Snow, Ice, Fog, & Mr. Trenkamp's Name in Vain!

This has been a tough couple weeks of weather calls and we are still not through January!  As I am writing this I just finished a long morning cruise, roads look pretty good but now fog has entered the picture.  All I can say is spring can't come fast enough!

Due to some recent fanfare on Facebook, I thought I'd share what actually goes into a weather call. Contrary to the Carnival Skit the students did on me last year (which was hilarious), I actually do more than drive around my block twice😀!  The following is a breakdown of the process in making weather calls for Central.

1) Northeast Iowa schools get excellent support and updates from the National Weather Station in Lacrosse.  These include up-to-date emails, powerpoint presentations, and live webinars specific for schools.  I also like to use the app Weatherbug, which is based at the MFL Mar-Mac High School building in Monona.
2) A group decision.  Superintendents, administrators, and transportation directors from around the area are out traveling roads as early as 3:30am.  Our phones go crazy between 5:00am and 6:00am as we compare conditions across our districts.  We are also in contact with our county and state road crews as well as our bus drivers.
3) Decision time.  After traveling roads and consulting with the group, I make the best possible decision with the information I have at that time.  Once that decision is made, I call Mr. Yanda and he notifies the radio station while I send out information on School Messenger and head back to the office so I can get on my computer to notify our local news stations.

As you know, Mother Nature has the last laugh.  An example of this was in a recent late call to cancel.  We always try to have our decisions made by 6:00am, 6:30am the absolute latest.  I was leaving St. Olaf at 6:30am and just got off the phone with our transportation director stating we are sticking with going on time.  Not fifteen minutes later came the ice and road conditions changed instantly.  Central, along with Clayton Ridge and MFL Mar-Mac scrambled to call our busses back in and we were forced to make a late call on weather.  Mother Nature got the best of us that day, but we were still luckier than some of our northern neighbors who didn't get hit until after they had busses already loaded with kids.

Most snow, ice, and fog conditions you will find Central is relatively the same as our neighboring districts.  One area which I fully admit I am different in making weather calls is cold weather.  I am told each school day in Iowa approximately 300 people break the law by driving through a stopped school bus, and these are regular school days.  My wife who drives an hour to work in the morning knows exactly where she meets a bus each day.  By going 2 hours late for cold weather, I now put those busses out where travelers at that time are not used to seeing a bus on their route.  I feel this is an added danger as these people are many times not aware of the laws regarding busses on the roadways.  Also, in most cases the weather only warms up a degree or two in this two hour span.  Does that degree or two justify putting busses on the road where travelers are not used to seeing them and putting working parents in a position where they need to find coverage for their kids for two hours?  Obviously I do not believe it does.  Some of my neighbors do and each school district is different with amount of walkers and distance they walk to school, stops, etc. so I respect their decision.  

Lastly I'll end with stating guardians always have the final say.  It is impossible for my transportation director (who is also shared with Ed-Co) and I to travel every single road before making a weather call.  If you feel your area is unsafe to put your child on a bus or send your teenage driver to school, then please don't!  All we ask is that you call the school and let us know and we will respect and support your decision.

I also hope we can agree to disagree at times without negativity posted on Facebook and other public social media.  Talking negatively about our school district and spreading misinformation only hurts the learning environment and culture of Central, and really shows a bad example for our kids.  I really hope this shines some light on weather calls here at Central and I thank all of you for your understanding and support.

Iowa 2017 Legislative Session set to being

On Monday, January 9th the Iowa 2017 Legislative Session will begin.  Last year republicans had control of the house and governor's office with democrats in control of the senate.  This year, republicans have control of all three houses.  It is my opinion that our democracy works best when split control exists.  This forces both branches to work together and compromise, decreasing the chances of bad legislation in favor of the far right or far left political views.

Central is a member of the Rural School Advocates of Iowa (RSAI) network.  It has been my experience that many of the things coming out of Des Moines favor our larger urban schools and are heavily out of touch with the realities we face in rural Iowa.  We need those who support rural schools--especially parents, to speak up and share the advantages of our rural schools and demand that our children be treated equitably.  Below you will find a video from Rural School Advocates of Iowa laying out their priorities for the 2017 session.  I'd like to briefly touch on some of these priorities and why they are relevant for Central taxpayers.

1. Transportation Equity- As you can see by the map provided by RSAI, Central is dark blue meaning we pay the highest level of per-pupil funding just to get our students to and from school.  This takes away from hiring teachers, increasing class offerings, curriculum, and other educational costs.
2. State Penny Sales Tax- For those of us who like lower property taxes, this is a big deal!  RSAI shares the effect on decreased property taxes the State Penny has had.  We are now seeing our property taxes increase as each year we get closer to the sunset of the State Penny.  Iowa Public Schools and their supporters should also not be interested in selling our souls to get an extension, meaning allowing other uses such as water quality at these funds just to get an extension.  The State has already set aside money for addressing water quality, why do they need to take it from schools?
3. Iowa Funding Formula Equality- You may have seen this one in the news with Davenport's superintendent, Art Tate publicly stating Davenport would break the law to ensure their students are funded equitably.  While I am too young in my career to go breaking the law and losing my license, I agree with Mr. Tate and appreciate the stance and attention he is bringing to this issue.  Central, like Davenport is one of the 170 of 330 school districts not receiving the highest level of funding.  That robs Central of $75,775 a year, which again could be used toward another teacher, educational supplies, and class offerings.  
4. Operational Sharing- Central currently shares the following; business manager, human resource manager, transportation director, curriculum director, and school counselor.  If Central did not receive operational sharing incentives, we would not be able to fund these positions.
5. New State Assessment- It is looking more and more like the Iowa Assessment (which used to be ITBS) will be replaced with Smarter Balanced, a new state assessment.  This is a big topic so I will dedicate a Blog article to this in the near future.
6. 3rd Grade Retention & Summer School- Central was a part of the State's pilot program last year and along with the State we had mixed results.  As RSAI correctly points out, there is no funding for a summer school program and running a quality program has a significant cost.  Research also shows retention simply does not work, so in my opinion this is bad legislation.  
7. Quality Preschool- Please stop in anytime so I can share with you Central's early literacy data.  I credit a lot of our success to our preschool program.  Many of you may not know that preschool students are only funded at half the cost of all other students.  I support RSAI's position of fully funding preschool.   

Please take some time and get informed about the issues public education faces and get involved.  As parents and taxpayers, your voice makes a difference.  Please do not hesitate to send questions through this Blog, my email, or even stop in for a conversation.

Central's representative's:

michael.breitbach@legis.iowa.gov 

michael.bergan@legis.iowa.gov

kristi.hager@legis.iowa.gov