Weekly Update 8/31/12

Many of you probably saw the articles in the Des Moines Register over the last week about bus safety.  It appears from the article that many schools have been cited for various infractions and their buses remain in service.  It also appears that some schools don’t inspect the Suburbans or vans they use to transport athletes to and from games.  I think this creates a perfect opportunity for us to address the process we, at Assumption, use to make sure all of our vehicles are in a suitable state to transport our students.  Currently we have three buses and three Suburbans.  All of these vehicles are inspected every six months by the State to ensure that they are in proper working order.  Prior to these inspections, we have our transportation director and an independent mechanic go through the checklist the State uses and make any repairs needed. When our vehicles are inspected and there is a concern from the state we immediately pull our vehicle out of rotation until it can be fixed.  While some districts don’t have vans or SUVs inspected, we do this to insure that all the students we transport are safe.

I had a great opportunity on Wednesday to speak to all the attendees at the Fr. Martin Golf Outing Dinner.  One thing I made sure to state is the importance of this group’s generosity to the families of Scott County.  In just the past year, the Fr. Martin fund has helped 31 students with tuition when their family was faced with economic struggle.  To put this in perspective, the enrollment increase for our Scott Co. schools this year was 26 students.  Without the Fr. Martin fund 31 students could have ended up leaving due to financial struggles.  We then could have seen an enrollment decrease.  Thank goodness for this group’s generosity!

With the long holiday weekend ahead of us it seemed like the week was packed with meetings and email communications.  Issues addressed included:

1.      504 plans and their implications

2.      Discussion of enrollment and subsidy data and what that data indicates for the future of our local schools

3.      Effectiveness of our donor giving program and ways to improve on current practices.

4.      Information needed for our Theater program to apply for a grant

5.      Clarification of athletic procedures and consistency between the school and athletics

6.      Approval of several items for purchase including a new walk-in cooler for our kitchen, new chairs for our choir room and a couple of technology needs

On the facilities side of things, we will be replacing one of our heat pumps in the boiler room.  This heat pump controls the heat to the gym and I really doubt that our winter coaches would enjoy practicing in a gym with no heat. 

The new room in the daycare is done and looks great!  Thanks to Eric Leuth for all of his hard work in getting this project done ASAP.  Kids should be running around the room early next week after all the toys are moved into the room.

Eric is also putting the finishing touches on the individual study rooms in the new tech lab.  We are looking to have the room painted and tables in next week.  This will be a tremendous facelift for this room.

All of the student laptops for the juniors and seniors are imaged, meaning they have all of the programs they need loaded onto them.  We are installing the extra memory in each of the 230 computers.  This should make the computers ready to handout next week.  Prior to handing out computers we will be holding mandatory student and parent meetings to go over all the details that need to be communicated to help make this educational initiative successful.  Meetings are tentatively scheduled for the 9^th and 10^th of September and we will be communicating the exact dates very soon.   This is an exciting thing for Assumption as an educational institution, but also comes with the need for proper rollout of the technology.  We are working to make sure this initiative goes well.

Have a great long weekend and enjoy the time with family and friends!

Update for the week 8/24/2012

The start of a new school year always means some adjustment to the “new normal.”  With all of the new faces, new friendships, and new experiences, it is easy to feel the energy in the air.  I think the general feeling amongst the faculty is things are busy, but the year is off to an amazing start.

A couple of updates for the week:

The big news for the week is enrollment.  As of today the count looks like this:

Freshman                           130

Sophomores                      107        

Juniors                                122        

Seniors                                93

Total                                    452

To put this in perspective, enrollment at this same time last year was 437. This 15 student increase represents a lot of hard work by many people at Assumption.  Without and emphasis on academics, extracurricular activities, and a tremendous tuition assistance program, many of these students would be attending other schools.  Thank you to all our supporters who are out selling Assumption every day.

Our student laptops for the 1:1 program arrived this week. This brings a lot of excitement, but also a little bit of frustration.  Our teachers and students are ready to get going with their new technology, but we are currently waiting on a mobile web filtering program from the AEA.  This is the last piece that needs to be in place before we begin to image the machines, which will put all the necessary programs on each computer so they can function correctly.  After the machines are imaged we will be holding rollout meetings so students can get the machines in their hands.  I look forward to this day as many of our students, teachers and parents do!

We had our first budget and business meeting of the year, in which we reviewed and discussed solutions to many of the things that popped up over the summer. Topics discussed included our new student information system, transportation issues, addition of a radio backup to our security system, locks for gym lockers, Fr. Martin fund distributions, football ticket takers, and fine arts financing.

The week ended with preparations for our annual board orientation and meeting next Monday.  We will begin with an orientation reviewing the structure and function of the board and a detailed description of the board’s responsibilities.  This is an essential meeting to set the tone for the upcoming school year.  After we complete the orientation we will have our regularly scheduled meeting.  Should be a great learning time for all of us!

