Central Elementary Fundraiser and Halloween Parade!

Annual Halloween Parade and Student Share-Out

A reminder to join us tomorrow for our Chrysler Drive for Kids Fundraiser and Student Share-Out Day/Halloween Parade.  Details for the day are as follows:

Chrysler Drive for Kids Fundraiser: Main entrance of the school.

Time:  10:30 am – 2:30 pm

What: A quick 5 minute test drive earns the school $10.00.  If we get 150 test drives, Central Elementary gets an additional $500.  Please remember to bring your license and help us raise money for our field trips!

Parent/Community Share Out: Your child’s classrooms.

Time:  12:45 pm – 1:30 pm

What: Parents and community members are invited to tour elementary classrooms as part of a gallery walk so our students can share with you what they have been learning.

Parent Informational Meeting: High School Gymnasium.

Time:  1:35 pm – 2:05 pm

What: Mr. Trenkamp & Mrs. Tuecke will present on Essential Grade Level Standards.

Halloween Parade: High School Gymnasium.

Time:  2:10 pm – 2:30 pm

What: Central Elementary Annual Halloween Parade.  You can pick up your student in his/her classroom after the parade.

I look forward to sharing our learning together and raising money for our Elementary students!

Very Proud of our Central Cross Country Team

Yesterday Central boys and girls both qualified for State!  Both teams have been a class act all season long and have improved greatly.  The strong showing at the district meet (girls 1st and boys 3rd) follows a very strong showing at the Upper Iowa Conference meet where boys and girls both took 1st place.

A big tip of the hat goes out to the Bauder's.  They consistently produce strong runners at Central, and for the size of school we are with limited student body, this is simply amazing.

I also want to thank our athletes, you prove that hard work pays off!  Another thanks to the parents for allowing your children to compete and supporting them along the way.

Very proud of both teams and the Central Cross County program.  Best of luck at State!

Staying Connected!

On Tuesday, Central staff attended a training hosted by Keystone AEA about the importance of being a connected educator.  We started the morning with a concentration on Twitter and Pinterest.  Both offer excellent resources for not only our teachers, but students and parents.  The late morning portion concentrated on Blogging, both classrooms and teacher Blogs.  Obviously if you are reading this, you understand the importance of Blogging as a communication tool.

Central is also looking into upgrading our district website.  We are hoping this upgrade takes place at the start of the second semester.  Central will now also have a Facebook page, the link is www.facebook.com/centralcommunityschool  Please check us out and friend us!  Lastly, we now also have a Hashtag for our district on Twitter.  If you tweet out any information relevant to our school district, use the hashtag #centcs so we can all share and learn together!

I share a lot of information on my twitter account that may geared towards teachers, but parents can also use to increase learning in the home.  I apologize in advance for the occasional Hawkeye and Chicago Cub tweets you may have to weed through!

Together lets work at making Central a connected community.  Please let me know if you have other ideas as well.

Go Warriors!

Central School Board approves new lunch collection policy

Central Parents/Guardians,

Over the last couple months the Central School Board has been discussing implementing a new school lunch policy to address the concern of delinquent lunch accounts.  At one time last year the District was owed $6000 in unpaid lunch accounts.  As of today, the district is owed $3000 with the number growing monthly and no previous policy to address the concern.  Having a healthy lunch account balance affects all Central Stakeholders and taxpayers equally.  Due to this concern the Central School Board requested me to research and present a policy to address delinquent lunch accounts. 

Much discussion took place on what is “fair” and not punishing Central students.  I feel the approved policy is both “fair” and does not punish Central students.  As long as parents/guardians communicate with the school district, NO CHILD will receive an alternative meal.  If parents/guardians refuse to communicate and work with the school district, then yes, their child/ren will receive an alternative meal until communication and a payment plan are in place.  Parents/guardians are also reminded that at anytime they can fill out a free & reduced lunch application if financial circumstances change.  Central also offers a backpack program to help with ensuring our students are eating at home.  All of this information is kept confidential.

I believe you will find the approved policy, which goes into effect immediately, to be one of ample opportunity to address delinquent accounts and a policy that is very similar to policies used effectively by the majority of school districts across the Nation.  The new policy is as follows:

Code No. 710.5 DISTRICT FOOD SERVICE ACCOUNT COLLECTION

Parent(s)/guardian(s) of students are required to pay for meals and milk in advance and maintain a positive “account” balance.  It is the responsibility of the parent(s)/guardian(s) to keep track of the balance in their account and make timely payments to the school to avert a negative balance.  Payments for meals and/or milk should be made to the school or district office.

