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.

Central Continues To Work On Stronger Communication

Since becoming superintendent/elementary principal of Central we have developed a parent survey given during fall conferences.  This survey collects feedback from our stakeholders and helps us in making decisions to improve all aspect of the Central Community School District.  In 2013/2014 we collected around 50 responses, in the 2014/2015 survey we collected 100 responses.  This doubles the previous year's survey and I hope is a sign that our "customers" are seeing that we value their input.

While most of the survey questions were very positive, one question in both years of the survey has remained a concern.  That question is: I feel communication between parents and teachers is strong.  In both years of the survey, this question has only gotten a 35% yes answer.  During our January 15th professional development I shared this data with our staff and we had much discussion on why the low score and how we could work on improving this score.

Many of us owned the fact we sometimes don't do the greatest job of updating our class site, blogs (it has been January since I last posted here), and social media outlets.  We have all agreed to make a concentrated effort to improve on this, and because of that you will see a couple changes in the way we communicate:

1. Central now has a Facebook page.  If you haven't been following, please do!  We post a ton of information and pictures of our students engaged in learning.  Please become a follower and share our page with others.
2. Our district website is another great source of information.  Our technology committee is also researching other district sites as we look to improve our website for the 2015/2016 school year.  Through our district website you can get anything from board policy to teacher class websites.  You can even link directly to my Blog!
3. Recently I approved the purchase of a program called Planbook.  This program will allow parents to see each teacher's lesson plans.  This program also allows teachers to attach important information to the daily lesson as well as align to the Iowa Core State Standards.  

I will also continue to use School Reach to send important updates.  I know this can be a little overkill when you receive an email, text message, and phone call.  Still, we want to make sure you are getting the information you need.  

Please feel free to comment back on my Blog with other suggestions we can use to improve our communication or email me directly.  I look forward to hearing from you and working together to strengthen Central Community School District.

Central Elementary moving towards Standards-Based Education & Grading

Dear Central Elementary Parents & Guardians,

I want to thank you for being patient with us as we work through the transition from traditional report cards to a standards-based education and report card.  As you know, Central Elementary has gone through several changes with multi-age classrooms and a stronger emphasis on the grade level learning standards of the Iowa Core.  Along with developing clear learning targets, we also needed to change the way we reported learning and growth.  In order to truly put an emphasis on learning and not simply the progression through school/grade levels, we have been working the first half of the school year to evolve into standards-based learning and report cards.

Difference between Traditional & Standards-Based

Below is a quick comparison between traditional grading and standards-based grading.  As you can see, the biggest difference is a move from a body of work over a selected period of time with unclear learning objectives, to clear learning targets that separates behavior from academics and provides multiple opportunities for students to achieve the target.

Traditional Grading System	Standards-Based Grading System
1. Based on assessment methods (quizzes, tests, homework, projects, etc.). One grade/entry is given per assessment.	1. Based on learning goals and performance standards. One grade/entry is given per learning goal.
2. Assessments are based on a percentage system. Criteria for success may be unclear.	2. Standards are criterion or proficiency-based. Criteria and targets are made available to students ahead of time.
3. Use an uncertain mix of assessment, achievement, effort, and behavior to determine the final grade. May use late penalties and extra credit.	3. Measures achievement only OR separates achievement from effort/behavior. No penalties or extra credit given.
4. Everything goes in the grade book – regardless of purpose.	4. Selected assessments (tests, quizzes, projects, etc.) are used for grading purposes.
5. Include every score, regardless of when it was collected. Assessments record the average – not the best – work.	5. Emphasize the most recent evidence of learning when grading.

Adapted from O’Connor K (2002).  How to Grade for Learning: Linking grades to standards (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

In a traditional report card, teachers assign a grade to a single subject, example: reading, math, and science.  Each of these subjects includes a broad spectrum of objectives to be studied and mastered in a school year.  A single subject grade offers no information about what was specifically learned in the subject area, giving parents no indication of what students must still work on.  Let me use math as an example:

In a traditional report card, Blake gets the following grades in a quarter.

Test 1, Single addition                                                          98%

Test 2, Multi-figure addition                                           94%

Test 3, Single subtraction                                                  65%

Test 4, Multi-figure subtraction                                   60%

1^st Quarter Math Grade                                                  79% or C+

As a parent I see Blake is getting a C+ in math, but what does that really tell me?  Looking at each learning objective separately, Blake mastered addition, yet struggled with subtraction.  Yet in a traditional report card I would only see Blake is getting a C+ in math.  Now let me use another example of how “behavior” affects a grade in a traditional report card.  In this example homework is worth 10 points, test are worth 25 points:

                  Homework 1                                         0/10 (didn’t hand in)

                  Homework 2                                         5/10 (handed in late so received half credit)

                  Homework 3                                         0/10 (didn’t hand in)

                  Test 1                                                          24/25

                  Homework 4                                         0/10 (didn’t hand in)

                  Homework 5                                         5/10 (handed in late so received half credit)

                  Test 2                                                          25/25

                  1^st Quarter Grade                            54/100, 54% or an F

This student has clearly mastered the learning target, yet in a traditional grading system this student would receive an “F” due to homework not being completed or handed in on time.  That "F" has to do with behavior and does not accurately show that the student has actually mastered the learning target.  In a standards-based grading system, this same student would have been given extended learning opportunities due to mastery of the learning target.  In a standards-based grading system, the above “F” example will look like this at Central:

                  Learning Target: I can round numbers to the nearest ten or 100.

                  Pre-assessment                          7/10 (struggled rounding to the nearest 100)

                  Formative assessment 1          (Not graded but informs the teacher that the student now understands rounding to the nearest 100 and is ready for a summative assessment)

                  Post-assessment                        10/10 (Student gets advanced into rounding to the nearest 1000, etc.)

                  1^st Quarter Grade                    3- Proficient or possibly 4- Advanced, depending on how the student does in extended learning. (Behavior would be graded separately)

Central teachers have been working very hard and we are excited about this move to a clearer focus on student learning.  The new standards-based report cards will be sent home February 26.  I will host a parent meeting in the auditorium on February 27 at 12:30 PM.  This meeting will be a chance for us to answer any questions you may have about the new report cards or standards-based grading in general.  Again, I thank you for your continued patience and support.

Sincerely,

Nick Trenkamp

Superintendent/Elementary Principal

Thank You Bus Drivers!

Today a group of our bus drivers joined us for our monthly Caring Commitment Safety (CCS) assembly.  Our concentration was on bus behavior and safety.  We don't get to thank our bus drivers enough for the work they do in getting our children to and from school safely.  Please help me thank them when you see them.

Also, thank them for being such great sports and joining us in our game!