Have a great weekend!

Update for the week 8/17/2012

With the start of a new school year there is always some adjustment to the “new normal”.  With all of the new faces, new friendships, and new experiences it is easy to feel the energy in the air.  I think the general feeling amongst the faculty is that things are busy, but the year is off to an amazing start.

A couple of updates for the week:

The big new for the week is enrollment.  As of Friday the count looks like this:

Freshman                          129

Sophomores                      108        

Juniors                               122        

Seniors                               93

Total                                   452

To put this in perspective, enrollment at this same time last year was 437.   This 15 student increase represents a lot of hard work by many of the people at Assumption.  Without and emphasis on academics, extracurricular activities and a tremendous tuition assistance program many of these students would be attending other schools.  Great work by all of our supporters who are out selling Assumption every day.

Our student laptops for the 1:1 program arrived this week.  For me, this brings a ton of excitement, but also a little bit of frustration.   I feel that our teachers and students are ready to go with this, as am I. Currently we are waiting on a mobile web filtering program from the AEA.  This is really the last piece that needs to be in place before we begin to image these machines.  Imaging puts all of the necessary programs on the computer in order for them to function correctly.  After we have the machines imaged we will be holding rollout meetings so our students can get the machines in their hands.  I look forward to this day as many of our students, teachers and parents do.

We had our first budget and business meeting of the year.  It has been a lot of review and figuring out the solutions to many of the things that popped up over the summer.  Topics discussed included our new student information system, transportation issues, addition of a radio backup to our security system, locks for gym lockers, Fr. Martin fund distributions, football ticket takers and fine arts financing.

This week ended with preparations for our annual board orientation and meeting on Monday.  We will begin with an orientation reviewing the structure and function of the board and a detailed description of the boards responsibilities.  This is an essential meeting to set the tone for the upcoming school year.  After we complete the orientation we will have our regularly scheduled meeting.  Should be a great learning time for all of us!

Have a great weekend!

Weekly Update 8/10/12

For many of us at Assumption, this is one of the best times of the year.  With teachers returning and freshman orientation on Friday, it is great to have some productive noise throughout the building. 

 

Freshman and new student orientation went very well with a terrific homily from Fr. Adam, a great welcome by new principal Mrs. Murphy, and the ever famous dress code presentation from Mr. Ries.  There certainly was a positive feel to the entire day which can be attributed to the attitudes of all our students, parents, faculty, and staff.  With over 135 new students in attendance, the year looks to be starting off on a high note.  Good luck to all our new students as they make the adjustment to life as a Knight.  

Teacher in-service on Wednesday went very well.  Much of the time was spent going over necessary details on procedures and schedules to make sure we accomplish our primary goal of educating each and every student.  We spent some time going over the new online version of JMC, our student information software.   We have been waiting almost a year for this changeover and I believe it will fix some problems from previous years.  Of course, with every fix there are adjustments, and it will take some time for all of us to become acclimated to the program.  

I spoke with the Catholic Messenger this week about our technology upgrades, mainly the bandwidth increase that took place in July.  I look forward to reading the article.  As many on our Board of Directors remember this was an extensive process, which took a lot of work to complete, and I’m glad we could successfully partner with the grade schools and make the upgrade a reality. 

Even though students and faculty have returned we still are moving forward on many of the projects which began at the end of last school year.  We spent quite a bit of time this week making sure computers and phones are in working order for the upcoming week.   The floor is being put down in the new technology area.  Plumbing and electrical work is complete in the daycare.  We are exploring some sound options for the choir room.  Special thanks go to McCarthy-Bush for generously donating asphalt to fill in the holes in our parking lot.  

Have a great weekend and let me know if you have any questions.

Weekly Update 8/3/2012

Yesterday I was asked if I was read to “go back” to school.  With a smile I said I never left, but I was certainly ready for all of the students and teacher to be back.  It is easy to see that the beginning of the school year is quickly approaching with band and football camps this week, teachers beginning to trickle into their rooms, and our custodial staff putting the finishing touches on the floors.  You can begin to feel the excitement in the air.

The biggest news of the week has to be our new crop of freshman.  Currently we have 130 students enrolled for the class of 2016.  To put this in perspective, our average freshman enrollment over the last 12 years has been 113 students.  Once school begins we will compile and publish data regarding which  grade schools students attended, but preliminary numbers show roughly 74% of the Catholic 8^th grade students will be attending AHS.   Congrats to Emily Faulhaber and everyone whose hard work and dedication to Assumption are helping these students make their decision.

Progress continues on our two big summer projects.  The new technology lab is coming along nicely. Drywall has been mounted, doors have been hung, Eric has started constructing new tables for the lab, and we hope to install the new flooring next week where it had to be removed to make room for extra floor outlets.   The daycare also continues to progress with paint, ceiling and flooring all installed this week.  After constructing some cabinets, setting the fixtures for the plumbing, and boxing in some support beams we should be close to opening the room. 

