Lance Lennon and Josh Schild made a presentation at this past Monday’s Board of Education meeting, held by video conference, to help the directors consider options for a website redesign. They came to both see if the Board is interested in pursuing this and which proposal will gain their approval. “I am fine with the idea, and know I can find funding to support the change,” said Superintendent Jess Toliver. It will cost around $10,000 for the project.
The Board approved a letter of support for the City’s plan to build a recreation center to be located at the existing Wellness Center. The letter points out the need for more gym space since the school gym use for the public and youth is limited. “Many youth teams and community groups are forced to start practices and activities around 7 p.m. on week nights in order to find times when gym space is available,” the letter states in part. “This is not only taxing on the youth and families, but also the school district as we have to clean after these events and prepare them for the next day.” It closes by saying that the rec center would provide opportunity for many kids to have a safe place to go both after school and during the summer months.
In reports from the three building principals, Jared Carder at the elementary told directors they had three days of virtual learning and a virtual assembly, which centered around an anti-bullying message. “We had great engagement from the students during virtual instruction and less technical issues this time around,” said Carder. He also wanted to give a big shout out to all the teachers in his building. “Many of them prepared school work that could be done at home with very little notice,” he said. “They have also been navigating the challenging task of teaching students both in-school and at home simultaneously.”
Scott Jeske reported on two staff members from the AEA coming to talk to selected RBMS students. “Each grade was represented by eight students, and were asked questions about the positive and negative things they deal with in school,” he said. “This came out of the school improvement initiative we developed last summer. We have been concerned about the social and emotional health and safety of our students.” The plan is for the agency to summarize the data and report back on how staff can help the students feel good about school and their place in the world. They are also working with the agency to help improve math scores.
Along that same line, another initiative has started called Reaching and Developing Adolescent Relationships. It identifies students that staff feels can benefit from having a closer relationship with a staff member in the building. “This will involve teachers, paras and secretaries, and they will select a student that they take under their wing and make overt attempts at making connections with that student,” said Jeske. He also reports 90 percent of students where involved in virtual conferences, which he thought was pretty good for using that method.
Heidi Vasquez at the high school reports that the English department sent personalized cards to Iowa soldiers serving overseas, and students sent over 100 of the cards. “They are excited to see if any soldiers will write back,” she said. “It was posted on the high school Facebook page, and has been seen by over 1,600 people,” she said. They were also totally surprised by the response to just one teacher reaching out to get a pair of basketball shoes for a student in need. “We thought we could purchase them at cost,” she said. “Nope. Brown’s Shoes in Fort Dodge graciously donated over 20 pair of shoes, and 10 of those found a new home by the end of that week! They also asked if we could take new and returned shoes for our students each month!”
In other action the Board:
-approved an Eagle Scout project for high school student Thaddaeus Dornath Cook;
-approved the Chapter 12 waiver request to hold PE every day for a semester versus every other day for the entire year. This is the same as has been done every year;
-approved the Title IX Plan-Sexual Harassment Procedures manual as put together by Scott Jeske following a training session attended by him, Toliver and Heidi Vasquez;
-approved Superintendent Toliver’s annual report;
-approved resignations from Tara Locke, Lacey Reed and Kendall Snyder (all teacher associates), Jordan Janssen (bus driver) and Beth Carder (school nurse) and approved a contract with Denny March (HS math) for the second semester;
-approved the drop out prevention plan;
-approved an open enrollment out to Webster City.
