Changes to Central Elementary Handbook

Last night the Central School Board of Education approved my recommended changes to the elementary handbook.  The changes align to moving Central into a 21st Century Education System and are the same changes I shared in my parent forum at the end of the school year.  The elementary handbook is available at registration and will be posted on our district website.

Changes:

Academic Achievement & Behavior Plan

Every student comes to us with a unique toolbox of prior knowledge.  It is our duty as educators to develop individual education plans for each student and move away from the factory model of education where one size fits all.

 In an effort to move Central Elementary to a 21^st Century learning institution, the following changes are being implemented in the 2014/2015 school year:
1.     Students will be moved along based on ability, not their age.  Before a unit of study begins, teachers will administer a pre-assessment to determine each student’s individual skill set.  Central Elementary will incorporate multi-age classrooms to ensure individual ability and not a student’s age to drive instruction. 

2.     Students will be given multiple opportunities to show they have met the standard.  In our traditional school model, units are taught and if a student fails, we still move on.  In essence the traditional model goes from chapter 1-30 in a set time frame and students that struggle get left behind.  At Central Elementary we believe students can only learn if they are allowed to fail.  By human nature, we learn from our mistakes!

3.     Homework as practice and will not be graded.  Homework should only be given to a student if the instructor feels it is essential to student learning.   If it is essential to student learning, the teacher has an obligation to monitor homework and provide students with precise feedback based on individual needs.  This means homework should not be reviewed in class as a one size fits all model, instead teaches should meet with students individually to address individual needs.  Homework should also never be graded as it is impossible to determine:
a.     Who did the work?
b.     If errors exist, why and how those errors happened.
c.      Each “home” is different in homework.
Students will no longer receive a zero for not completing their homework.  Because the homework given is essential to learning, students will be required to complete the work before they are allowed to retest on a standard.

4.     No longer will Central Elementary students be graded on points for homework assignments, work completion, and classroom behavior.  Instead, grades will be based on a student’s mastery of each standard.  In a multi-age classroom, students will have two years to show they have met the standards.  Example, a kindergarten aged student in a K/1 classroom, will be assessed on both kindergarten and 1^st grade standards.  The 1^st grade standards are a set of standards students should know when they complete 1^st grade.  Kindergarten aged students will have two years to complete that set of standards and parents should not expect high marks immediately.  Each student will be assessed on a 4 point scale:
1= Emergent: Student work is beginning to show progress/understanding with support.
2= Developing: Student is able to meet the multi-year grade level standard with support.
3= Proficient: Independent work at this level meets end of the multi-year grade level standard.
4= Exceeds: Work exceeds standard and shows in-depth understanding that goes beyond what was taught.

Cell Phone/TelephoneStudents are not to carry or use cell phones during the school day unless approved by their teacher.

Classroom BehaviorEach teacher is expected to work in collaboration with their class to develop classroom expectations and consequences for when a student does not meet those expectations.  Students should have a voice in this process and all behavior expectations should align with the Central Elementary PBIS program.  At all times teachers should manage the behaviors in their classroom and students should not be excluded from learning unless sent to the principal.

Emergency DrillsStudents take a textbook to use as a hard hat and go to designated areas.

Report CardsCentral Elementary uses a standards based report card that shows students mastery of learning as well as employability skills.  Parents can access these reports anytime through our JMC student information system.  Teachers are expected to communicate on a regular basis with parents and parents are welcomed to contact their child’s teacher at anytime if they have concerns

Student Lockers
A locker is issued to each 4/5 student at the…

More Calendar Discussion

An interesting read in a recent issue of Education Week.  http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/education_futures/2014/07/year-round_schooling_why_its_time_to_change.html

As we look to collaboratively work on teacher leadership and compensation with other districts, I have begun the conversation of a common calendar.  Year-round or not year-round, having a common calendar will enable small rural school districts to better share resources and in turn save money.

Students, I need your help!

This summer we have put a lot of work into our gymnasium.  The entire gym has been repainted (thank you Mr. Arnold for the design).  We also refinished the gym floors, removed a lot of clutter, and hung our banners to display each sport chronologically with Central Ladies on the west wall and Central Men on the east wall.  Our newest addition went up this afternoon.  Please check out the new logo on our home side of the bleachers!

Now this is where I need your help!  I have a big empty spot in the student section.  I want to see your ideas and creativity on how to design that area.  This should include some kind of wording and in my opinion should recognize that is the student section (your turf!).  Get your designs to me by September 1st, and the winning design picked will go on the wall.
Thanks in advance for your creativity and Central Pride!
Mr. Trenkamp

Central Preschool Update

I contacted HAWC Partnerships for Children director, Michael Bergan and asked about scholarships for our full-day preschool program.  I was told they currently only have the funds to provide scholarships for 3-year-old students.  They will look into adding 4-year-old programs in the future, but something we can't count on in the 2014/15 school year.

