Central 504 Plans and Information

I have been working with the Central Intervention Team in updating our 504 policy and forms.  Our goal is to create stronger communication between home and school, as well as get important information out to our parents.

Below you will find our updated Section 504 plan including links to important information about 504 services.  This information will also be posted on our district website.  Thank you to the Keystone AEA, AEA 267, and Nurse Vicki for attending the training.  Any questions please contact me.

Section 504

Section 504 is a federal law which protects the rights of persons with qualifying disabilities.  It requires that recipients of federal funds make their programs and activities accessible to all persons with disabilities.

Section 504 has three areas of emphasis:  employment; facility and accessibility; and requirements for preschool, elementary, and secondary education programs/activities.

It must be emphasized that Section 504 falls under the responsibility of the general education program.  It is also important to understand that schools receive no additional funding to implement Section 504 accommodations.  At each school, the responsibility for ensuring Section 504 compliance rests with the building principal or principal designee.

How does Section 504 define disability?

Section 504 protects persons from discrimination based upon their disability status.  A person is considered to have a disability if he or she:

• has a mental or physical disability impairment which substantially limits one or more of the person’s major life activities;
• has a record of such impairment; or
• is regarded as having such an impairment.

In general terms, this means that without accommodations and/or interventions, the student would not have a comparable opportunity to an appropriate education.

Contacts

Section 504 Coordinator

Nick Trenkamp- Superintendent/Elementary Principal

563-245-1751

ntrenkamp@central.k12.ia.us

Equity Coordinator

Jane Metcalf- Curriculum Director/Guidance Counselor

563-245-1751

jmetcalf@central.k12.ia.us

Getting Started

A Parent’s Guide to Section 504- Often used by districts to notify parents of their rights under Section 504 and to serve as Second Notice.

Section 504 Notification Letter to Parents- Used to notify parents that an evaluation for a possible 504 plan is needed.

504 Students and Parents Rights- To accompany the Notification Letter to Parents.

Section 504 Procedures Checklist- Step-by-step guide walks through the 504 process.

Determining Eligibility

Section 504 Teacher Input Form- Used to provide teacher input on concerns and accommodations.

Section 504 Eligibility Determination Form- General student student with needs assessment to determine eligibility.

IASB Strategies for developing Section 504 Accommodations

Writing a Plan

Section 504 Plan Sample

Reviewing a Plan

Section 504 Annual Review

District Responsibilities

1. District plan has been developed, reviewed, and/or updated within the last school year and clearly outlines Child Find, referral, evaluation, and implementation procedures to ensure compliance.
2. Section 504 Coordinator is identified and trained.
3. Grievance procedure is developed, operational, and accessible.  This is provided to parents at each meeting and is published in district materials.
4. District publishes contact information regarding the Section 504 Coordinator on an annual basis, in all public documents, website, parent and student handbooks.
5. Staff is trained in district procedures related to Child Find, referral, evaluation, implementation, and the grievance process.
6. District annually notifies students with disabilities and their parents or guardians of the school district’s responsibilities under Section 504, including:
• Notice of their rights,
• Opportunity to review relevant records, and
• An impartial hearing.  Parents or guardians must be notified their right to request a hearing regarding the identification, evaluation, or educational placement of students with disabilities.
7. District implements appropriate educational programs for students with disabilities.
8. Records, including a transition plan, are maintained to support district compliance and implementation.

It is important to remember that Section 504 is unique and different from IDEA.  It is not a program mandate; it is an antidiscrimination law.  School districts need to provide students with qualifying disabilities a comparable opportunity, as compared to students without disabilities, to participate in school district activities, as well as receive school district benefits and services.

Industrial Technology

One of the larger areas being addressed in our school bond proposal is our shop area.  Currently our shop area is heavily outdated.  Much of our equipment is in need of repair or replacement and safety is very much a concern.

As with most staff at Central, Mr. O'Brien wears multiple hats.  He teaches both ag classes and industrial technology classes.  With only 8 periods in a day, this limits what Central can offer.  So we have to get creative in order to offer more for our students.  We have looked into a couple ways to do this.  Currently I am in discussions with Mobile Track Solutions and CAT to see if they would have interest in teaching some of our classes, possibly even offering them at night for working adults.  The other option we are exploring is getting Mr. O'Brien some additional training so he can offer Certified Production Technician courses for duel credit through NICC.

Why is all of this important?  Well, look at these stats:

• Advanced manufacturing has grown 179% in the past decade.
• The State of Iowa predicts a shortfall of 6672 skilled workers by 2018.
• The average manufacturing worker makes $77,066 annually in pay and benefits.
• Area school districts are also making moves to offer more of these classes for their students.
• And most importantly, this job shortage exists in our school district.

I look forward to working with MTS, CAT, NICC, and other local manufacturing companies as we look to update our industrial technology area and class offerings.  Hopefully a lot more to come on this discussion.

