Earlham Echo

March 18, 2025

At their regularly scheduled meeting on Tuesday March 5, the Earlham School Board agreed to table the vote for three proposed positions for the 2025-26 school year, including a new position that would combine the duties of Athletic Director and Dean of Students (AD/DOS). The other two positions are Shared Special Education Director with Van Meter and the Area Education Agency (AEA) and Shared Curriculum Director with AEA or neighboring districts.

The position of most concern was the newly created AD/DOS. The position was posted on March 6 on SchoolSpring, an online job board and recruiting platform specifically designed for the education sector, before the Board even considered it last Tuesday. As of March 16, the position, with a start date of July 2025, is still posted.

At the meeting, Board member Jess Tiemeyer suggested tabling the discussion and the vote.

“(The new position) is something we’ve talked about digging into and getting further along,” she said. “But ultimately why I requested the tabling is because I didn’t think we had discussed it enough as a board—the full plan. I have asked for some additional numbers and information on the position itself. I intend to review that independently and I’ll bring my vote forward as an individual board member to the next meeting.”

Dr. Kaster added, “What I think you learned on Wednesday was there was the need to ask some more questions before making a decision. And that’s for the board to decide—how much information do they need. I give them what I think is necessary to make that decision. A lot of that comes down to financial, and they’ll just ask me directly.”

The AD/DOS position will be discussed again on Wednesday, March 26 after the public budget hearing at 5:30.

The decision on the new position is particularly important since it would effectively end Chris Caskey’s long tenure as Earlham athletic director. The proposed position requires a master’s degree from an accredited institution, which he does not possess.

How and when was the new position discussed by the Board?

After reviewing Board meeting minutes dating back to January 2024, we found no mention of creating an ‘AD/Dean of Students’ position. This is unusual, but certainly not prohibited. A quick review of open meeting laws and procedures follows:

School Boards in Iowa must adhere to the Open Meetings Law to ensure transparency and public access to their decision-making processes. School boards must also avoid ‘walking quorums,’ which don’t involve a single gathering of a majority of members in one place at one time (which would clearly be a ‘meeting’ under the law). Instead, it occurs through a chain or sequence of interactions—via phone calls, emails, text messages, or one-on-one conversations—where members collectively discuss or decide on public business.

As long as they are following these laws, School Boards do not have to conduct all business in an open forum. School board members in Iowa can engage in certain communications about official business outside of public meetings without violating the open meetings law, as long as these do not constitute a ‘meeting.’ Examples include:

1. One-on-One Conversations: Individual board members may discuss official business with one another or with staff, provided the discussion does not involve a majority of the board. For instance, two members of a seven-member board could talk privately, but if a third member joins, it could trigger open meetings requirements if the discussion involves deliberation or decision-making.
2. Informational Exchanges: Board members can receive information from staff, administrators, or the superintendent (e.g., reports, updates, or data) without it being considered a meeting, as long as there is no deliberation or intent to reach a consensus among a majority of members.
3. Social or Ministerial Interactions: Casual conversations at social events or discussions about logistical matters (e.g., scheduling a meeting) are generally permissible, as long as they do not involve deliberation on policy-making issues.
4. Emails or Written Correspondence: Board members may send or receive emails or memos about official business, but they must avoid “reply-all” scenarios or serial communications that effectively involve a majority of the board deliberating outside a public setting. For example, a superintendent could email all board members an update, but members should not respond in a way that starts a group discussion.

The decision to add an AD/DOS position appears to have been born mostly from these types of exchanges. Superintendent Steve Kaster said that he gives the Board a weekly update via email about general happenings at the school and important topics and issues. Specifically about staffing, Dr. Kaster mentioned that, in response to discussions at Board meetings, he responded to the Board with information about needed support for curriculum, special education, and discipline.

