District Calendar

Last night the Central School Board met and held a work session pertaining to the district calendar.  I proposed 2 revised drafts and the board chose a draft that aligned to the feedback we received from you, the community.  I believe everyone will be happy with this draft and I thank everyone for their feedback.

I will be meeting with our District Leadership Team to work out some of the details, then I will host another public forum on Thusday, February 27th, at 7:00pm located in the Central Auditorium.  Please try to attend as I believe you will be pleased with what we came up with.

The Central School Board will be putting together an Ad Hoc committee to explore calendar options to better meet the needs of 21st century students.  Just today, Wisconsin announced legislation to give districts the flexibility to move away from the traditional calendar.  This is similar to the legislation Iowa passed last year.  Our students deserve a public education that meets their needs, not one that met ours.  If you would like to be a part of the process in developing this, please let me know.  All members have to be approved by the board.

The Cost of Open Enrolling Out

With our discussions surrounding the calendar changes, the people opposed to more balanced breaks are looking at open enrolling out as an option.  As of today's date, this is mostly upperclassmen.  This got me thinking and playing with numbers, so I thought I would share out what I came up with.

Using Elkader (central location of our district) and open enrolling into Starmont, your looking at about a 20 mile trip one way.  Here comes the math students!  40 miles round trip a day, times that by a 180 days of school (No matter the calendar, it is still 180 days of school).  Total miles driven back and forth to school equals 7,200 miles.  Remember that number.  Now lets say you drive a vehicle that averages 20 miles to the gallon, take 7200 miles divided by 20 miles per gallon and you have 360 gallons of gas consumed in a school year.  Lets pretend the government stays nice to us and gas is only $3.00 a gallon for the entire school year.  Take 360 gallons of gas times by $3.00 a gallon and you have $1080 spent on gas for open enrolling into another school district.  Now these numbers will change depending on location etc., but a person also has to consider wear and tear on a vehicle and the expense of an added 7200 miles per year.

Now here is the fun part (glass half full, not empty)!  Remember the proposed calendar is still 180 days of school, whether you go to Central or any other school district.  So if you decide not to open enroll out, take your +$1080 saved and Google how you can use that on one of our other breaks.  Remember we are proposing a fall, winter, and spring break.
Here is a list of what I came up with (obviously you can tell my interests):
Fall Break

• All inclusive pheasant hunts
• All inclusive fishing trips
• All inclusive hog hunt
• A good portion knocked off of a big game hunt

Winter Break

• All inclusive ski trip
• Most expenses paid snow mobile trip
• All inclusive ice fishing

Spring Break

• All inclusive trip to Cancun
• Blue Marlin fishing trip

Many of these opportunities do not exist in our traditional calendar without missing school.  I understand change is hard, but change can also bring opportunities that previously didn't exist.

Great Things Happening at Central Post

Too often we get caught up in the negative news so I am starting this post to share out all the great things I hear about Central students and staff.  If you have something positive to add about our school district, this is the place to do it!

5/05/14
Grandparents Day at Central Elementary was a huge success!  Central students showed off their skills during our monthly PBIS assembly and our grandparents enjoyed the show.
Here is an email I received from my kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Zittergruen:
I have run into several grandparents this weekend (including my own parents) and many of them stopped me to tell me how great that day was. One told me that she was talking to another lady at the assembly who said she was from Postville, and had 17 grandchildren in several different schools, and she had never been invited to a Grandparents Day. Apparently she was thrilled! :) I had over 50 people in my room, and I couldn't have asked for the kids to be better behaved and responsible either. It was a fun afternoon!

5/05/14

Great job Ms. Gritzner, our Global Science students, and community members for their work on the food waste project that made KWWL news.  Great news spreads fast and after making the news Ms. Gritzner received this email from UNI!

I was really glad I caught your news story a couple of days ago on KWWL.  What a great project!  I am so impressed with your waste sort!  Great idea to spread the food waste on the parking lot so students can see how much is wasted!  

I wanted to let you know that we have spent the last year promoting food waste reduction and landfill diversion.  We conducted four workshops across the state, and created a website at foodwaste.iwrc.org  Please check it out for some great resources and information you may be able to use!  

If there is anything at all that you would like assistance with in implementing a program to reduce food waste at Central Community School in Elkader, please let us know!  Thanks and best wishes!

Jenny Trent

Environmental Specialist

Great Job Caden and Delaney on becoming Central's first PBIS medal winners!  Continue to be leaders in demonstrating positive behavior!

