The Hawk Eye
After a year of negotiating, the Burlington City Council on Monday signed off on purchasing a piece of land to facilitate the city s Harrison Street sewer separation project.
The city needed to get about five acres of land from the Burlington School District to build a retention pond, which will help with stormwater flow during heavy rain events. (This is the credit) system we have proposed to the school district to purchase the 4.6 acres on James Madison (school), Assistant City Manager for Public Works Nick MacGregor explained.
As part of the agreement, the city will purchase a chunk of land on the northeastern corner of the district s James Madison property. The school district has been using the James Madison building to house its enrichment program for kindergarten through sixth-grade students on their continuos learning days since the start of the school year, but with the district discontinuing its hybrid schedule effective Feb. 8, the building will be cl
January 30, 2021
Yesterday, January 29th, the Burlington Community School Districts’ School Board met for an Emergency School Board Meeting just an hour after Governor Reynolds of Iowa signed a bill into law requiring that schools offer 100%/full-in-person learning option. The School Board unanimously voted to return to school full-time in person Monday, February 8th, tossing the Hybrid-Schedule. The bill requires schools to use original calendar makes before the school year, thus leading to Schools being in session eight-hours a day, and five days a week, Monday through Friday.
Superintendent Pat Coen said in the meeting via Google Meets that Social Distancing will be impossible, but masks will be required to wear in all school buildings. Parents who wish to keep their students in an online-only format can still do so by contacting their school administration; however, those who wish to remain online only have until Wednesday to make arrangements. Those interested must seek
Burlington schools to resume 100% in-person learning Feb. 8
That means eight hours a day, five days a week.
The Burlington School Board s unanimous decision Friday to pivot from the hybrid model it has been operating under since the start of the school year to 100% in-person came shortly after Gov. Kim Reynolds signed into law a bill requiring that schools offer a full in-person option. A bill was passed yesterday and signed today into law that s going to require us to give parents the option to return 100% if they choose, school board president Joel Sieren said Friday during an emergency board meeting ahead of the vote. In conversations we ve had previously with the administration team, there s no way that we re going to be able to pull off both hybrid and meeting this law at the same time.
Coen s Corner: Senate File 1065 turns its back on Iowa children
Pat Coen
Superintendent, Burlington School District
The greatest influence in my life has been my mother. She raised me to never stand by and allow injustices to take place. This same woman expressed concern for me during my tumultuous teens, pointedly telling me that I lacked fear and common sense, while noting this is a dangerous combination.
The Iowa Executive Branch, our Senate, and our House are poised to attack public education with Senate File 1065 as they are showing no fear or common sense.
The first clause in the U.S. Bill of Rights reads, “Congress shall make no laws respecting an established religion.”
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School officials meet with F&M Bank CEO and Black Leadership Council representatives
The president of F&M Bank and Trust met Wednesday with school officials and representatives of the Burlington Black Leadership Council to discuss how to resolve damage done by a vice president s words.
The Hawk Eye
Burlington School Board members serving on a joint committee met Wednesday with the president of Farmers and Merchants Bank and Trust to learn what progress the bank has made in mending relations with minority communities.
The committee, made up of members of the district s business and community relations committees, was established in November in response to a social media comment posted by Lisa Walsh, a vice president of F&M Bank, that targeted then-vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris and was perceived by many as racist and sexist.