed SSA and the new practice of the State covering budget guarantees. Dir. Ruzek cautioned that, if the State were to continue to provide low SSA and cover budget guarantees, it could result in lower funding for public schools. Student Representatives. The Student Representatives were unable to attend the meeting due to other obligations. At the request of Student Representative Dania Tahir, Supt. Scott Grimes promoted Ames High's Culture Fair on April 18 from 1 to 3 pm in the Ames High Commons. Board Members. There were no comments. Requests for Superintendent. There were no new requests. Board Planning Calendar. The next Regular Meeting is April 20 at 5:30 pm. Work Session. The Work Session began at 5:41 pm. Attendees: Sabrina Shields-Cook, Art Baumgartner, Allen Bierbaum, Angie DeWaard, Aaron Rodriguez, Jennifer Tipton, Scott Grimes, Sherri Ruzek, Jeff Hawkins, Mary Morton, Lisa Clayberg, Sevond Cole, Nicole Coronado, Justin Jeffs, Jessica Sharp, Dan Rader and JD Mitchell. Preschool and Elementary Principals. Northwood Preschool Principal Mary Morton reported Northwood staff employs intentional strategies to build strong connections with their students and families. She described Northwood's "onboarding" process for parents, which begins before the school year with staff home visits and an orientation event for families and continues throughout the school year in the form of a series of family engagement events, such as STEAM and Literacy Nights. Aside from engagement events, she explained Northwood teachers are in regular contact with parents regarding their students and parenting strategies generally. She described the focus Northwood places on facilitating families' transition to kindergarten. Responding to questions from the Board, Principal Morton cited budgetary constraints and programming that serves students for a half school day only. She asserted that staff misses many opportunities to serve children because preschoolers do not attend full school days. Because the half school day poses logistical challenges to families, she speculated that preschool registration would increase if Ames CSD was able to offer a full school day to preschoolers. CFO Sherri Ruzek reminded the Board that preschool is funded separately from the K-12 General Fund. Supt. Scott Grimes indicated that the District covers transportation costs for preschool families, which is not a typical practice in Iowa school districts. Principal Morton cautioned that she believes preschool enrollment would decline if transportation wasn't provided to students for free. Supt. Grimes asserted that the District will continue to search for funding sources for PK programming. Meeker Elementary Principal Lisa Clayberg reported on how Meeker staff has emphasized meeting students' diverse needs through a consistent Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS). She indicated that Meeker staff's capacity to implement an MTSS has been cultivated this year by focusing on three areas—leadership, infrastructure and the Universal Tier of Instruction. She reported that the process began with instructional leaders deepening their own knowledge of MTSS practices and communicating that knowledge to the entire staff through professional development activities. To address the school's MTSS infrastructure, she established a 12-week cycle to review data for literacy and math and a 6-week cycle for graph reviews to determine the efficacy of instruction students receive. In addition, PLCs meet weekly to discuss literacy and math instruction and every quarter to address social emotional learning. Citing Effective Universal Instruction (Gibbons, Brown, Niebling) as a staff resource, Principal Clayberg asserted that staff has focused on realizing an effective Universal Tier of Instruction and implementing the iReady math curriculum through math PLC retreat days. She explained that homeroom teachers have collaborated with special education teachers to pre-teach elements of the curriculum, such as lesson vocabulary, to special education students to increase the efficacy of the Universal Tier of Instruction. Mitchell Elementary Principal Justin Jeffs reported on Mitchell's focus to improve attendance rates and address chronic absenteeism. He asserted family engagement and cultivating a respectful and affirming environment are key strategies to improving attendance. He highlighted that he assembled an attendance team to closely review attendance biweekly and work with families as soon as possible to identify reasons for absenteeism and help families eliminate the barriers preventing regular attendance. Principal Jeffs reported that attendance data illustrates improvement in attendance rates in the aggregate and for all demographies over the past two years. He credited the small team working on attendance for the success but acknowledged that the processes for tracking attendance closely, engaging families, maintaining related documentation and truancy court proceedings are very time-consuming. Responding to questions from Dirs. Angie Dewaard and Allen Bierbaum, Principal Jeffs indicated that the processes used by Mitchell to improve attendance are documented for posterity and replication and noted that court proceedings are infrequent, with mediation solving 90-95% of chronic