I presented to the new principals on Wednesday about Boards of Education and marketing.  This was good review for me as we prepare for our Board orientation on August 20^th.  I feel every year we get a little better at our Board orientation, with more meaningful information.  This year we will review the updated organizational structure which was developed during our principal search.

Speaking of our principal, Bridget Murphy continues to prove that she was the right choice for the job.  With some schedule changes and adding alum Andy Logan (‘96) to our teaching staff, she has already made steps to improve AHS.  Andy will be a great addition to our Religion department and has extensive experience spreading the good news.  

I had a chance to give a tour of the school as part of the class of 1992’s 10 year reunion last weekend.  It was a great experience and I made sure to remind them that they were seniors when I was a freshman, and that I hadn’t forgotten the ones who picked on me and pointed out that I am now a lot bigger than they are.  They got a big kick out of that.

Some of you may have caught the article in the times about the proposed change to the lane lines on W. Central Park Ave.  I met with Michael Clarke from the city in regards to the proposed changes and we discussed some of the options.  For the time being, the lines will remain the same as they always have been, but there may be some changes as soon as next year.

We also continue our talks with St. Ambrose about the development of the St. Vincent’s Center property.  There will be more on this to come, but there are some exciting opportunities for not only Ambrose, but also Assumption. 

Good luck to all of the duffers out there today at the Booster Club Golf Outing and have a great weekend!

Andy

Weekly Update 7/21/2012

Construction continues on both the technology lab and the daycare. Paint should be done in the daycare early next week with floor and ceiling to follow after.  We decided to take down a wall in between the two areas of the technology lab.  This has always been part of the plan, but we were concerned about the size and scope of the projects we have taken on this summer.   After some discussion it was the best choice to move forward with removing the wall and it really opens up the area.

I took a trip up to state softball in Fort Dodge this week to watch the Knights compete.  While the result wasn’t what our players and fans wanted, I really felt the team showed a lot of heart and fought all the way to the end.  Congrats to both our softball and baseball teams on successful seasons.

Bridget Murphy and I have met on several occasions as she hits the ground running as principal.  She brings new and creative ideas to the position and is very comfortable in this leadership role.  Currently, she is working on the master schedule and hiring a new teacher in math on top of all of the little details that accompany the principal’s position.  I truly feel that all of us who have had a chance to work with Bridget in the first week have been impressed with her dedication to making Assumption the best school it can be.

We have been dealing with some phone issues this week.  Part of it has been the switch over from digital to analog lines.  The other part has been technical issues outside of our control.   We have been working with Mediacom on this issue and hope to have the problem fixed by Monday.

The finance committee met Friday morning to go over end of the year financials.  We had a successful year financially and are once again able to save a little bit of money for future projects.  Much of the discussion centered on what the projects are that we will need to look at in the next several years.

Next week I will be meeting with individuals from the City with regard to markings on West Central Park Ave.  I have heard a lot of rumors about what the plans are and look forward to learning more about the real plans.  Hopefully lines will be painted soon as traffic will increase the closer we get to the start of the school year. 

Weekly Update 7/13/2012

Dear Assumption Family,

Several weeks ago I advised you that Assumption would be seeking a new principal. The Assumption Board of Directors initiated a search and we were blessed with field of ten candidates. Earlier this week three applicants were interviewed by a team of 19 stakeholders that included students, faculty/staff members, board members, a pastor, alumni, parents, and the Diocesan Superintendent of Schools.

We are pleased to announce the selection of Mrs. Bridget Murphy as Principal of Assumption High School effective immediately. Mrs. Murphy is a graduate of Assumption, St. Ambrose University (B.S.), and the University of Idaho (M.A.T.) She received her administrative certification from the University of Iowa. Mrs. Murphy and her husband, Kevin, have six children and are members of St. Paul the Apostle parish.

Mrs. Murphy has been an upper level mathematics teacher at Assumption for the past 11 years, also teaching college courses for Scott Community College at the high school.  Between 2003-2009 she coached the St. Ambrose women’s softball team.  She currently serves on the board of the Women’s Choice Center.

Mrs. Murphy brings many gifts to her new position, including her deep faith and her years of experience as a highly successful teacher. She is prepared to continue the tradition of excellence that Assumption is known for. We feel fortunate that she has agreed to serve as our principal.

Sincerely,

Andy Craig                                     Nancy Hines

President                                        President

Assumption High School            A.H.S. Board of Directors     

A special thanks to all those who participated in the interview process:

Kathleen Argo, Bill Bush, Fr. Robert Harness, Nancy Hines, Bonnie Kaplonek, Lee Morrison, Joe Barrer, Leslie LaCorte, Jan Luton, Amy McGuire, Dave Simpson, Melanie Wulfekuhle, Lexi Flynn, Ben Pashon, Nick Schlebler, Andy Craig, Emily Faulhaber, Julie Fulton, Wade King