Congratulations to Mrs. Wenger's 5th grade class on their FAST assessment achievement!  The 5th grade class was the only class to make better than expected gains in fluency.  As an average the 5th grade class gained 18 words per minute from fall to winter.  Because of their amazing success, Mr. Trenkamp and Mrs. Wenger celebrated with them by hosting a sledding party at Osborne.  Keep up the great work work 5th grade students!

Our first post is from Theresa Eberhardt.  Thank you for the kind words Theresa, our students and staff were amazing last night!  Wouldn't be possible without the strong community and parental support.

Please pass on to all of the students involved in this year’s carnival and variety show, needed to write this note to say how very impressed I was.  I know it is also with the guidance from the boosters and teachers as well-kudos!! A job well done!! It seems to continue to get better each year and though not so big in numbers everyone performed with a big heart.  It is not just about having fun but it is about:

    *using your God-given talents and abilities in productive ways

    *getting up in front of a group of people will help you in any interview or job you have in the future to express your ideas with confidence

    *creativity will help you in any future committee, job, career, or community involvement you pursue

    *music and humor are very relaxing, calming and helpful in reducing stress and other health issues

    *the friendships you develop through these events will stick with you for a lifetime

    *without knowing it you have learned valuable life lessons like rolling with the punches, not letting a small set-back (or falling letter) interfere with what you know needed to be done, coming up with solutions to problems as they arise and moving on, schedules, timing, team work, hard work pays off and so much more

You will be the leaders in our churches, communities, schools, counties, states and nation for the future and I see it looking very bright!  Great job and keep up the good work and commitment to excellence in all that you do and strive for.

Theresa E. Eberhardt

Easy Central Fundraiser

Browns Sales and Leasing invites everybody to step in from the freezing cold and enjoy some HOT chili! Saturday, February 1st, from 10-2, Browns employees will be teamed up in an effort to create their most creative and flavorful chili recipe to raise money for Central Community School. And YOU get to be the judge.  The team with the most votes, well you get the picture, bragging rights at the water cooler.  There will be no charge to the public for this exciting events, just a little donation basket if you like what you taste...

So stop on in and help us crown crown a chili cooking champion at Browns Sales and Leasing in Elkader on February 1st. For more information, call me, Kalie Means at 888-875-2409. See you there!

The Importance of a Name

During last night's board meeting the discussion came up on the use of Central's name.  The biggest question, what is our name?  This changes depending on where you look or where you are at.  The Iowa Department of Education lists us as "Central Community School District".  I have also seen us listed as "Elkader-Central", "Elkader", "Central-Elkader", "Central-Clayton", just to name a few.  So why is this important?

The importance of a name is all about identity.  A name should say 1) who we are and 2) what we stand for.  In the five names listed above, an outsider could take away many different meanings.  Example,  "Elkader-Central" could imply that Elkader is a large city and Central is the district in the middle of the city.  As an outsider, how would you know any better?

It is important for our district to unite around our name.  Central Community School District is larger than Elkader, as we also represent Garber, Elkport, Littleport, St. Olaf, and Volga.  I would also say that Central is larger than Clayton county.  We are the only true "Central" in the State of Iowa, and we need to wear that distinction with pride!  Through our actions and what we stand for is how we want to separate our Central Community School District from other districts in Iowa with a similar name.

Today I contacted all of our news stations and asked that "Elkader" and "Clayton" be taken off our name.  The Central Community School Board will also be working on revising our branding policy as well as sending a letter to all of our local businesses informing them of our current policy.  The current policy prohibits the selling of Central gear for profit and without board approval.  While I do not want to limit the availability of Central gear, I feel it is important that we have a common voice going forward.

When Central is talked about both in and outside of our community, I want people to know exactly who we are through academic excellence, innovation, and school pride!

Multi-Age Classrooms

Multi-Age Classrooms at Central

The 2014/15 school year will see some changes in how classrooms look at Central Elementary.  Traditionally students have been put in a grade level based on their age.  Central Elementary will be moving away from this practice and will be placing students in groups based on ability.  I would argue that nowhere else are people moved ahead or held back strictly because of their age.  As we prepare our students for our future work force, wouldn't moving them along based on ability make more sense?  One room school houses used to do this.  In those schools, students of all ages attended and worked at their appropriate learning levels.  Starting next year Central Elementary looks to do the same!  

