Seth Koch stands before the board reading Taylor Brown’s letter. Brown serves as the FFA sponsor and Vocational Agriculture teacher. PHOTO BY JONATHAN MEYER

For the third board meeting in a row, public comment time has been used to express dissatisfaction with the South Tama County school district. This week came in the form of Taylor Brown, a veteran high school agriculture teacher and one of the FFA sponsors.

Seth Koch approached the board and noted that he was speaking on behalf of Brown before reading the pre prepared statement. In the statement, Brown explained that she was unable to attend the meeting due to a family commitment.

“Please let this letter serve as my public comment regarding the placement of the FFA advisor on the extra curricular and co-curricular supplemental pay scale. It may appear I am breaking the chain of command, but I have had numerous meetings with Mr. Boley, Mrs. Ahrens, Mr. Adams, and Cain on March 24, March 27, April 1, and other various conversations regarding this issue, and unfortunately I feel my only recourse is to bring this to your attention.”

The letter outlined that for the last nine and a half years, the FFA advisor role was payed a per-diem rate. However, that was changed earlier this school year by Cain to a set number of hours.

“My issue is where Mr. Cain assigned the FFA position on the updated salary schedule for the 2025-2026 school year, which was released Friday afternoon. In previous meetings with administrators present, we were told that the FFA will be placed on level three for three seasons. I was okay with this change as it kept my pay at comparable amounts for previous years.”

Brown pointed out that in the payscale in front of the board members, her position was only listed on level four and would result in a $2,000 pay cut.

Being concise, Brown’s letter finished with an ultimatum.

“I am simply asking for equitable pay for the work I continue to perform at the high school and that my pay be kept the same. If that cannot be the case, then my resignation from the agriculture education classroom and FFA advisor will be one of those listed on the next board agenda.”

After reading the letter, Koch left the meeting, leaving the letter with Katie Mathern, the board secretary.

During action items the board returned to the topic of salary schedule with questions being asked by Megan Thissen about what Brown’s request was. Cain offered to provide “a more historical perspective on it” and elaborated from his point of view.

The conversation went many places, with Cain explaining that level four was a better fit because, combined with the other FFA sponsor, the district would pay $14,550 per school year for both Taylor Brown and Skylar Steveson’s roles as Co-FFA Sponsors. With being on level four, the pair would “be pushing $18,000 combined.” Cain also noted that Brown’s previous per-diem pay or stipend was around $9,600 a year in the 2023-2024 school.

As the board discussed, Beth Wiese posed the question, “Can we table this and come back to it after we find more information?”

Cain responded with “We can talk about it now, I’ve spent over a year on it. I don’t want to take much more time.”

With the conversation lasting well over ten minutes Cain warned of “unintended consequences” of giving in to Brown’s request.

Eventually, the board settled and voted on moving Mrs. Brown to level three and keeping Ms. Steveson on level four, on the salary pay scale.

It was also agreed on to hold the summer school board meetings at 7 a.m. During the conversation, Cain presented the change as “just an idea.” No mention was made of the community during the decision to change the regularly scheduled Monday meeting start times and short summer meeting length was brought up on numerous occasions during the discussion. Those meetings are on June 9-23, along with July 28.

The next regularly scheduled board meeting is set for May 27.