OTTUMWA — The Ottumwa school board will vote on several construction contracts Monday while learning about hundreds of “new” students who may need some flexibility on the part of the district.

“I’m ... going to be talking to the board about putting together a committee to talk about what we end up doing with Job Corps [credits],” Superintendent Jon Sheldahl said.

When Job Corps opens in Ottumwa, most participants pursuing a high school diploma will get that paper through Ottumwa High School.

Sheldahl said some work needs to be done to determine whether there would need to be any flexibility in those graduation requirements. Right now he said he just wants to present the idea to the board as something that is being examined.

“There are some alternate graduation requirements out there used by charter schools. We’ll have kids coming into Job Corps from all over the place and with credits from different high schools,” Sheldahl said. “We’ll see what kind of flexibility is needed.”

The board already approved OHS graduation requirements.

“That is the 46 credit hours ... that [meets] the Iowa core requirements,” Sheldahl said.

Also Monday, the board will vote on some spending projects, including bids from contractors for windows and doors at Douma and James elementary schools and a refinishing project for the gym floor at Evans Middle School.

The meeting will be at 6 p.m. Monday at the board office, 422 McCarroll Drive.

Mark Newman can be reached at 683-5358 or by e-mail at mgnewman@mchsi.com.