This has been one of my favorite rumors since my arrival at
Central three short years ago. One would
think after three years (or longer) this misconception would just go away, but
with both districts failing in their recent bond efforts and with both
districts now sharing a common calendar, the merge rumors are still going
strong. So as you can see in my title,
if you can’t beat them, join them!
All joking aside, Central is implementing steps to partner
with Clayton Ridge on a variety of initiatives that Superintendent Shane Wahls
(Clayton Ridge) and I are very excited about.
Clayton Ridge and Central will share the same district
calendar in the 2016/17 school year.
This is a major accomplishment in which both districts had some give and
take. I feel this is one of the more
important pieces to have in place for real sharing opportunities to exist. Everything becomes easier when you are on the
same schedule and timeline.
- Because of the common calendar, Central and Clayton Ridge are better able to serve our students through expanding our course offerings, specifically our duel credit course offerings. This upcoming school year, Clayton Ridge students will be able to register for Mrs. Walz early childhood education classes (8 students have already registered!) and Central students can register for Mr. Mueller’s duel credit advanced carpentry courses.
- Teachers from both districts will now have common professional development days to work as teams. In both of our districts, all of our middle school and secondary teachers are the only people that teach those subject areas (singletons). Now with common professional development, these teachers can collaborate with peers who teach the same subjects.
- Central and Clayton Ridge students do not have access to a learning academy and have minimal Northeast Iowa Community College presence (NICC does not have a site in Clayton County). Neither school district has the budget to hire extra staff to provide more duel credit courses. Getting creative and working together (something public schools traditionally haven’t done well) is something both Mr. Wahls and I recognized as a way to protect our individual identities and better serve our communities.
Those that want the school districts to merge will always
find an example of something we are doing to spread that agenda. The silent majority (according to our survey
results) realizes what would happen if the communities of Central lose their school
or the communities of Clayton Ridge lose theirs. Your school district is the lifeblood of any
thriving community. Mr. Wahls and I
truly believe by working together we can offer more to our communities while
maintaining our individuality and furthering the longevity of our school
districts.
Well done.
ReplyDeleteGood job Shane and Nick
ReplyDeleteI'm a 2006 graduate of Central Elkader. I appreciate what you are doing at Central to offer more dual-credit classes. I'm a 9-12 English teacher at Kingsland High School in Spring Valley, MN, where I teach two sections of English 9, a class of English 11, a class of English 12, and two college-credit classes. In Minnesota, schools are partnering with local community colleges to offer classes that would be available on campus and in high-schools by mentoring with high-school teachers. The program is called College in the Schools (CIS). Kingsland High School has about 40-50 in a graduating class; however, six students graduated with their high-school diplomas as well as their AA degree from Riverland Community College in Austin and stayed on campus at the high school while completing it. How it works: The high-school teacher teaching college-credit courses on the high-school campus has to have a master's degree in his or her speciality. Then, the teacher is paired with a professor from the local community college. The mentor works with the teacher to develop a syllabus and makes sure the course is similar to the one that would be available on campus, and the teacher has to attend a mandatory workshop before school. I'm in my third year teaching college-level classes at Kingsland High School. I teach Introduction to Literature, American Lit. 2, Composition, and Argumentation and Exposition. There are only two English teachers 7-12 at Kingsland. I have five preps and teach 6 periods out of 7. The juniors and seniors choose to take regular English or the college-credit offering. The student doesn't pay anything. I think the CIS program has allowed many students to stay on campus and has attracted students to our school. Some other dual credit classes at our school include the areas of Spanish, math, agriculture, social science and band. Keep up what you are doing. Maybe, Iowa can start a similar CIS program because it helps when students don't have a community college that's close to them when they have extra-curricular activities to attend.
ReplyDelete-Stacey (Whittle) Hogberg
Thank you for sharing your comments, and a larger thank you to Stacey for sharing what you are doing in Minnesota.
ReplyDeleteThe point of my article is that we (rural schools, rural communities, rural employers, and community colleges) must get creative and work together. To do this we also have to share our ideas, successes, and failures.
One point of clarification I would like to make is that NICC does have a presence in Clayton County and at Central. I meant they do not have a "physical" presence and out of the 8 full counties they serve, Clayton County is the only county without a physical presence. In order for a physical presence to happen, the communities and school districts of Clayton County will need to work together as most of the NICC physical sites are not owned by NICC.