Still no news...

As Central looks at wrapping up the 3rd quarter, we still have no news on what our level of funding for next year will be or even when we will be able to start the 2015/16 school year.  Many of you have contacted me this past week in regards to these two items.  I can only say I wish I had better news, but from everything I am being told and reading there appears to be zero movement by our elected officials on these two items.

This is extremely unfair for property owners who will have their taxes increased due to no state funding.  It is also unfair to families who are trying to plan summer vacations and events.

I can't stress enough how much of a difference parents can make.  Politicians aren't threatened by me "the superintendent" when I share our needs and concerns.  But when parents get angry, things get done really quickly in Des Moines.  Please, please, please make contact with our local representatives and tell them our children deserve nothing less than 4% state supplemental aid and our elected school boards should have the power to set a calendar that meets our local needs.

Simply click the name of our representatives below and send a quick email saying you are a parent and your children deserve to be put first not last.

Michael Breitbach - Senate Republican
Darrel Branhagen - House Republican
Patti Ruff - House Democrat

Thank you

Please help me thank Michael Breitbach, Central's State Senator who voted in favor of SF 227, which gives local school boards control over local school district calendars.

How important are our kids?

A lot has happened in the news this past week that shows the frustration growing with Iowa politics, specially in regards to holding our kids for ransom.  We are now in March where by law we have to certify our budgets and school calendars.  Yet, our state politicians are more than a year behind in setting what our per-pupil amount will be and have not even told us when we will be allowed to start school.  School districts were promised both of these would be done in the first 30 days of session.  As I write this today, neither have been done.

This week the Senate passed a bill that gives control of the school calendar back to locally elected school boards.  This will never hold up in the House, and even if it did would be vetoed by the governor.  You only have to look at who is supporting these bills to determine where our children's education lies in terms of priorities.  The Senate bill is supported by education associations that represent school boards, administration, and teachers.  The House bill is supported by the Iowa Restaurant Association, the Iowa Lodging Association, and the Travel Federation of Iowa.  Yep, I bet those in favor of the House bill are thinking about nothing but our children's education-- insert sarcasm.

An even more interesting article came out yesterday in terms of funding, or better stated as the inequality of funding allowed to happen in our State.  The Quad City Times reported that Art Tate, superintendent of Davenport Public Schools stated since the politicians in Iowa don't have to follow the law, he was also not going to follow the law.  While I am still too young in my career to go breaking Iowa law, I can't argue the point Superintendent Tate is making.  Without even talking new money toward education, our politicians need to fix the inequity of school funding.  Like Davenport, Central is funded at $175 less per-pupil.  That inequity alone cost our district $78,750.  This is not the only inequity allowed to happen in Iowa school funding.  One major area that affects Central is transportation.  Due to the geography of our school district (and school districts of NE Iowa), we seldom have direct routes to our country homes.  Because of this, we have higher transportation costs than most districts in the state of Iowa.  This cost comes out of our general fund, the same fund used to pay for programs and teachers.  When looking at the state average, Central pays $325 more per-pupil in transportation cost over the average.  The transportation inequity cost Central $146,250 this year.  Both inequities combined equal $225,000 this school year alone.  As our parent survey has shown frustration with lack programs and offerings, imagine how many programs and offerings we could increase if we were just funded equally!  

Another fund many of you have heard about is the Teacher Leadership & Compensation Grant (TLC).  When Governor Branstad visited Mobile Track Solutions this past summer (before elections) I asked the governor about school funding.  He did not answer my question, but instead promoted TLC as a huge investment in Iowa schools.  While I won't argue it is an investment in Iowa schools ($310 per-pupil), this fund does not go into our general fund and can only be used for the purposes of TLC.  Another part of TLC not being shared with our public is the fact they phased this in over three years.  The first year, these funds went almost solely to urban school districts.  The ratio was much better in year two of including rural school districts, yet Central still has not received the funding.  This is another $139,500 Central is missing out on this year that could have been used to increase our staff and teacher leadership positions.

So in one year, Central is missing out on $364,500 in funding, simply because inequality in the school funding formula exists.  That is a HUGE amount of money that could be used to increase the programs offered to our kids, take some of the workload off of our teachers, purchase school supplies, etc.  And remember this money is simply what other school districts across Iowa are already receiving and Central is not.  As parents and supporters of our local school district, we should be deeply concerned about this!  Please share this with your friends and family and be vocal when talking with our state politicians.  They need to get this changed.

Building Tour & Soup Supper

With possible changes coming to our K-12 facilities I would like to offer a building tour during our upcoming conferences.  Anyone interested in a tour please join me in the HS Media center at 5:00pm, Thursday, March 12th.  Feel free to bring a camera or something to take notes on.

