On Monday, May 15 the South Tama County School Board met inside the Partnership Center, discussing items ranging from math curriculum to a school resource officer to pornographic health textbooks.

STC Director of Curriculum and Student Services Samantha Peska brought a proposal to the board with a proposed update to far outdated health textbooks. She brought two different options with one quote being for $15,000 and another being around $17,500. The sole difference in the two options was the inclusion of two sex education chapters in the latter proposal.

STC School Board member Beth Wiese voiced her concern with modern sex education, wanting to make sure there was no “pornographic content or inappropriate pictures” the student would be exposed to.

Board members Penny Tyynismaa and Elizabeth Dolezal both openly voiced their support of the sex education in the textbook. The discussion was concluded when Peska agreed to get samples of said curriculum for the board to take a look at before deciding on approving the purchase. The board voted to approve the $15,000 proposal with an option to add in the additional content after further review.

In further discussion about creating a shared school resource officer position with either Tama or Toledo Police Departments, Toledo Police Chief Dan Quigley returned to the board to update everyone on where the city of Toledo is in their process of getting this new position off the ground.

The Tama city council (who’s meeting coincides with the board’s scheduled meeting time) is still working with their attorney, looking over the different qualms in the contract and logistical ideas. Neither the police department nor city council is ready to move forward quite yet, but the school board and everyone involved is optimistic and in agreement that the position is important and necessary in an ever changing world.

It was also revealed Monday night that Tyynismaa would be moving out of the district. With more information in the coming week, the seat will become available July 1. This very well could coincide with redrawn district maps for the district as they come into play for the next school board election in November.