Nodaway Valley wraps up contracts season

Staff contracts at Nodaway Valley have been considered in separate meetings throughout the past six weeks of board meetings. Teacher contracts were discussed and approved on April 1, classified staff and extra duty staff contracts were approved on April 15 and administrative contracts and revisions were approved during last Wednesday’s regular school board meeting at the high school.

Superintendent Dr. Pam Stangeland said this was intentional in order to consider each employee classification separately and ensure their wages fell within the average range when compared with staff from the Pride of Iowa conference, the Southwest Iowa area and similarly-sized districts throughout the state.

“Although our board would love to pay each employee top wages, district budgets dictate how much can be spent on salaries,” Stangeland said. “In considering our overall wages, we want to ensure that we’re providing a competitive wage for our staff and also one that our district can afford. Salaries represent 80% of the general fund, and that impact is realized immediately. However, we also have to examine the effect of raises in our financial projections.”

In late March the teachers’ association negotiated a 2.75% raise for the 2026-27 school year. That percentage was used as a marker for all other classifications with the majority of staff receiving an increase of approximately 2.75-2.8% of their present wages. However, Stangeland reports that some groups received a larger increase when they were found to be well below their group average regionally.

“Those necessary market adjustments were made to ensure our employees are not making considerably less than their peers in neighboring districts,” she said. “We have amazing staff and we will always be looking for ways to retain them and let them know they’re valued.”

The district’s four administrative contracts were extended in the May 13 meeting, as were model teacher and school business official contracts. Stangeland’s shared contract with Cumberland-Anita-Massena creates supplementary weighting equivalent to nine FTEs. Building principal contracts are exclusive to Nodaway Valley and include James Larson, Sara Honnold and Logan Doty. The School Business Official’s contract was also extended for Amanda Cox.

Additionally, model teacher contracts were re-issued as a $2,000 stipend funded through the Teacher Leadership and Compensation Grant.

The board also approved adjustments relating to sick leave for two paraprofessionals who had more than 10 years of experience at Orient-Macksburg prior to the dissolution of their district.

In other action, the board:

• approved the District Career and Academic Plan

• approved a 28E sharing agreement for a special education administrative associate with 10 other school districts, providing support to background tasks relating to special education

• approved a one-year license renewal for 6-12 ELA curriculum, costing $12,526.92

• approved a six-year license for a full 6-12 math curriculum adoption at an investment of $53,279.30

• approved a series of board policies