After much hard work by Eric Leuth and the rest of the
maintenance/custodial staff, we are close to opening the new tech lab. This vast improvement will hopefully be at
full use on Tuesday of next week. Other facilities projects this week included
the delivery of our new walk in cooler for the kitchen. Our other cooler quit on us at the end of
last school year, and this upgrade will be a huge benefit to our kitchen
staff.
We continue to work with St. Ambrose on their development of
the St. Vincent’s property. We will be
looking at several different options through an ad hoc subcommittee of the
board. This potential partnership could
create some tremendous opportunities for both schools and we all look forward
to seeing how it progresses.
The Scott County Principals met with representatives from
the AEA on Tuesday to discuss the Iowa Core Curriculum math project and the
implications for our schools. The
discussion centered around three concerns: how to best communicate the changes
to parents, how acceleration can occur, and how to help them help their student
when they are struggling. It was good
for us to hear the perspective of the AEA and for them to hear what our
concerns are. We will be continuing the discussion
on how to proceed at today’s Scott County Principal’s Meeting.
Speaking of
the SCPM, agenda items for today include: Algebra, eligibility for Middle
School student sports and extra-curricular activities, Project Easier/BEDS,
meeting with 7th & 8th Grade Language Arts teachers, online education, and
pictures for the upcoming Focus Newsletter.
I had a
great opportunity on Wednesday to meet with the teacher at JFK to talk about the
Family Tuition Plan. JFK is one of the Family
Tuition Plan’s big success stories. Their increases in enrollment are the
result of a lot of hard work, great teaching and some help from the Family
Tuition Plan. JFK hit their enrollment
low in 2004 at 261. Since then, their
enrollment has continued to grow every year, and as a result the number of JFK students
receiving assistance has also increased.
The graph below is a perfect example of the positive effects of the FTP
program at JFK.
Thursday I attended the AEA superintendents meeting. There was much discussion about reports from
the Senate File 2284 Task Force Groups.
These groups have been looking at several educational subjects
including: Competency-Based Instruction,
Statewide Educator Evaluation, Early Childhood Assessment,
Teacher Leadership & Compensation,
Teaching Standards & Criteria
Review. If you are interested in learning
more about any of these, just click on the links. The conversation centered around the 1080
hours of education per year instead of 180 days, the four tiered compensation
system and allowable growth changes. The
only two that would have an impact on Assumption would be the hours and the
compensation system. Whether or not
these changes occur will depend a lot on the upcoming elections in Iowa.
Have a great weekend and don’t forget about the one act play, Cagebirds, on Saturday at 7:30 pm and
Sunday at 2:00 pm.
Andy
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