Superintendent's Message for February 2024

Hello, Chargers!!

January was not the kindest to us regarding the weather, but we made it through it. Thanks to everyone for your patience and understanding with all the Parent Square notifications and rescheduling of events. Please read about the approved changes on our school calendar in the school board highlight section of this message and note them on your personal schedules.

Thanks to everyone who completed the poll, attached below, on whether we should utilize the five days of virtual learning the State of Iowa allows in the 2024-25 school year. According to the data from parents and staff, we will continue this practice when necessary.

School Business and School Board Highlights

The school board approved the following changes to our 2023-24 school calendar. These changes are due to our regular board meeting falling on spring break and the amount of missed school hours due to the weather this year.

Move our March 11th board meeting to March 18, 2024 - same time and location.
March 29th becomes a day of school.
May 24th becomes a regular school day - no early out.
May 28 becomes a regular school day
May 29th is the last day of school with a 3-hour early release.
May 30th and 31st become teacher professional development days.

These changes will give us more instructional time with our students and a more realistic ending to our school year for families. Unless we have more bad weather, these changes will meet the state's required hours. Please mark your personal calendars to reflect these changes.

I have attached the following link of the board agenda for your information and convenience.

CCSD February Board Agenda

Celebrations

Austin Cain, Colton Schlutz, and Cadence Atwell of our FFA Livestock Judging Team recently competed at the Iowa Beef Expo. They were the champions of the questioning division. Congratulations!

The CCSD students below qualified for the State FBLA in Cedar Rapids on March 24-26. Aiden Burbridge was first in securities and investments and public policy and advocacy. Mariah D’Attilio placed first in three divisions; business communications, business law, and economics. Finally, Tori Neer placed first in client services and second in business communications and social media strategies. Congratulations, and good luck at state.

The following three acknowledgments are from Mr. Milledge’s social media accounts. I wanted to honor these athletes and Mr. Milledge’s hard work and dedication to our students. You will also notice Sonya Wallace is credited for some of the photos. She has taken countless pictures of our extracurricular participants, and her work does not go unnoticed. Thanks to both of these individuals for celebrating the successes of our students as they represent our school.

STAFF CELEBRATIONS

Two people have recently written and been awarded grants for our school. Stephanie Lukavsky received an Agriculture in the Classroom Teacher Supplement Grant funded by the Iowa Agriculture Literacy Foundation with their Exploring Agricultural Impact in Our Region project. Josh Morgan wrote a grant for social and emotional learning and was awarded a grant for over $100,000. This grant is in our board packet and will help fund our district's Capturing Kids Hearts program. Thank you both for your hard work and dedication to our school and students.

Brenda Peterson, Caroline Hunkele, and Jayme Braida attended the Central College Career Fair. It takes a team to recruit and get the word out that this is a GREAT place to work. If you know anybody interested in our open positions please help the cause and help get them signed up. Check out the Charger swag!

GO CHARGERS and THINK BIG !!!!

Mr. Baker #LBE

Phone - 641-774-5967

Email- brad.baker@chariton.k12.ia.us

Twitter - @Super_Charger