The Pella School Board meeting postponed last week due to weather was held Thursday afternoon. The board adopted the 2019-20 academic calendar, with the first day of school on August 23rd and last day of class next spring on May 29th, with spring break lining up with Central College and Pella Christian March 16th-20th, 2020.

After missing 63.5 hours of class this year due to weather, students in the Pella Community School District will now officially be attending class in June. The Pella School Board approved Superintendent Greg Ebeling’s recommendation for the current academic year after winter has cancelled seven full days of class due to snow, ice, and historic cold, as well as causing several early dismissals and late starts. Ebeling says the June 7th end date provides not only the time needed to be made up, it gives the district an extra 20 hours of class time to use in case of more winter weather. The Pella Community School District operates their calendar based on contact hours, with 1,080 required annually, and each year, they try to build extra into the schedule.

The board also reviewed the 2017-18 audit and approved sharing a human resource director with Knoxville and Pleasantville. During a work session, they discussed the certified budget process for the upcoming fiscal year and saw an updated projection for those numbers based on the supplemental state aid package approved by the Iowa Legislature. A public hearing to approve next year’s district certified budget will be held at the board’s meeting on Monday, March 25th. As part of the process, the district established the predicted property tax rate, which actually will go down by approximately 40 cents per $1,000 of valuation next fiscal year to a rate of $14.76.