Meeting: Board of Education Regular Meeting
Date: July 20, 2026
Scheduled time: 7:00 PM
The Bennett Community School District Board of Education is scheduled to consider a wide range of organizational, financial, staffing-sharing, insurance, fee, and special-education funding items. The packet also includes the district's June 30 fund balances, July bills, open-enrollment information, and several proposed FY27 agreements.
Key Items on the Agenda
Board Appointment and Leadership
The board is scheduled to consider appointing Chad Petersen as a director on the Bennett Community School Board. The agenda also calls for the board to elect board leadership.
These are listed as separate new-business items. The packet does not state the outcome of either item.
FY27 Shared Staffing Agreements
Several proposed agreements would continue or establish shared staffing arrangements with neighboring school districts and Mississippi Bend Area Education Agency (MBAEA).
The board is scheduled to consider:
- A FY27 Physical Education sharing agreement with Durant. The agenda identifies the agreement but the packet text does not provide additional terms.
- An English Language Learner sharing agreement with Tipton. The supporting agreement describes a 1.0 FTE ELL Coordinator employed by Tipton, with 10% of the position allocated to Bennett. The document states a Bennett reimbursement of $7,000, including salary and benefits. However, the attached agreement itself lists a July 1, 2025–June 30, 2026 term and says it may be renewed for 2026–27, so the packet does not provide a clearly updated FY27 version.
- A Maintenance Director sharing agreement with Tipton. The supporting document allocates 20% of the shared position to Bennett, with Bennett responsible for 20% of the employee contract, benefits, and other expenses. Like the ELL document, the attached agreement lists a July 1, 2025–June 30, 2026 term and provides for possible renewal for 2026–27.
- A School Nurse sharing agreement with Tipton for July 1, 2026 through June 30, 2027. Bennett would receive 10% of the nurse's time and reimburse Tipton $6,000, including salary and benefits, billed as $3,000 per semester.
- A School Business Official/Business Services sharing agreement with MBAEA for July 1, 2026 through June 30, 2027. MBAEA would provide 120 days of support, equivalent to 0.50 FTE, for $64,025. Additional days would be billed at $534 per day.
The MBAEA business-services agreement describes its purpose as providing training and support for successful school business-office operations, including helping district employees develop the knowledge and tools needed to work independently in their roles.
Major Financial Items
July Bills Total More Than $613,000
The consent agenda includes July bills and additional bills. The primary July bills schedule totals $613,523.49, distributed as:
- General Fund: $428,152.99
- Management Fund: $101,807.44
- Capital Projects Fund: $55,195.52
- PPEL Fund: $16,387.09
- Nutrition Fund: $11,980.45
Large listed payments include $143,784.00 to Tipton Community School for second-semester whole-grade sharing, $84,625.00 to EMC Insurance Companies for FY27 insurance renewal, $64,561.71 to Tipton Community School for second-semester open enrollment, $52,873.73 to Wilton Community School District for second-semester open enrollment, and $43,186.64 to Durant Community School District for second-semester special-education billing.
The packet also includes an additional-bills document listing $223.71 to Access Systems for printing fees and $55.17 to AgVantage for motor fuel.
June 30 Fund Balances
The financial materials report combined June 30, 2026 ending balances of $3,877,441.22 across the funds included in the packet's comparison table.
Reported balances include:
- General: $1,448,904.02
- Management: $1,187,658.54
- PPEL: $732,315.11
- Capital Projects: $451,353.97
- Food Service: $43,309.15
- Student Activity: $7,264.20
- Food Pantry: $7,174.07
- Preschool: negative $537.84
The total was $447,397.90 lower than May 2026, $89,366.05 lower than June 2025, and $148,076.20 higher than July 2025, according to the packet's comparison table.
FY27 Insurance
The board is scheduled to consider EMC as the district's insurance carrier for FY27.
A year-over-year comparison in the packet shows a combined insurance total of $111,436, compared with $115,355 previously, a decrease of $3,919, or 3.40%. Individual coverage lines move in different directions: commercial auto and workers' compensation decline, while several liability-related coverages increase.
Among the comparison figures:
- Property: $47,629, up $198
- General liability: $3,464, up $62
- Commercial auto: $12,884, down $5,353
- Workers' compensation: $9,649, down $872
- Linebacker/public officials coverage: $14,995, up $1,004
- Commercial umbrella: $4,705, up $72
- Cyber: $2,759, up $516
The EMC proposal lists a July 1, 2026–July 1, 2027 policy term. The property materials report $15,475,377 in building values, $1,805,444 in business personal property, and $677,571 in property in the open, for a combined stated value of $17,958,392.
