The Indianola School Board has approved a three percent increase in child care fees for the upcoming school year. The board has approved a small increase to the rates for the past couple of years and Superintendent Tara Paul says the rate increase helps offset staffing costs. 

“So this year it was a three percent increase. We know that our rates for staff are going to be about 4.2, and so this helps offset that increase in staffing costs but not all of it. We do have a yearly increase just monitoring that. Child care is something separate from education, so we can’t use any K-12 dollars to support our child care program. We have to make sure we maintain those rates equal to what we pay our staff, because we don’t have any other source to offset that.”

To hear the full interview, visit https://www.kniakrls.com/2026/02/11/lets-talk-indianola-indianola-school-board-meeting-2/