While you are here make sure you also stop in and support our Dollars for Scholars Soup Supper from 5:00 to 7:00, free will donation.

Parent Letter Confusion

Last Thursday a letter went home to parents of K-3rd grade students if your child was below benchmark in the fall and winter FAST assessments.  The letter is a scripted letter from the State in regards to new Early Literacy Guidelines that went into law this school year.

The State sets guidelines for how many words per minute a student in a certain grade level should read in the fall, winter, and spring.  If a student fails to meet those guidelines twice in a row, they will receive a letter similar to what is found below.  Fluency is a strong indicator to reading success, but it is not everything.  Students that struggle on this test, simply struggle to read enough words in a minute.  Comprehending what they are reading or how accurately they read are not part of this test.  Most would agree, these are equally important to becoming an established reader.

As with anything coming from the State, the letter came with a lot of confusion.  These things are being rolled out from Des Moines, passed onto our local AEA's, then passed down to local school districts.  This is new for everyone, including school districts.  The most confusing part of the letter states: "This law requires that Iowa’s school children read at grade level by third grade".  The letter does not specifically address what happens if a student isn't reading at grade level by third grade and honestly we are still awaiting guidance from the State in regards to all of this.  Again, shoot first, aim later approach that adds to the confusion.  I do know the retention portion does not go into law until the 2016/17 school year, and even with that there are things parents can do so NO student will ever be retained.

At Central, if your student was below grade level in the fall we did not wait for them to fail again in winter as the law states we could have.  Instead we put students in interventions immediately and will continue to do so.  Currently we are working on putting together a resource page for parents to understand our interventions and give you tools to use at home.  Teachers will also present information on this in our upcoming conferences.  I apologize for the confusion this has caused and I hope our parents recognize that Central gains nothing by having any of our students fail.  Our teachers are working harder than I have ever seen them work and Central is doing everything we can to ensure all of our students are fluent readers.

Here is a copy of the letter:

Dear Parent/Guardian,

This letter contains important information regarding your child’s school progress and how new laws impact our school’s plan to improve his/her reading skills.

New Laws

In 2014 Iowa law was changed to support statewide literacy efforts for students in Iowa.  This law requires that Iowa’s school children read at grade level by third grade.  As a result, the rules below were put into effect in order to improve reading within the state.

Your Child’s Progress

We know you want your child to be successful in his/her education. We also want your child to be successful with learning in the classroom. The ability to read is critical to your child’s success in school.  

We recently completed universal screening assessments in reading at our school. Your child, <enter student name>, has been identified as having a substantial reading deficiency; that term is in state law and is used in this letter.  This means your child has shown difficulty in the area of reading over the following two universal screening periods: Fall to Winter.

School Implications

Students are identified as having a substantial difficulty when

·      Their reading skills are below grade level on two consecutive screening tests.

  

At our school, we are doing the following, as required by Iowa law, to support students who have been identified as having substantial reading difficulties:

Progress Monitoring:

All students who are identified as substantially deficient or at-risk for substantially deficient are required to receive weekly progress monitoring. This allows schools to monitor the improvement students are making toward end-of-year goals (i.e., spring benchmark) given the intervention they receive.

Intensive Interventions:

All students identified as substantially deficient are required to receive intervention to remediate their reading difficulties. This intervention is required to continue until the student meets grade level expectations at the next screening period.

To learn more about the new laws and how they impact students, visit the link below.

https://www.educateiowa.gov/sites/files/ed/documents/2014-08-26EarlyLiteracyGuidance.pdf

School/Family Partnership

We would like to partner with you in order to improve your child’s reading skills.  Part of this partnership will include regular communication. 

Connecting:

We will provide updates on your child’s progress throughout the school year.  We encourage you to talk with your child’s teacher about any questions or concerns you may have.

Parent/School Contract: 

We will follow up with a contract that will outline the school’s responsibilities and how we will partner with you to improve your child’s reading skills.  More information regarding a contract will be forthcoming.

We look forward to partnering with you in order to improve your child’s reading skills.  Please contact me with any questions or comments you may have.

Public Meeting

Central Community:


I will be hosting a public forum on Sunday, March 15th at 5:00pm in the Central auditorium.  The public forum will be in regards to our K-12 facilities and a plan will be presented that includes much needed upgrades to our facilities.  All Central community members area welcomed to attend.

Central CSD- We are here to stay!

It is hard to believe it has been two years since I interviewed and was hired as superintendent/elementary principal of Central.  For my family, accepting the job was not an easy decision as Central would become the fourth school district for our kids.  Yet, I had done my homework on Central and the communities that make up the school district.  My wife and I believed a move to Central would mean more offerings for our kids as well as a financially strong school district built to last.  Both of these beliefs have shown to be true.