Because of my belief in the benefits of a full-day program, I promise I will work with all families in developing a payment plan that will give all students access to the full-day program.

We will still offer the half-day program at no cost.  This program does have the cost of someone coming to pick up their student at 11:30 as return transportation will not be provided.  The full-day program will have a charge of $125 a month, but this charge includes pick-up and drop-off transportation if located along a Central bus route.

Please feel free to contact me with any questions or to work out a payment plan that fits your budget needs.

Summer Practice Changes & Following State Law

A parent approached me and asked if I could add a Blog post about the changes to summer practices/open gyms and why some football players weren't allowed to attend the football camp.  Hopefully the following information will address some of the misconceptions floating around the community.  Also, feel free to contact me directly if you have any questions.

Summer Camps
Our football coaches asked student athletes who are both baseball and football players to attend a football camp during baseball season.  If the student athletes would have attended the football camp, they would have missed baseball games and practices.  Being placed in a position of having to choose upset the baseball coaches, parents, and athletes, hence administration becoming aware and having to step in.  Central's student athletes should not have been put in the position of having to choose between participating in a sport in season versus participating in an off season camp – the sport in season should always be the priority.  When this situation came to the attention of the administration, the situation was remedied so there was no possibility of Central being in violation of the rules.

Here is a copy of the State Law:
(36.15(6)
(b) A summer team or individual camp or clinic held at a member or associate-member school facility shall not conflict with sports in season. Summertime coaching activities shall not conflict with sports in season.

(d) Penalty. A school whose volunteer or compensated coaching personnel violate this rule is ineligible to participate in a governing organization-sponsored event in that sport for one year with the violator(s) coaching.

Summer practices/open gyms/weight lifting/etc.
Due to many concerns Mr. Yanda and I received from parents, students, and coaches we felt the need to make some changes to building usage.  These changes again go back to State law in which activities should not interfere with in season sports.  State law also prohibits the tracking of student athletes attendance at open gyms, etc.
It was brought to my attention that on game days of summer sports, our off season coaches were hosting practices/open gyms of off season sports.  Student athletes were then showing fatigue in their in season sporting event.  Because of this Mr. Yanda made a new rule that no open gyms/practices were to be held on game days.  This rule is out of respect to our summer coaches and athletes that participate in those sports.
Another concern brought to my attention was the amount of open gyms/practices occurring.  To be fair to family time and our student athletes busy schedules, Mr. Yanda set an open gym/practice limit of 3 times a week with a limit of 2 hours for all off season sports.

Going Forward
Mr. Yanda and I plan on having a coaches meeting at the start of the school year to address our concerns and ensure that Central sports programs remain ethical and follow State law/District policy.  Due to our size, we need our student athletes to participate in all sports.  Because of this, it is crucial that our off season coaches honor the in season sports that are taking place.  By improving our communication and working together, all Central sports programs can thrive.

Summer Projects- Improving Central!

It is crazy how when kids and staff leave the building, my days are actually in many cases much busier!  Improving the appearance of our school district has been high on my agenda this past year and remains high over the summer.  One of my pet peeves in education is how our public schools feel more like a prison than a place of learning and creativity.  While building a new school isn't outside of my vision for our future, it isn't going to happen anytime soon.  So we are left with the priority of maintaining and updating what we have.

For the age of our building, it is in surprisingly good shape.  Add in some new ideas and the hard work of our custodial staff, and things are starting to take shape for the 2014-2015 school year.  If you are like me, then you are more of a visual learner!  So enjoy the show and I will continue to update as projects progress through the summer.


Mr. Bergan's room was found to have a bad ceiling.  Everything had to be knocked out and is currently being replaced.

As of today…

 The Family Consumer Science classroom is one of our major summer projects.  As you can see, everything has been torn out and this room will receive an "Extreme Makeover".  Replacing the floor is scheduled to begin next week.

Both gyms have been repainted and floors redone.  Pictured below, workers are sanding down the small gym.  They replaced rotten boards, refinished and repainted. 

The finished product!

The multi-age classroom remodel is coming along.  I am proud to say our students are going to have updated classrooms that meet the needs of 21st Century students!

Room cleared ready for paint!

Cabinets removed

New cabinets set-in

Paint, carpet, and counter-top added!

The old elementary computer lab.

The Buckner Building (Central Preschool) re-roofed with steel roofing.

This past week I shut down the school so we could strip the foyer floors and give our gym floors more time to set.  When you walk into our main entrance you will be impressed!

I promise to keep updated our progress as we work very hard to provide the best learning environment possible for your children.  I do have one surprise for students that won't be shared here, sorry students but you will have to wait and see!  Any questions about our work, or ideas, feel free to chime in.  As always, thank you for all of your support.

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!