It's Summer Time

The heat certainly feels like summer, but with all the rain it still seems like spring.  There's been a lot going on at the school this summer.  The custodians have been painting and cleaning and getting the buildings ready for the first day of school.  Some of the teachers have been busy as well.

On June 18th and 19th, forty staff members joined the building principals and myself to attend the Technology in the Classroom Conference in Dubuque.  This was sponsored by Keystone AEA and Mississippi Bend AEA.  A lot of people think teachers are taking time off and relaxing in the summer.  Actually, it's common for a number of teachers to attend classes or conferences to improve their skills for the next school year.  With the large investment the district has been making in technology with the 1 to 1 initiative in the fall at the middle school and the other infrastructure improvements we've made, I invited the teachers to attend this conference.

While attending the conference, we had the opportunity to attend many sessions on a variety of topics.  Some examples include; 3D printing, the use of gamification in schools, using IPADS in the classroom, and paperless grading to name a few.  None of these staff members had to go, but they were willing to put in the time to improve their skills to provide a better learning opportunity for our students.

Here's a link to the conference agenda, if you want to check out the many sessions that were available.  Be on the look out as the district will be having it's own Facebook Page starting in Early July.  Check here and on the district website for more information as the launch date gets closer.  Thanks for stopping by.

School Calendar

     It's finally beginning to look more like spring.  I know I'm ready for it.  With all the weather we've had this year, we've pushed back the last day of school significantly.  At this time, the last day for students will be on May 29th.  Hopefully, we're done with the bad weather, but I've heard fog can be an issue here in New Hampton.  As this year winds down, we've been working to finalize next year's calendar.  Here is the draft copy we're working on. There are a couple of things I would like to point out.

     First, please notice next year's start date of August 15th.  That coincides with this year's start date of August 16th.  The district starts at that time, in order to allow our semester to end before Christmas Break.  This is an advantage as it more closely aligns our high school program with that of NICC.  This allows our students who take college classes to avoid conflicts and schedule problems.  This will become more important as we continue to add college class opportunities for our students during the day.  In addition, our students take finals before break while the material is still fresh in their minds.  It also provides ample time to end school before June.  A lot of families plan vacations and trip in early June and generally this will keep us from having school during this time.  Finally, since we end before break, it also keeps both semesters nearly even in length.

     The second thing I would like you to notice is the one hour early out that takes place nearly every Wednesday.  The district is working on improving our schools by focusing on a few important areas.  The big areas are effectively implementing technology in teacher's classrooms, making sure our curriculum is aligned with the Iowa Core Curriculum, and working to improve reading and math instruction in the district.  In order to make meaningful changes in these areas our teachers need time to learn and collaborate with each other.  Currently, we have approximately one two-hour late start each month for Professional Development.  Unfortunately, doing something only once a month does not work the best.  Teachers need time to try things in their classrooms and then they need time to get together to evaluate how did it went, what can I do better next time, what else do I need to learn?  These weekly one hour sessions will allow that regular time for teachers to collaborate to improve learning in our district.  I'm sure you have some concerns about this.

     First, I know this will create some daycare concerns for some of our younger students and I don't have an easy answer to this.  I'm hoping with the regular planning of these days it will make this easier.  I also know there are concerns about what older students will do between dismissal and the time athletic practices start.  At the high school, I have confidence the students will find something to do and be back in time for practice.  At the 7th and 8th grade level, we plan to have some para-educators available to provide a study table or other activities for students until their practices begin.  Dr. Updegraff has also talked about providing a study table during this time at the high school for students who are failing classes.  The other concern that comes to mind is will this infringe on instructional time in the classroom.  The answer to that is a foggy no.  First, the Iowa legislature is currently looking at legislation that will define a school year as 1,080 hours of instruction.  That means 1,080 hours of classroom time exclusive of Professional Development time and late starts for weather.  That is the time we are scheduled for this school year, but with the weather related late starts and early dismissals we will be a little short.  With the legislation currently being proposed, we would have to make up every two hour late start for weather and we cannot count these one hour early outs as school time.  So, we should see a little more or certainly no less instructional time with this new calendar.