absenteeism. Edwards Elementary Principal Jessica Sharp reported on Edwards' focus on strengthening literacy proficiency growth through structured instruction by targeting learners with the highest needs. She identified a number of actions steps taken by Edwards' special education teachers and instructional coach to achieve improved reading outcomes for students receiving specialized instruction. She explained all special education teachers and the instructional coach received Wilson training from the Area Education Agency (AEA) and that the coach and special education teachers meet regularly to review data and plan for instruction. She asserted that clear expectations and systems for staff are critical to successfully improving student proficiency. She noted that the next steps include additional training of instructional leaders by the AEA followed by providing the same training to Edwards' entire staff. She acknowledged that some of the challenges faced include preserving staff's time to collaborate, varying levels of experience among teachers, and achieving fidelity in execution across the entire staff. Responding to questions from Dirs. DeWaard and Jennifer Tipton, she asserted that a change to literacy curriculum should not have an adverse impact on Edwards' goals to improve literacy growth and acknowledged that she wished the public was aware that assessments measuring literacy growth are not necessarily reflective of a student's true capacity because the growth measurements are based on isolated assessments that may only capture a student's proficiency on a specific day. Fellows Elementary Principal Sevond Cole reported on strategies Fellows employs to improve attendance among students with disabilities. However, before he addressed the subject of improving attendance, he acknowledged the strong work being reported by other principals and that, despite it not having been showcased during the Work Session, he believes the greatest success this year has been the elementary principals' work strengthening the MTSS for elementary math instruction across the District. To address Fellows' goal to improve attendance among students with disabilities, he explained that staff planned two special family engagement nights designed in the spirit of a "Parent University." The first event was a Math Night that included sessions for parents on the new law governing math instruction, core math instruction, and math games and resources parents can use with their children. He noted that, through the support of the Fellows Parent-Teacher Organization, childcare was provided to enable parents to remain engaged in the adult learning. Principal Cole reported that of the approximately 100 families invited to the event, 16% attended. He further described a forthcoming Reading Night planned for May during which instructional sessions for parents with young readers will be held. Sawyer Elementary Principal Nicole Coronado presented on how Sawyer staff leverages Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) to improve math proficiency and growth for students whose proficiency is two or more years below grade level. She acknowledged Sawyer's recent work in PLCs has been informed by PLC+: Better Decisions and Greater Impact by Design (Fisher, Frey, et al.), which was studied by Sawyer's administrative team and instruction coach last summer. She described how teachers use PLCs to engage in collaborative, continuous learning and maintain a focus on instruction and student growth. She explained that all K-5 teachers at Sawyer completed PLC+ learning modules at the Little Cyclone Teacher Academy in August and that K-5 teachers realized that training during weekly PLC meetings with a focus on math instruction. She noted plans to expand PLCs to Special Education, SUCCESS and Related Arts teachers next year. She reviewed the questions and framework used to guide the work of PLCs towards the development, analysis and improvement of classroom instruction. She indicated this year's work has strengthened the purpose of Sawyer's PLCs, data-driven decision-making and effective use of iReady materials as well as improved standards-based instruction discussions and student outcomes. She explained the efficacy of implementing the work of PLCs is contingent on the quality of the building's instructional coach, professional development related to the curriculum and a robust culture of learning for teachers and students alike. She cautioned that challenges faced by staff include preserving time for teacher collaboration and finding time to collaborate with Tier 2 and 3 instructors. She noted additional plans to expand the strategies applied to math instruction to literacy next year. Supt. Scott Grimes thanked the principals for their meaningful presentations and noted the strength of the administrators, their collaborations and the work they deliver in their respective buildings. He thanked the Board for trusting administrators to manage their staffs and the delivery of curricula to Ames' students. He highlighted the benefits of a strong working relationship between the Board and District. Adjourn. Motion made by: Dr. Allen Bierbaum. Motion seconded by: Angie DeWaard. Voting results: Unanimously Approved. The meeting adjourned at 7:38 pm. April 15 2026 LIOW0498096