Superintendent's Message for April 2024

Hello, Chargers!!

I can’t believe we are in April already. This school year has flown by quickly.  I have included several things in the monthly update, including the 2024-25 proposed school calendar, legislative updates, school board highlights, and staff and student accomplishments.  

School Board Highlights

The highlight of tonight's board meeting was watching our staff present information to our school board. You can view the presentations in the agenda.  Thank you, Zoie Graves, Kaylee Morgan, and Kayelea Kautz, for your time and work in preparing these presentations.  Here is the entire agenda - April 8 Board Agenda

Legislative Update Information 

I have attached links from two organizations we work with very closely to keep a pulse on what is happening in this year's legislative session.  Later in this update, I will address this year's proposed calendar.  The timing of the start date by law, the 23rd,  is at the worst time and lands late in the month and on a Friday.  A bill in this year's session would allow Iowa school districts to start the first Tuesday after the Iowa State Fair.  This seems very logical because then we would not be tied to a date that floats around from year to year.  Our legislators refuse to address this issue no matter how often area Superintendents address it.  They tell us it comes down to businesses, such as Adventure Land, to use the students longer for labor.  If this law passed, we could create a calendar that would allow us to finish our school year by Memorial Day.  School employees' voices don’t seem to matter, but parents' voices do.  If this is something you believe would be better for our students, staff, and families, please contact our representatives.  

RSAI Legislative 4/4/24

SAI Legislative 4/5/24

RSAI Legislative 3/15/24

District Budget Information

Below is our budget recommendation for the board to consider approving.  It will be published in the paper on Friday, and we will have a special board meeting on April 24th with a public hearing.  It is highlighted by the goldenrod color labeled Recommendation FY25.  It is an overall tax increase of 0.13343, which includes raising the income surtax from 2% to 5%.  I also included the first published proposal, FY24 and FY23. These will no longer be considered.

Celebrations

Mr. Hall did a great job in his board report celebrating the high school staff and student’s success.  Please visit all the reports in the board agenda link above. Thanks to Mr. Curnutte for all his work with the academic team, who won the conference again and placed 4th at the State level.  Under Ms. Castillo's direction, the Charger Speech Team qualified 12 performances in the State Individual Speech contest.  Brett Morgan also qualified for State, and his performance was outstanding!  

We had some outstanding performances at the individual district speech contest this year.  The Chargers qualified for twelve performances in the State Individual Speech contest.  The speech participants were Ethan Werts, Connor Dixson, Luis Acuna, Cody Dixson, Noah Hobbs, Issac Sundquist, Tommy Campbell, Bradley Hobbs, and Brett Morgan.  Ethan, Luis, and Issac qualified with two different speeches, and Brett qualified for the State Speech Contest held at the University of Northern Iowa. Brett is pictured below at the contest.

The High School Music department put on their annual Pops Concert this past month and it did not disappoint.  We have such talented students here at Chariton Community School and lucky they share their talents with us.  Congratulations!

Chariton students have been shining in the area of Academics. Our Academic Team has had a great run lately.  They won the SCC Conference Championship for the third straight time and then placed 4th in the Iowa Quiz Bowl League State Championship, the small school division.  Ethan Werts was named to the All-State Quiz Bowl Team again this year.  He is no stranger to this team and has been on it for three straight years.  Mr. Curnutte and the entire team have made us proud to be a Charger!

Faith Gruwell, one of our outstanding cheerleaders, received Academic All-Conference. Great job, Faith! David Crabb, Mariah D’Attilio, Addison McGee, McKinleigh Milledge, and McKenzie Snook were our SCC Conference top 5% recipients this year.  

The Charger team of Abby Chapman, Sydney Cain, Ava Krustinger, and Payton Snook set a new school record in the 4 X 100 Relay at Clarke. The broke a school record that dated back to 1989 with a time of 52.02. Great things still to come from these young ladies.

Finally McKenzie Snook put on the Charger jersey on last time to compete in the IGCA’s class 3A All-Star game and she did not disappoint.  She was named MVP of the game even though her team did not win the game.  That is impressive. 

Until next month - take care and be kind!

GO CHARGERS and THINK BIG !!!!  

Mr. Baker  #LBE

Office - 641-774-5967  Cell - 641-202-1316

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

Twitter -  @Super_Charger