    Finally, your feedback is important to the school board and myself.  In order to facilitate that process, I have created the feedback form below for your convenience.  This is a perfect opportunity for your voice to be heard in this calendar process.  Thanks for taking the time to be involved at New Hampton Community Schools.

Community Advisory Meeting February 18th

         I will be hosting a community advisory meeting on Monday, February 18th at 7:00 p.m. in the middle school auditorium.  This meeting is for anyone with an interest in the New Hampton Community School District.  It doesn't matter if you have children in the district or if you just live in the district and want to know what's going on with the school.  This is a great time to learn what's happening and also a great opportunity to give your feedback.  As I always point out, it the New Hampton Community School District.  It's neither my district nor the school board's district.  It belongs to the community and your feedback is vital to its successful operation.

        I'll be covering a variety of topics that evening, but I want you to know, I always try to keep my meetings to approximately one hour in length.  I will be glad to stay after the meeting to answer any additional questions or listen to any feedback anyone may have.  We'll be covering the following topics that evening:

1. District calendar for 2013-2014 school year
2. Potential changes in school schedules for next year
3. District Finances
4. Potential changes in programs/curriculum within the district
5. Update on technology in the district
6. Update on Elementary/Middle School Facility Study
1. Still looking for facilities committee members.  
7. Other Items of Interest

         Everyone in our community has an instrumental role in helping to make our district one of the best in the state.  Attending this meeting and providing your feedback is one way you can get involved.  Here's a sneak peek into a couple of the topics.  The district has invested $400,000 in technology so far this year.  Teachers are working hard to learn and use this technology in relevant meaningful ways in their classrooms.  This is a sizable investment, yet there is still more to do.  Technology has the power to change how we teach and more importantly how students learn.  It can open up the world to them and allow them to learn anytime they are ready both in school and out of school.  We are looking to expand technology use even more in the coming years.  We have kindergarten students who use technology nearly every day to help them learn phonics, I've seen it and it is impressive the way it helps them learn these beginning reading skills.  Every student is excited to participate and learn using our technology.  I don't know about you, but when I was in kindergarten, I was concerned with counting to 100 and tying my shoes.  I sure wasn't reading.  Are we heading in the right direction with technology use?  Should we be looking at 1:1 with our students?  Other thoughts on technology use.  

         The other area will be the discussion of our facilities.  The district has hired a consultant to help us evaluate all of our facilities and create a long-term facilities plan.  Our facilities committee will be meeting shortly to begin the process of creating our plan.  As I mentioned above, we are still looking for members to serve on this committee.  I will share a few thoughts on our elementary/middle school facility.  I know I have a lot of mixed feelings on where to go with the facility.  We will spend a lot of money in maintaining the facility in the coming years, but it is an adequate building.  If we had to, we could educate kids in trailers, sheds, storage units, or whatever; however, what does the community want for the facility that its children will be educated in?  That's the question to be answered.  Here's a picture of a classroom that is probably from the fifties.  

         This classroom didn't worry about technology use or collaboration or project based learning.  What we do in schools today is changing and we have to decide what do we want for our community's children.  

         Thanks for reading this far.  I hope to see you Monday night February 18th at the Middle School Auditorium at 7:00 to provide feedback on all of these topics.  

Inventions and Cold Weather

What a cold spell we are having.  It looks like warmer weather is on the way and I for one am looking forward to it.  At this point in time, I'm ready for a normal school week.  Last night I had the privilege of attending the Invention Fair that was sponsored by the Extended Learning students in Mrs. Burgart's program.  There were a lot of good ideas.  Here's a short video from the event.  I'm still learning iMovie on my IPAD, so continue to bear with me.



Thanks for stopping  by.

Winter Weather, Allowable Growth and other Interesting Things

     What a crazy week we've had.  Sunday night I woke up to the sounds of thunder, flashes of lightning and pouring rain.  Yesterday morning, I get up at 5 a.m. and I'm driving around thinking we must have missed the snow.  There wasn't much going on and we had been down-graded from a winter storm warning to an advisory.  Things can change quick.  It started snowing harder and we ended up with another snow day.  We had snow and wind yesterday and now this morning we are under a wind chill advisory.  Hopefully, we can have two normal days this week.