How Multi-Age Will Look at Central

In the 2014/15 school year Central Elementary will have three classrooms each of K/1, 2/3, and 4/5.  This will give all of our students the chance to both be a mentor (upper level student) and men-tee (1st year student to the classroom).  Research states the highest level of learning occurs when students can actually teach the material.  With this concept of "looping", all students will get the chance to be taught by other students as well as teach other students.  These groups will be based on interests and abilities, not age.
Classrooms will also be evenly matched, meaning all classrooms will have a high, medium, and low students.  All students will also have the opportunity to work with students in the other two classes as we mix and match based on ability and interests.

Looping

Looping is another idea that will be implemented next school year.  Example, if your student will be in Kindergarten next year and is assigned to Mrs. Steffen, that same student would repeat with Mrs. Steffen in 1st grade.  This gives our teachers and students the advantage of knowing each other better, which allows more time to complete our learning targets together.  Each year in our grade-level public school system students are assigned to new teachers.  The new teacher has very little idea about the background of the student (what they have learned, their interests, their home-life, how they learn best, etc).  Re-learning these things about each student in a teacher's class takes away from the valuable learning time we have in a school year.  At Central, our teachers will walk into school the first day and know exactly where they left off with half their class.  Also, half the class will know the expectations of the teacher on the first day of school.  Imagine the power of that!

Grading

Central Elementary will move to competency based grading in the 2014/15 school year.  Students at Central Elementary will no longer receive a traditional letter grade.  Instead we will focus on whether or not they have mastered the learning target being graded.  Once they master they move on.  If they do not master the target, we re-teach and give the student the supports they need until they do master the target.  Imagine Michael Jordan in high school basketball when he got cut from the team.  On a traditional grading scale he would have received a failing grade, and the teacher and class (including Jordan) would have moved on.  How do you think that teacher would feel today?  What did that grade tell us about Michael Jordan's ability to play basketball?  Absolutely nothing.  What Jordan needed was more time and training.  Central students are no different.  Just because they do not "get it" today doesn't mean we give up and move on.  If we believe in something strongly enough to teach it, then we believe equally strong that every student needs to know it!

Financial

Declining enrollment has led to smaller class sizes.  Financially it just doesn't make sense anymore to have class sizes around 15 students.  Ask any teacher, and it also doesn't make sense to have class sizes of 30 plus.  By moving to multi-age, class sizes will be around 24 students.  Financially this number makes perfect sense for a district our size and will allow Central to be around for a long time.

I welcome any input as we work through the planning stages of multi-age groupings.

Thoughts on the District Calendar

Thank You

With the revised calendar looking much different than the calendar that was proposed in public forums, I have ceased allowing comments on this blog.  Most of the comments are in regards to what was originally proposed and not relevant to the revised calendar.  I will allow comments after the revised calendar has been shared on Thursday (27th).
I have also deleted all comments as they were made in regards to a calendar that no longer exists. Thank you for sharing your comments, specially those of you willing to put your name behind them.  While we will not always agree, I hope through this process we can develop a stronger sense of trust as well as stronger community support and parental involvement.  Only by working together can we make Central a strong and innovative district.

Traditional Calendar vs. Alternative Calendar

In Central’s last newsletter I shared about exciting changes in education, specifically those being looked into here at Central.  One of those changes was revising our district calendar.  Our calendar committee has been meeting and we are looking into making some serious changes to the calendar.  One thing we are interested in changing is the length of our summer break (currently 83 days).  Below I attached our student data that strongly shows the negative affects of a long summer break.  The curious thing I found in researching our data is that the long break affects our highly proficient students the most.  We believe by lessening the summer break and building in breaks throughout the school year, student regression will improve.  Another reason we are looking into making some changes is that our current calendar limits the students and their families that are involved in extra-curricular activities.  With breaks throughout the school year we hope that families can spend more time together without their children having to go to a practice or event.  This will not always be the case as many of our seasons overlap each other.  During "seasons" the school will remain open for practices, similar to our breaks in the current calendar.  The committee is also looking at ways to add interventions for students who are struggling.  One idea would be to add intervention times into our breaks.  If a student is failing a class, they will continue to go to school during these times (receiving the extra support they need), while students who did well in their classes would get extra days of break.  As the committee continues to work through proposed changes I will be hosting public forums to share our ideas and receive your feedback.  Change can be hard, and tackling the school calendar will not be easy.  Our traditional school calendar was designed for a time period when tractors didn’t have lights and most students were needed on the family farm.  As education has evolved, the calendar has remained unchanged.  Now is the time to tackle the calendar structure and ensure that Central’s district calendar promotes high academic achievement for all students.