It surprises me that even today I hear from people about the longevity of Central and all the rumors that go with that.  My guess with the retirement of Clayton Ridge's superintendent and the Ed-Co budget cuts, once again the rumor mill will be in full operation about the future of our district and surrounding districts.  So let me be proactive in addressing these rumors.  Since coming to Central I have made no secret that education needed to change.  Smaller school districts MUST be innovative to stay strong and not only survive but thrive.  Because of my belief that Central is here to stay, I have taken a visionary approach in everything we do.  I have also been completely transparent with my ideas, liked or not.  Let me highlight some of these below.

Facilities
I have put together a facilities committee and hired an architecture firm to address our buildings and grounds.  I felt instead of updating here and there, we needed a plan to prioritize our needs and this plan should be developed by a professional.  Through the development of our site plan and results of our parent survey we identified the following concerns needing to be addressed:

• Accessibility- Our K-12 building has three main floors.  Yet in our site plan we identified 22 different levels, yes, 22.  Most of these levels are not handicapped accessible and do not meet ADA compliance.  Handicap parking and visitor parking are also a concern we are looking at addressing. 
• Safety- Some of the spaces in our building used by our students are unsafe due to a lack of exits. In our shop area, the main electric runs along the ceiling.  None of our entrances are secure and we have no way of monitoring who is in our building.  Our concession stand has no running water which is unsanitary.
• Academics-  As I have stated since I have arrived here, education is changing.  No longer should teachers be delivering content in a one size fits all method.  Employers are looking for workers who are responsible, creative, and work well with others.  Our building is designed more as a prison institution than a creative, collaborative learning center.  Our children will get jobs in a global market, this did not exist when we went to school.  Research also strongly shows without a college degree, level of income and life expectancy steeply decrease.  It is imperative that we give EVERY student the tools needed to be successful after they graduate Central.  Our academics are strong at Central, but there are things we can do to make them stronger.
• Mechanical- The mechanical structure of our building is becoming severely outdated.  This ranges from our boiler system to electrical to plumbing.  Making these repairs in stages will cost the district a lot more money than if we tackled these changes all at once.  By addressing our mechanical, we can also become more energy efficient, freeing up ongoing money to be used toward academic programs for our children.

Enrollment

I have heard the concern that Central's enrollment continues to decline and with that decline Central will have to merge or cease to exist.  Yes, it is true our enrollment has declined, specially the years after major floods.  Still, projections show a different picture:

Currently our elementary class sizes are larger than our middle school and high school class sizes.  Our preschool program is also currently full (maximum 40 students) with students on a waiting list to get in.  While enrollment is impossible to fully predict, I feel with the job availability in our community and the educational offerings of our school district we can and will grow.

Budget

Central is financially strong, in large part due to massive cuts to our staff.  We have the smallest administration team of any surrounding district.  We have also implemented multi-age classrooms which allows us to maintain financially strong student to teacher ratios.  Along with a healthy budget, Central has zero debt.  To maintain a strong budget, I am currently looking into more sharing opportunities.  These opportunities will not only allow us to maintain financial strength, they will allow us to expand opportunities for our children.  Below is a brief history of our unspent authorized budget showing a health line of $900,000.

As you can see through our enrollment predictions and unspent authorized budget, I fully believe Central is here to stay for a long time.  Add in our vibrant community, to continue being vibrant we need our school district.  I've entertained two perspective doctors in the last couple months, they don't move to our community without a school district.  One has already signed a contract!  

We will always have challenges because of our size and location.  Being innovative and creative will allow Central flexibility to meet these challenges.  One of our greatest challenges is addressing our aging facility to create a safe, accessible, and collaborative learning environment.  

As always, any questions just ask and feel free to share this with others who may be misinformed.

My letter to Representative Branhagen

Representative Branhagen,

Not only am I writing as the educational leader of Central, I am writing as a parent of a public education preschool student, middle school student, and high school student.

As a republican, how can you support "big" government control?  Our kids in northeast Iowa work at our community pools and local businesses, not the State Fair and Okoboji.  Where do you stand on the school start date and how did you vote?  The House "compromise" bill is anything but a compromise.  Will you support the Senate bill that allows for local school board control?

I am also working with other northeast Iowa school districts that you were elected to represent.  We are putting together data that shows the negative affect to our schools the 1.25% increase you voted in favor of will have.  Our data will show a loss of jobs for working adults in our communities and a loss of programs for our kids.  It will also show an increase in taxes to our property owners.  

The few times we have met face-to-face you have cited a private business model.  You stated and I quote, "how great would it be if we got this type of performance and Iowa was ranked 50th in funding?"  I challenge you to name a private business that has been successful without reinvesting funds and resources back into their business?  I would also challenge you to name big government regulations (ie. mandatory school start date) that enhance private business.  We all know regulations run private business into the ground and limit innovation. 

Northeast Iowa voters support their public schools.  So far your voting record has not echoed the people you represent.