Jesup board accepts resignation, approves hires, bids and middle-school industrial technology course

The Jesup Community School District Board of Directors on Jan. 12 accepted a board resignation, approved multiple consent items including vendor payments and bids for athletic-complex work, confirmed personnel changes, and added an industrial-technology exploratory course for 7th and 8th grades.

On a motion by Director Jung, seconded by Director Bell, the board accepted the resignation of Director James Masteller; the minutes record that Masteller abstained from that vote and the motion was carried.

The consent agenda, approved on a motion by Trumbauer and a second by Jung, included purchase orders and partial payments: Ogden Turf & Grading ($46,800 and $108,660, charged to the Legacy Fund), Walztoni Masonry ($133,000 partial payment for baseball/softball fields from the Legacy Fund and $24,050 for chimney repair from the Bond Fund). The board also approved January 2026 claims, December 2025 financial and transportation reports, and a series of open-enrollment applications for FY26 and FY27 (district-recorded numbers: FY26 — one inbound from Independence, two outbound to CAM Academy; FY27 — one inbound from Dunkerton, two inbound from Independence, one inbound from Union, six inbound from Waterloo, and one outbound to Independence).

Personnel actions recorded under consent included the resignations of Sandi Fribley (FCS teacher), Kiersten Hummel (band director) and Bonnie Harting (high school paraeducator) and recommendations to hire Selena Alderman (middle-school paraeducator), Sage Behn (BSAS), Courtney Hartman (high school paraeducator) and Hannah VanHyfte (high school paraeducator).

The board approved awarding the fencing bid at the complex to D&N Fencing for $143,027 (winning bid) with an alternate Miller Fence & Flag bid of $192,040 noted in the record.

Directors also approved appointing Melissa Trumbauer to the Buchanan County Conference Board and, by separate motion, adding middle school industrial technology as a 7th- and 8th-grade exploratory offering; both motions carried unanimously. Directors Bell and Jung moved and seconded, respectively, a separate motion to combine the Calendar Committee with the Labor Management Committee and to have Director Clayberg replace Masteller on the Labor Management Committee; that motion was approved without recorded opposition.

Superintendent Kohagen updated the board on the baseball/softball complex, final furniture installation at the middle and high schools under the bond project, the growth of the middle-school girls wrestling program, and asked the board for input on a proposed auditorium manager job description and possible posting.

The meeting, called to order at 6:00 p.m. by Vice President Youngblut in the district PreK–8 Media Center, adjourned at 7:16 p.m.