     You may have heard or seen in the news the discussion the legislature is having on something called allowable growth for schools.  You may have heard the Iowa senate approved a bill setting allowable growth at 4% for the coming year.  With all the discussion, I thought I would share a few things about allowable growth from a local perspective.

     First, "What is allowable growth?"  Allowable growth is the increase in the basic funding we receive to operate our school.  Part of this funding comes from the state and part of the funding comes from local property taxes.  In the bill that was approved by the senate, the state would fund nearly all of the increase so very little if any of the increase would come from local property taxes.

     Second, "What is allowable growth used for?"  A school, just like your home or business, has expenses.  Things like heat, fuel, electricity, supplies, textbooks, insurance, and salaries.  Rarely do any of these things go down and in most years they go up.  The allowable growth rate is an amount to help offset these increases that occur.  Some people believe that schools can just raise taxes when they want to in order to meet these needs.  That is simply not true.  There are certainly some areas where we have some control of our tax rates, but the majority is based on a formula established by the state.

     If you want to know more about the formula and how it works, please contact me directly and I can email some additional information, or I would be happy to meet with anyone to discuss it as well.  Here's some numbers you can think about.  If allowable growth is set at 2% our district will have less money next year then this year.  $55,431 less to be exact.  This is due to our declining enrollment.  If it is set at 4%, the district will receive an additional $19,049 for next year.  That means if all other expenses stayed the same and we receive 2% allowable growth, we still need to find a way to cut $55,431 from our budget for next year.  If we get 4%, then any increase in expenses above $19,049 will have to be offset by reductions in other places.  As mentioned above, we cannot raise taxes to make up these differences, we will have to reduce something to make up the difference.  Neither number is great, but you can see it does amount to a $74,480 difference for our district.

     One interesting point.  In a district with declining enrollment, the lower the allowable growth rate is set, the higher the impact will be on the local property tax rates.  In other words, if 0% allowable growth is set, local taxes will go up more then if it was set at 2, 3, or 4%.  It's hard to understand, but on a statewide basis if allowable growth is set at 0%, local property taxes will increase 50 million dollars across the state.   If it's set at 4% local property taxes will increase 42.4 million dollars across the state.  With the current plan proposed by the senate, local property taxes will increase by 3.4 million dollars.  I know this is hard to understand and Iowa School finance can be challenging, but this is the reality of the current formula that we have.  In New Hampton, using rough numbers, I believe we are talking a difference of approximately 20 cents per thousand if allowable growth is set at 0% instead of 4%. In other words, if allowable growth is set at 0% the school portion of local property taxes would be set at roughly 20 cents higher then if allowable growth was set at 4%.  

      From the school's perspective, we work hard to manage costs and provide the best education possible for our students.  They are worth it and I will work hard to make sure they receive it.  From a property tax perspective, 4% allowable growth will result in a lower local property tax rate compared to 0% allowable growth.  Whether you are concerned about helping the district do the best it can or if you are concerned about property taxes, the 4% rate makes the most sense.

     Thanks for bearing with me on this extra long post.  I know it can be confusing, but please contact me or stop in if you need additional information or have any questions.  As I repeatedly state in my community meetings "This is the New Hampton Community School District."  It's not mine or the board's district, it belongs to the community.  My goal is to make sure the entire community has a handle on what's going on.  Have a great week.

Third Grade Science Fair

On Friday, I had the opportunity to visit the third grade science fair at the elementary/middle school cafeteria.  It was a lot of fun interacting with each of the students as they demonstrated and explained the various machines they had created.  Below is a short video I created from my visit.  It's nothing fancy, and it's my first attempt at video creation using my IPAD, so bear with me.

This is a great example of project based learning for our students.  As they explained their projects and I asked them questions about simple machines, it was clear that this activity has helped them gain a greater understanding of the material they were studying.  Thanks to Mrs. Hovey and Mrs. Reicks for undertaking this activity for the benefit of our students.  The kids learned a lot and they had a great time doing it.