Penney and Leichsenring bid farewell

It was Osage City Clerk Cathy Penney’s final Osage City Council meeting, and it was Osage Middle School Principal Sarah Leichsenring’s final school board meeting. Penney is retiring, and Leichsenring found a position closer to her childhood home.

“This last month of school was a whirlwind,” Leichsenring said. “These past five years, I can’t speak more highly of what this staff has done. They tried to take some risks, and sometimes those things don’t pan out, but it hasn’t deterred them. They are really starting to figure out those teen dynamics and how we can move forward together.

“Four years ago, there wasn’t one student in the middle school who was FAST (test) screened. Now we have every single fifth grader through eighth grader FAST screened in reading and math. We’re working on a universal tool.

“We’ve created a whole SEL (Social and Emotional Learning) program. We have embedded computer science. It’s crazy the amount of progress we’ve made in the past five years.”

Leichsenring said Osage was a great place for her to be herself. As her tenure comes to an end, she wasn’t quite at the point of tears. Her departure was sealed with a hug between Leichsenring and Osage Community School District Superintendent Barb Schwamman.

“Barb has been such a great mentor,” Leichsenring said. It was Schwamman helped lure her to Osage.

People have asked Leichsenring if she is ready for the transition.

“I’ve really got to draw a line in the sand, because my head and my heart are so attached,” Leichsenring said. “It’s been a great place to be.”

Board president Rick Sletten thanked Leichsenring for her service. He invited her to return for employment if she ever got the chance – that was how highly he thought of the job she did at Osage.

Penney said her plan was to work full time through the end of June. Abby Palsic is replacing Penney, and Osage Mayor Steve Cooper said it was strange to walk into the office and see Palsic sitting at Penney’s desk.

In July, Penney will play it by ear as they wrap up the fiscal year. The audit is scheduled for the second week in August.

“We’re in the tedious process,” Penney said. “We’re ready to go.”

In other business, the Osage City Council said it was obvious the emerald ash borer had made its way to Osage. Around a year ago, its presence was confirmed in Mitchell County.

Osage Public Works Director Brock Waters answered a question about whether there were any programs to help with removing blighted ash trees compromised by the emerald ash borer. The work could tie up street crews, and that is not ideal.

“They have enough trees to take down as is,” Waters said.

Waters indicated he had seen no ash tree programs.

“That’s not to say there won’t be,” Waters said. “I just got word back from the DNR, it sounds like late summer, early fall, they’re going to come in and do a study. That’s supposed to give us an idea on how other communities are attacking it.”

According to Waters, Charles City has allotted money to take down their ash trees.

Cooper said that Iowa State University a few years ago came and did a survey, counting the number of ash trees in Osage.

“Even though we’re the City of Maples, we have more ash trees in town,” Cooper said.

Cooper added that he has an ash tree in his backyard that leafed out this spring when Cooper thought it was dead, but it dropped all its leaves from the top branches, a common sight when it comes to the emerald ash borer.

“They’ll do a last gasp, where they’ll leaf out a little bit, then after that they’re gone,” said Councilmember Darla Olson. Olson is also executive director of ISU Mitchell County Extension.

According to Olson, 11.5% of the trees in Osage are ash.

Waters said there were over 300 ash trees just in the boulevards.