Eastern Allamakee Community Schools
569 Center Street, Lansing, IA 52151
563-538-4201
Superintendent: Mr. Jay Mathis
PK- 12 Principal: Mrs. Donna Thomas
Asst. Principal/AD: Liz Hill
Superintendent Report February 9, 2026
★ Kris Smith and I attended the Iowa School Finance Information Services budget preparation workshop on January 29 in Elkader. Yes, it’s that time of year again to begin preparing for certification of next year’s budget and property tax rate. Even though the budget certification deadline isn’t until April 30, we have to have two budget hearings and legal notices in the newspaper prior to final certification.
★ Preliminary estimates for this year’s revenues and expenditures look positive, but the challenge is we won’t know until September where we sit for unspent budget authority. However, this is good news. The administration team has begun looking at staffing needs for next year, especially at our MS/HS building.
★ The legislature is in the process of setting our SSA (Supplemental State Aid) rate increase for next year. The Governor proposed a small 2% increase, but the Senate is only proposing a 1.75% increase. The overall state enrollment has declined by over 7,000 students this year, so this is a year they can afford an increase that would help us catch up to inflation and the Consumer Price Index for our area, which is currently 3.10%. In December, the Revenue Estimating Conference projects a 4.10% increase in state revenues for this year. Last year, when projections were lower, they increased school funding by $134 million. A 4% SSA increase for next year would only cost them $130 million. When they set our SSA rate low, it impacts and raises property taxes. It also is the reason that our special education funding has not kept pace with the cost of educating our highest needs students. Any overspending in special education must be recouped the next year by increasing property taxes. When they say they are focused on reducing property taxes, they need to fund their fair share of the cost of educating our state’s greatest resource - our students!
Superintendent Report January 12, 2026
★ District Performance Profile - the State Department of Education has now come out with a district report card and Eastern Allamakee was given an overall performance rating of “High Performing!” Scores are determined by a combination of assessment data, attendance and chronic absenteeism data, graduation rate, student achievement growth, and post-secondary readiness. The district had a score of 654.63 points out of a possible 900 points, which was much higher than the state average of 569.52 points. We scored above the state average on 14 of the 15 measures. Great job!
Superintendent Report December 8, 2025
★ A special welcome to Glen Delaney to the school board and many thanks to Melanie Mauss for her service to the school district.
★ The City of Lansing has moved into the lower level of the old middle school building. We value our continued partnership with the City on many of our services and facilities that we share.
Superintendent Report October 13, 2025
★ Our Certified Enrollment remained steady this year, which is great news for the district.
★ Our Unspent Budget Authority for the last fiscal year declined dramatically, however. This is a spending limit imposed by the Iowa Department of Education to keep districts from spending too much per pupil. The cause was due to declining enrollment over the past five years and not reducing the budget accordingly.
★ Fortunately, steps were taken this spring by the school board to reduce this year’s spending. Expenditures from the General Fund need to be watched very carefully.
Superintendent Report September 5, 2025
★ I have been working on updating our district policies and thank the board for taking on this task. It is important to keep these up to date to keep up with legislative changes and to reflect our current procedures and requirements.
★ I want to thank Mrs. Thomas, Mr. Winter and the football team, Mr. Ellefson, and Mr. Beardmore for clearing out the space at the old middle school that we hope to rent out to the City of Lansing and the Learning Tree Daycare. It was a large undertaking.
★ We have partnered with the Allamakee CSD to paint our athletic game and practice fields with a robotic painter that saves a great deal of time and paint. The game field looks amazing.
★ I am proud of the job that our students and staff do in starting off a new school year as if they had never left. Things are running very smoothly.
Superintendent Report August 11, 2025
★ We are gearing up for another school year. The buildings look amazing and our summer feeding program was a big success. Special shout-outs to the custodians and cooks!
★ It was fun for me to be part of the Kee bandwagon this summer and cheer the Hawk baseball team to the state tournament! Congratulations!
★ I have been working with the City of Lansing, Learning Tree Childcare Center, Mrs. Thomas, Mr. Winters, and the custodians on readying of the old middle school facility for new occupants. The board is looking at agreements with the City for a portion of the lower level and with Learning Tree leasing a large portion of the upper level. Currently, many of the spaces have been used for storage of no-longer-needed items. We plan to sell off some of these items at the next Sweeney Consignment Sale.
★ The robot mowers have been keeping the grass clipped at the football field and steep sidehill surrounding the field.
★ I have been impressed with the beautiful facilities here and the commitment of the staff to achieve the district mission of creating a quality educational service to all students.
★ Finally, I want to thank Mr. Pat Heiderscheit for stepping in and assisting me and this district with the transition. He will forever be a Kee Hawk and is a valuable resource to me.