LOW BALANCE NOTICE:

The District Office will review accounts on a daily basis.  When an account drops below $0.00, an account statement is sent by mail or email.  Once an account is 30 days past due, a phone call from the Superintendent will be made informing parent(s)/guardian(s) that they have 15 days to develop an agreed upon payment plan with the district.  If a plan and attempt to pay has not been made after 45 days past due, students will receive a sandwich as the main dish until an approved payment plan is in place.  If the family account has a negative balance of $10.00 or more, students will not be allowed to charge ala carte purchases.

PAST DUE ACCOUNTS:

The District may file a claim with small claims court or utilize the services of a collection agency and/or legal counsel to secure the collection of unpaid food service debt that is forty-five or more days past due.  Any charges associated with a small claims court filing or fees charged by a collection agency shall be added to the unpaid debt due the District.  The District will delay such action when a parent/guardian agrees to and makes timely payments in accordance with an alternative payment plan to eliminate the debt.

First Reading:   September 15, 2014           Second Reading:  October 20, 2014

If you have any questions surrounding the new policy please feel free to contact me by phone or email.

Not a Political Ad!

If you are like me, you are burned out of political ads.  My mailbox is full, they found my cell phone number, and I can't watch TV!  So please excuse this Blog post...

While I promise not to tell you how to vote, there is one race that Central supporters should pay very close attention to.  That race is for Iowa House District 55 which was previously held by Elkader's own Roger Thomas.  Darrel Branhagen (Republican) and Rick Edwards (Democrat) are the two candidates running for Iowa House District 55. 

Last Wednesday, the Central government class hosted a debate in the Central auditorium.

I went into that debate not knowing either candidate, so I was very excited to attend and learn about both candidates.  In terms of the education for our students (and as a parent, for my kids) it did not take long to determine Mr. Branhagen would not be a supporter of our public schools.  Mr. Branhagen has stated his support for waivers, which in my opinion shows how out of touch he is with our rural communities he is supposed to be representing.  If we get a waiver, we aren't Des Moines, so where are we supposed to go?  Does he want our kids on a bus for hours? Does he not know that over 90% of parents strongly support their child's school?
I also asked Mr. Branhagen about State Supplemental Aid and the importance of setting that at no lower than 4% due to Central and surrounding districts dealing with loss of enrollment.  His response was curious at best.  He started by stating teachers are underpayed in Iowa when compared to the nation, even though Iowa teachers outperform 90% of other States in the Nation.  He then went onto state that teachers in Iowa are underpayed when compared to other State positions in Iowa.  Yet, while recognizing these problems, Mr. Branhagen ended by stating he would not support an increase in State Supplemental Aid!  I stood there with my mouth open, looking confused?!  Iowa has a huge surplus, and one thing we want as parents is our tax money to go to our students.  An educated population leads to a stronger economy. 
Mr. Barnhagen also has to be aware that State Supplemental Aid doesn't just go to our teacher's salaries.  It goes to transportation costs, utilities of our buildings, instructional materials, professional development, and the ability to provide more opportunities for our students.
Currently Iowa is $1600 below the national average in terms of per-pupil funding.  Our small communities need and heavily support their local schools.  Many times, the local schools are the largest employer in their perspective towns.  Ask your local business owners what having a school district in their community means to them.  Look at the communities where schools have been closed, they die.
Sorry for the political rant, I was just heavily taken back by Mr. Branhagen's lack of support for our local schools.  He seemed very out of touch with rural Iowa.  If you know and support Mr. Branhagen, please challenge him to rethink his position on our local schools.  Obviously I am biased as the leader of one, but it should also be noted I graduated from a public school and I am the parent of three children that have attended a variety of public schools.  Iowa has great public schools, we need leaders in Des Moines that support and fight for our schools.
I welcome any discussion on this topic and encourage all voters in District 55 to share this information. 

Thoughts from a football mom!

Good Morning!

Just a Saturday morning thought to share...

Our Central Warriors are have a great season with their currently undefeated record.  We all love the football games with the Friday Night Lights and sitting around afterwards and rehashing the games.  We visit about individual players and the great things they did or things to work at and improve upon, how everyone is feeling or if there were any injuries, sending up a silent prayer for all our players.  We discuss passes, tackles, great plays and touchdowns made, interceptions caught, onside kicks and fumbles recovered, holding the line and each player doing their job... working together as a team to overcome the opponent and end on top with a win.  But at the end of the night the lights get turned off and we have sweet dreams about the game of football.

Then as we awake and begin a new day the "Saturday Morning Lights" come on... and this is what I see!  Guess we all know what I (and all football mom's out there) will be doing today... Friday Nights Laundry!

Have a wonderful day!

Love, Christina, a football mom

Positive note from Central City's Superintendent

I received the following email from Central City Superintendent Tim Cronin.  I love getting emails like this and I am proud of our Central athletes and coaching staff for being a "class-act" both on and off the field.  I hope you enjoy this as much as I did!

