North Winn School Board holds public hearing on five-year extension of whole grade sharing agreement with Decorah

The North Winneshiek School Board on Tuesday held a public hearing on a five-year extension of the district's whole grade sharing agreement with Decorah schools, under which 9th through 12th graders in the North Winn School District attend high school in Decorah.

Under the terms of the agreement, North Winneshiek would pay the general fund per pupil cost to Decorah at the rate of 82 percent.  This amount will remain at 82 percent for duration of the agreement.  The balance of the cost per pupil will be used to pay for the North Winneshiek 9-12 transportation costs.
 
North Winneshiek will pay Decorah the state average of the school infrastructure sales tax money per the number of regular education North Winneshiek students who are a part of the whole grade sharing agreement.  North Winneshiek will also pay the actual cost for 9-12 students who receive special education at the Decorah High School.  The district will also pay the sales tax money for special education students who are classified as whole grade sharing or tuitioned out.

The State of Iowa provides two additional sources of revenue--the teacher salary supplement and the professional development funds, to help Iowa school districts boost teacher pay and to pay for additional teacher professional development time.  The Teacher Salary Supplement and Professional Development funds are based on a per pupil amount.  For example, this year's TSS amount is $472.34 per student and the PD is $41.65 per student.  In the agreement, North Winneshiek will pay Decorah the TSS and PD amount for students who are a part of the whole grade sharing agreement.  This will be paid on an indexed manner over the next 5 years.  Teacher Salary Supplement and Professional Development will be incremental increases:  2012-2013 20 percent, 2013-2014 40 percent, 2014-2015 60 percent, 2015-2016 80 percent and 2016-2017 100 percent .  The Teacher Salary Supplement and Professional Development per pupil cost will change slightly on the Aid and Levy each fiscal year.

The non financial language of the agreement stayed the same as the current one.

The North Winneshiek School Board will vote on the agreement at its November board meeting.  The Decorah School Board also will vote on the agreement in November.