Student and Family Fees
The agenda separately calls for approval of 2026–27 school lunch, instructional-material, and instrument-rental fees. A supporting fee document provides the proposed amounts.
Nutrition Fees
Proposed 2026–27 prices include:
- Student breakfast: $2.00
- Reduced-price student breakfast: $0.30
- Adult breakfast: $2.50
- Student lunch: $3.00
- Reduced-price student lunch: $0.40
- Adult lunch: $5.25
- Extra breakfast main dish: $1.10
- Extra lunch main dish: $1.75
- Extra milk: $0.60
- Extra juice at breakfast: $0.50
- Preschool–2nd grade snack milk: $0.60 per carton
The board is also scheduled to consider a 2026–27 milk bid, although the packet text does not provide the bid terms.
Instructional, Preschool, and Music Fees
The supporting document lists:
- 3-year-old preschool instructional materials: $50 per year
- 4-year-old preschool instructional materials: no cost
- Kindergarten–6th grade instructional materials: $75 per year
- 3-year-old preschool tuition: $225 per month
- 4-year-old preschool tuition: no cost
- Optional Kindergarten Readiness Program for 4-year-old preschool students: $175 per month
- Instrument rental and maintenance: $50 per year
The agenda specifically schedules approval of instructional-material and instrument-rental fees. The packet's fee sheet also includes the preschool tuition amounts.
Special Education Funding Agreement
The board is scheduled to consider a contract with Mississippi Bend AEA governing the transfer of state funding allocated for AEA special-education support services.
Under the proposed contract, Bennett would transfer 90% of the state funds it receives for AEA special-education support services to Mississippi Bend AEA under Iowa Code Section 257.10(7) and House File 2612.
The agreement provides that:
- The contract would take effect July 1, 2026 and remain in effect until modified or terminated by mutual agreement or as required by law.
- Funds would be transferred automatically in four quarterly payments, beginning in July.
- Payments would be due within five business days after Bennett receives the corresponding state aid.
- The district would establish an ACH arrangement unless another payment method is agreed upon.
- The contract itself does not define the specific special-education services the AEA will provide; those services remain governed by applicable federal and state requirements.
The agreement also requires both organizations to maintain appropriate payment and receipt records.
Consent Agenda and Financial Reporting
The consent agenda includes:
- Minutes from the June 8, 2026 meeting
- Financial report as of June 30, 2026, including the Nutrition Fund
- Open enrollment
- July bills and additional bills
- Hires and resignations
The packet includes detailed open-enrollment records covering multiple school years. For 2026–27, the records include students open-enrolling from Bennett to districts including Durant, Tipton, Central DeWitt, and Wilton, along with entries reflecting rescinded or pending-rescission requests.
Because these records contain individual student information, this summary does not reproduce student names or personal circumstances.
Other Governance and Administrative Items
The board is also scheduled to consider:
- Appointing Kay Chapman as district auditor for fiscal years 2026, 2027, and 2028
- Designating an FY27 hearing officer for the Nutrition program
The agenda identifies these proposed actions but the packet text does not provide additional terms for the auditor appointment or identify the proposed nutrition-program hearing officer.
Administrative reports and an informational section are also on the agenda, but the packet text does not provide substantive details sufficient to summarize specific topics within those sections.
The agenda provides a public-comment period. Citizens wishing to address the board are instructed to notify the board secretary before the meeting, and comments are limited to three minutes.
The packet states that petitions may be presented during this period, but the board will receive them without taking action on them or their contents. It also states that the board will not take action on matters presented during public comment, citing Board Policy 213.
What to Watch at the Meeting
Several agenda items could shape Bennett's FY27 operations:
- Board organization: appointment of a director and election of board leadership.
- Shared staffing: consideration of multiple arrangements involving Durant, Tipton, and Mississippi Bend AEA.
- Business-office support: the proposed MBAEA agreement would provide 0.50 FTE of business-services support for $64,025.
- Insurance: the packet's year-over-year comparison shows an overall 3.40% decrease in the combined insurance total despite increases in several individual coverage lines.
- Family costs: the board is scheduled to act on school meal, instructional-material, and instrument-rental fees for 2026–27.
- Special-education funding: the proposed Mississippi Bend AEA contract would establish automatic quarterly transfers of 90% of designated state AEA special-education support funding.
- Financial position: the packet reports $3.88 million in combined June 30 balances across the funds included in its comparison table, with the General Fund lower than both the previous month and June 2025.
The regular meeting was originally scheduled for July 13, 2026. A notice included with the packet states that it was rescheduled to Monday, July 20, 2026 at 7:00 PM in the Bennett Elementary School Conference Room.