Nick

Thought I'd pass this along.  Quite honestly, part of the reason I went to the game bc I was thinking you guys would score a 100 and run up the score.  As I retold people over the weekend, you were up 62-0 and no points were scored in an obvious attempt to run up the score.  Thanks.

Nice note below.

Take care.

Tim

 

 

Dan, I am Jason Mclaughlin, Central City Jr-Sr High principal.  I wanted to let you know so that you can pass this along, but you guys were class acts on Friday night at our football game.  I am not sure if you were there or not, but if you weren't, you guys were up 62-0 at halftime.  

Our kids/team has really struggled this year, but they are working hard.  You guys could have really put the wood to us second half but did not.  We appreciate not putting our kids in a position where they are read about giving up 100 points or something crazy like that.  

Anyway, thanks a lot for the great sportsmanship that your kids and coaches showed Friday night. We really appreciate it and it shows a lot of class.  Your kids worked hard, they are a tough team, but they are also very good sports and it is nice to see.  Good luck to you guys the rest of the season and good luck in the playoffs.  Hopefully you can hoist up that trophy at the end of the year, we will be rooting for you. 
Jason McLaughlin

 

After School Programs offered at Central

I wanted to share an email I received from Shannon Durbin, who coordinates a lot of our after school programs.  Many of you may not realize all the programs currently being offered at Central.  If you have interest in volunteering to help with an after school program, or you have a child that is interested in participating, please contact the school.

Theater Program-  We just completed a puppet theater series and the group will be traveling to Dubuque this Sunday for Curious George at the Heritage Center.  We will start Acting for the Camera in November.  I am trying to get my former classmate and meteorologist, Justin Roberts, to visit with the group.

First Lego League- they have chosen the name Cyborg Narwhals and are doing great learning the new programming and EV3 robots that I was able to get with a 3M grant.  I also received a Rockwell Collins Grant to pay for our admission and challenge set.  Double checked on the whereabouts of that today, it was held up for a reason they weren't sure of but will be sending it today.  The kids are doing well with core values and are starting their project next Tuesday.  The youth wanted to learn about flight for their project so we are taking a field trip on Tuesday to the Elkader airport and talking to a couple of pilots.  If the weather is good (and I get insurance approved) the kids may have the option to ride in the plane. 

Hyperstream Club- I have four high school students in this group.  They are doing a service project this weekend with Harvest Fest.  They made the posters and newspaper ads as well.  If all works out they also will be doing a film making day on Monday with a professional film maker presenter.  Although this event will mostly be geared torward the Hyperstream group, we are going to do it as a day camp so anyone who wants to learn can come.  We thought of this idea kind of late, so if it doesn't work this time we will do it on another break.  The high school students are super busy so a full day immersion is best for their schedules.

I know we talked about this really briefly when I first met with you but for your records
Partnership with the ISU Extension and Outreach

4h Afterschool Clubs-
Open to everyone.  If the group meets regularly we register the group as a 4h club.  It costs $30 to the state to be a 4h member.  The Extension council pays $10 of it so the youth pay $20.  If the youth is already in a 4h club they don't have to re-enroll.  We provide insurance, screening and educated leadership, volunteers when available, training, researched based curriculum, and the youth are welcome to put their project (whether it be robotics or garden, etc) into the county fair, which also provides them free admission all week.  They can also participate on county council, 4h camp, and citizenship trips, etc.  They are also provided access to our materials (robotics kits, computers, etc) through the grants we get.  We are a nonprofit lead education agency.  4h Afterschool has its own website if you want more information of the possibilities we can do together.

Extension Programs-
Open to everyone.  These are approximately 6 hours of researched based education.  We provide this through day camps, summer camps, after school series (like theater).  These youth don't register in 4h.  Usually there is just a small fee to cover supplies and snack and additional insurance we take out when there are non-4h youth involved.  We provide screened leadership and free training to volunteers and research based curriculum for youth, but these youth are not eligible to participate in fair or other 4h experiences through this group, they must join a club to do so.

We partner with all area schools for use of space, additional supplies, and volunteers.
We are super happy to continually have Central as a partner in all of the above.

A special thank you for your willingness to pay MacKenzie to co-lead robotics.  She has a very positive attitude and is picking it all up pretty quickly.

We are also very happy to have Food and Fitness melding so well within the school.  I did not update you on their progress as I am sure you are already getting it from Mr. Arnold and Ms. Panther, but can if you would like more info.

Thank you,

Shannon Durbin
Program Coordinator

Community within a Community Service Project

The Food Science students spent two days doing a "community within a community" service project.  Students worked in teams to produce items for the Central Volleyball bake sale, with proceeds going to support the cancer fundraiser they participate in.  Students worked collaboratively to choose recipes, bring in/purchase the needed supplies, and problem-solve how to prepare the products.  Who would have thought learning could be so fun!