The Mount Pleasant School Board met in a special session last night, Monday, June 30th. They moved through the top agenda items quickly and unanimously approving the 2025-26 milk bid and a motion to approve legal counsel conflict of interest waiver.
The school board approved Anderson Erickson Dairy as their milk supplier for the 2025-26 school year, after calling for 3 bids and collecting 2 responses. Anderson Erickson came in the most cost effective at $0.33 for 1% white, $0.35 for chocolate, and skim white milk coming in at $0.37 per carton.
The school board also approved a motion to move forward on a conflict-of-interest waiver with their legal representation. Mount Pleasant School District is taking the necessary steps forward to enter into agreement with the New London School District for their Homeschool Assistance Program. Essentially, this agreement allows for New London homeschooled students to access the programming in the Mount Pleasant School district while still enrolling in their home school district for activities such as sports. This motion was just to approve the waiver so the legal counsel can draft the agreement between the two schools, which happen to use the same legal office. Hence the necessity for a conflict-of-interest waiver.
Discussion then turned to the future of the MPCSD and its facilities in their work session. The first topic of discussion was consideration to move Central Office and the Homeschool Assistance Program, both of which are currently housed in office space the district rents for around $46,000 per year, to already purchased buildings on Central Campus, formerly Iowa Wesleyan Campus. Many board members had questions and sought more information on how much the plans from the architect may cost, getting various options for renovations like moving Central Office to the Chapel versus the Howe Student Union, and overall if the cost for these renovations was really the best use of their penny sales tax dollars.
As these questions surfaced, the conversation naturally moved to the topic of demographics and future planning needs and nothing definitive was decided. Currently the district has a one-year lease in place for Central Office and HSAP to stay in their current rented space August 2025-August 2026. Superintendent Henriksen will get more information to share with the board the topic will be revisited, although consensus at this time was not to spend money on renovations if they were going to be upwards of $800,000 like the draft of the previous master plan had listed.
As board president Angie Blint moved forward with the work session, she proposed many questions about future planning. What do the next 3-5 years look like for MPCSD and what does the demographic data offer for insight as they move forward with future planning needs? Superintendent Henriksen presented a lot of data and general trends in funding and enrollment across the state, using sources from the Iowa department of education and the Iowa state data center, highlighting that the population in Henry County has the biggest decline in the entire state at -4.6%.
Currently certified enrollment for MPSCD is 1,757 with the state funding per pupil at $7,988. However, the district is spending much more per pupil than that, upwards of $10,000 depending on which school the pupil attends in the MPCSD. It is important to note it costs the district 15.8% more to educate a student at Salem Elementary school than any of the elementary schools in town over a 4-year average.
Note in 2015, 2,021 students were enrolled at MPCSD. The reason for the decline has many facets: decline in population, decline in birth rates, and ESA (known commonly as the school vouchers) noted as reasons that affect the schools funding. The projected enrollment for MPCSD in FY2030 is 1,523 students with an estimated cost per pupil state funding projected at $8,647.
In short, the data presented pointed in a clear direction; the school board must do something to lower their cost per pupil throughout the district, otherwise in fiscal year 2030, the school budget would be in a short fall of approximately $865,535. It was clear to all the board members and the audience that while the school is fiscally sound now, the future presented major budget challenges. What could they do?
The discussion was quiet, as the board members processed the data presented. What was realistic moving forward? Board president Angie Blint offered more questions for discussion and reflection, rather than on a clear path forward at this time.
Overall, the feeling of the board was they needed to reset and revisit the master plan realistically. What are the actual options for the next 3 to 5 years? The sense from the school board was they’d rather be proactive now, than reactive later due to huge funding shortfalls projected. It seems the board will look at section numbers and class sizes to see where the cut-off for cost effectiveness is as a next step in determining if they need to close any attendance centers or move to a centralized elementary model. The elephant in the room no one wants to face or deal with, and yet it is there looming over MPCSD like many other school districts in Iowa.
Questions from the public were allowed with only a few commenting – suggested salary freezes for administration and wondering if there is a way to reduce the budget without cutting personnel. In response, Superintendent Henriksen said those things can and should be looked at, however, we will probably have to do more than just that in the coming years – class size and how many sections of each grade level needed is where the most savings can be made. No decisions were made about any future planning, just discussion.
To rewatch the entire board session please visit the stream on their YouTube.
