Project Based Learning & Innovation

Please check out the following video shared with me by Mr. O'Brien: https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=HQT2uwDXcF0

The school district in this video in many ways resembles Central.  Like many rural Iowa school districts our enrollment has dropped, specially during the floods of 2008.  As I have stated many times during my public forums, blogs, newsletters, etc., we can continue to do the same thing as everyone else and we will continue to get the same results as everyone else.  Or, as I proposed with a new calendar, we can think outside the box and offer something different for our children.

June 3-5, Central teachers and associates will be trained in Project Based Learning through the Buck Institute for Education.  As seen in the video above, this is not a simple change in teaching.  Instead, this is asking our teachers to totally transform their practices.  Project based learning puts the student and their interest first and allows learning through hands on trial and error experimentation.  The results of project based learning seem stunning at Walton, but schools in Iowa already doing this are experiencing similar results.

As you have gotten to know me over the past year I hope that you have learned I refuse to lead a school district stuck in 20th Century practices.  In order to fully pull off a true project based school district, I will need your support.  I need the support of business leaders willing to come and work with our students, as well as parents & grandparents willing to share their many talents.  Together we can provide a much different education than what we received and what many Iowa school districts are still providing.

Please contact Central if your business would like to partner with the school district or if you personally have a talent you want to share and teach our students.  I am looking forward to the exciting changes coming to Central in the 2014/15 school year and welcome all of you to be a part of these changes!

More great things coming to Central!

My #1 goal as Superintendent is to grow Central and keep our district not only viable, but thriving for a long time.  Some of my ideas may be controversial in order to do this, but hopefully this isn't one of them!  I believe we need to 1) be innovative and 2) grow from the ground up as we look to attract new families to our district.  Because of these beliefs, I will be implementing a full day 4-year-old preschool program for our parents in the 2014/15 school year.  This will benefit our parents and students in multiple ways.  1) Research proves students are learning an incredible amount at early ages.  Getting them into a structured learning environment, led by a certified teacher will only enhance the student's chance of academic success.  2) Cost to our parents.  Under our current program parents have to find transportation and daycare for their students, both have a considerable cost and burden on working parents.  By providing a full day program, parents will be able to utilize Central's bussing to provide transportation to and from the home, as well as save on daycare costs.

Here are the proposed 4-year-old preschool offerings for the 2014/15 school year.

Full Day Program

Time

Monday-Thursday, 8:15-3:30.  No classes on Friday.

Transportation

Regular district transportation provided to our K-12 students will also be provided to our 4-year-old students.

Breakfast/Lunch

School breakfast & lunch will be provided daily to our 4-year-old students.  Breakfast is optional as students can eat before they arrive.  Free and reduced applications are available at the district office for those that qualify.  This is confidential information so please take advantage of this program.

Cost

Due to only being funded half-time, there will be a charge for this program.  We will be charging parents $125 a month for the nine months of school for a total cost of $1,125 per student for the school year.  This amount is tax deductible and should compare quite favorably with current daycare costs in which many parents are paying that a week.  I am also looking into a scholarship program to offset the $125 a month for families in need.  If you have any questions about this please contact me as I will work with parents to make this option as affordable as possible.

Half Day Program

Time

Monday-Thursday, 8:15-12:00. No classes on Friday.

Transportation

Regular district transportation will pick up 4-year-old students.  Parents will be responsible for having their student picked up at 12:00.  At this time, we will no longer provide a bus to the daycare center.

Breakfast/Lunch

Parents can choose whether or not they want their student to participate in Central's breakfast & hot lunch program.

Cost

There will be no cost for the half-day program.

Spots for the full day program are filling up fast.  Class sizes are limited to 20 students so contact Central if you are not already signed up.  We will host a Preschool Round-Up where students will be able to attend a half-day class on April 25th.  At that time I will meet with perspective parents and answer any questions you may have and provide information about possible scholarship opportunities.  Also, feel free to ask questions and add comments to this Blog.

Before the press!

As a thank you for following my Blog, readers will have better access to materials being sent out!  Here is my newsletter article for the April/May (and last) newsletter of the year.  Enjoy it before everyone else!

Central Stakeholders,

We have finally hit the 50 degrees mark, which can only be a sign that winter is slowly leaving us.  This has to rank as the worst winter in terms of coldness in my career, yet as with anything, our teachers and students adapted well with the inconsistency of days and being cooped up inside.

Along with warmer weather brings the end of a school year and Marlene informs me this will be our last newsletter of the year.  Because of this, I think it is a perfect time to reflect on the school year as well as look at the road ahead.

My Entry Plan as I began this position set forth the following goals:

·        - Listen and learn from students, staff, parents, and community. 

·        -Building and deepening relationships.

·        -Ownership of data.

·        -Identifying strengths and weaknesses of the district.

·        -Be visible in the school and community.

While I admit there were some hurdles along the way, I feel I have had some degree of success toward all of my goal areas.  Obtaining success in these areas hasn’t always been easy and has led to tough conversations, disagreements, and sometimes even tears.  As a leader you have to be able to have these types of conversations and as I look to Central’s future, these conversations are going to happen more and more.  We can no longer do what we have always done and ignore the data in front of us.  As a district we know exactly who we are, now the tough question becomes who do we want to be?  For those that believe who we are right now is good enough, it isn’t.  We can and will do better.

As the leader of our school district, I feel it is my duty to all of our stakeholders to share the direction I want to see our district go and to be held accountable for getting us there.  I have made no secret that I believe our students deserve a 21^st Century education and a different public education from what our generation and the generations before us received.  Education is no longer local, it is global.  Our kids will enter a global work force, high school diploma or not.  Will they be equipped to handle the demands of a global job-market through skills such as memorization, note taking, and test taking? Absolutely not!  We need actively engaged students who exhibit higher levels of learning through writing and hands on activities, in other words, creating things!  That is why I am happy to pass along that Central will host a district wide training for all of our teachers with the Buck Institute this June.  I encourage everyone to check out the Buck Institute’s website at http://bie.org.  Project Based Learning will lead to a different looking classroom.  Gone are textbooks, worksheets, and the memorization of capitals!  Replacing these lower level skills, Central students will instead be critically thinking and creating.  I want our students to be finding real solutions to real life problems.  This will be a first of its kind training in this part of Iowa and I am very excited about the possibilities it will offer Central students!

Due to my belief in the importance of reading and writing and the research surrounding this area, we need to focus on our youth.  The earlier we can get our students exposed to literacy skills, the more successful they will be in our high school and as adults.  Because of this Central will be offering two full day preschool classes in the 2014/15 school year.  This is a major, positive change for our school district. 

These two things along with multi-age classrooms and continuing our calendar discussions are going to set Central apart from other schools in our area, Iowa, and our nation.  We will be able to offer an education to meet the demands of the 21^st Century in which our students will be writers, critical thinkers, and problem solvers.  These opportunities will also come with more parent and community involvement.  This is already beginning as I have already been approached by some business leaders requesting involvement with our students on our early out Friday’s.  I hope to grow parent and community involvement as we move forward as a district.

Thank you for all of your support and commitment to Central Community School District.  The future looks very bright!

Mr.Trenkamp

Central Superintendent/Elementary Principal

Central Job Openings

Central CSD will have the following job openings for the 2014/15 school year:

• MS/HS English/Language Arts
• PreK Teacher Regular Ed/Special Ed
• MS/HS Band
• K-12, Special Education/PE
• Head Maintenance
• JV Volleyball Coach
• MS Wrestling Coach
• Individual Speech Coach

If interested in any of these positions please send your credentials to me through email.  These positions will also be posted on www.teachiowa.gov/

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.