“The Board gives me some direction as far as, ‘Consider a job description for this, consider a job description for that.’ So they give me that direction as far as what to look at. Not in a formal manner because it’s not as a whole group. They don’t ‘reply all’ to that. That’s obviously a meeting violation. But I work with Joey (Morrison) as the Board president and she kind of says, ‘Yeah this is the feel; or ‘We need to go a completely different direction.’ So then we bring it out to the board for official approval.”

While the creation of the new AD/DOS position caught many in the public by surprise, Tiemeyer said that it was not intended that way.

“Have we talked about it as a board in very general sense, openly? Absolutely. In addition to that, the negotiations committee—a committee that’s closed—we’ve talked about the finance side of it and the numbers side of it. We definitely discussed it in meetings, but it’s something as a discussion topic that we want to have a formal conversation around.”

The scuttlebutt

When the new position was posted online before it was approved by the Board, it was the first time that many in the public had heard about the situation. And when it appeared on last Wednesday’s agenda for a vote, the rumor mill spun. Whether coaching, teaching, or in his role as AD, Caskey has never tried to be a politician, ruffling some feathers at times with his candor on many issues. Many speculated that by creating a new position that he could not apply for, it was a semi-transparent way to ‘quietly’ remove Caskey from the AD position.

Not so, said Dr. Kaster and Tiemeyer.

“Our intent in this is not to remove anybody from their position,” said Dr. Kaster. “Chris and I have talked that in the future this could be a possibility and not necessarily knowing what that time frame was. I understand it’s gotten awkward in the sense that he’s done this for a very long time. So, when is the right timing is always the question when you add positions like this. I move forward based on what’s been directed of me.”

Tiemeyer added, “I would say as not only a board member but as a community member, I put a lot of value into Caskey’s experience and knowledge as an AD. I think when you look at what other schools and other districts are doing, (the AD/DOS position) is a pretty common step. To my knowledge there is no intention to lose Caskey. Have I heard the rumors? Sure. From what I’ve gathered and what I’ve learned in my research, this is a very common position, especially for schools our size to combine that Dean and AD role. It doesn’t impact his contract as a teacher and a coach.”

Caskey confirmed that he and Dr. Kaster have had discussions about the possibility of the new position in the past. He said that Dr. Kaster informed him on February 28 that the Board intended to move forward with the plan. He also mentioned that he was told that it had nothing to do with his job performance.

What’s the need for a Dean of Students?

The job description for the new position is broad. Under ‘Student Management,’ duties include  ‘supervise student attendance and behavior, conduct parent/family conferences on disciplinary matters, maintain student behavior records, as well as support/assist building principals in day-to-day management of the building.’

Is student behavior a problem at Earlham School?

“Regarding discipline, do we have numbers that are increased? I would say that we actually have numbers that are very similar to years in the past, as far as issues go,” said Dr. Kaster. “The hard thing with discipline is the timing of when it all happens. Because you can’t ever tell kids, ‘Don’t act up between the hours of 9 and 11.’ So having someone else either on call or available to help with things is definitely a bonus. So we felt the need of someone to help in that area to pull some of that off the principals’ plate.”

Dr. Kaster added that pairing the DOS duties with another administrative position is not uncommon.

“This position has been somewhat modeled after the structure that’s been in other schools in our conference for some time now,” he said. “I’m not sure of the number, but over half the schools in the conference have a structure very similar to this. The Dean—you don’t want to call it a catch all position—but it’s a position that can help with discipline. It can help with state reporting and evaluation. So really, it’s an additional admin position that can help with day-to-day stuff or projects that our principals are doing right now.”

The cost

The salary for the new AD/DOS is reportedly in the $75,000 per year range. Adding another administrator would continue a 20-year trend in Iowa where public school administrator salaries have consistently exceeded teacher salaries. Administrator numbers grew over 10 times faster than students and teachers from 2000-2019, shrinking the student-to-administrator ratio dramatically while the student-to-teacher ratio remained stable. According to the Earlham School wages report for 2023-24, the top six salaries were all administrators, with one of those also teaching. Those salaries accounted for nearly 14% of the payroll.