Mayor Haila: City and Ames Community School Board held productive work session to align goals

Susan Griasue, City Communications and Outreach, opened a City of Ames podcast recap of the June 9 council meeting and introduced Mayor John Haila, who summarized a June 8 work session between the City Council and the Ames Community School Board and superintendent.

Mayor John Haila said council members and school-board representatives toured the renovated Ames Center and then spent about an hour to an hour and a half reviewing the City Council’s goals alongside the district’s priorities. “We had a very productive hour, hour and a half long conversation reviewing City Council’s goals and some of our priorities,” Haila said.

Haila said the school district provided written goals and the two bodies discussed a variety of ways the community can support student success. He characterized the discussion as “robust” and said the meeting produced a number of action points the city and district plan to pursue. “We’re looking forward to continuing our relationship with and partnering with the school district to make our community even stronger,” Haila said.

The mayor suggested the session could become a regular event — possibly annual or more frequent — while noting a schedule has not been finalized. The podcast did not provide details on specific action items, funding commitments, or any formal next steps beyond continued partnership; those specifics were not specified in the recording.

The podcast segment framed the session as part of ongoing coordination between the city and the Ames Community School District; the hosts did not report any votes or formal agreements taken during the session.