Superintendent's Message for September 2024

Hello, Chargers!!

The Superintendent's messages inform you about our district's latest developments. We have also tried to make our website a 'one-stop shop' for information, so please visit it for specific details.

Attendance and Chronic Absenteeism Legislative Change

The legislatures passed Senate File 2435 during their 2024 session, which went into effect July 1st, 2024. This law addresses various educational issues, including chronic absenteeism and attendance. I have attached the entire bill for your information. Below, I will touch on some of the information in the law and how the school will proceed to meet it. Senate File 2435

What is chronic absenteeism? - It occurs when a student misses more than 10% of the days or hours in a grading period. This legislation, Senate file 2435, requires school districts to define chronic absenteeism, adopt a policy to address attendance and implement a plan to assist families of students who are chronically absent. This legislation also requires us to change the way we code attendance. Attached is a document from the Iowa Department of Education that guides us. 2024-25 Attendance Coding
School Engagement Meeting—Once a student has missed 15% or more days in the grading period, the school will initiate a meeting with parents. This is not much different from what we have done in the past, although now we are bound by the law change. This meeting will include the student, a parent or guardian, and a school official. The meeting’s goal is to eliminate or reduce absenteeism through the following steps.
1. Identify the cause of the absenteeism and develop a prevention plan and agreement to solve the problem.
2. Delegate responsibilities of each participant to address the issues identified causing the absenteeism.
3. The school official will monitor the participant’s compliance with the plan developed in the engagement meeting.
4. Referrals, when appropriate, to individuals or agencies to assist with the plan and prevention of the absences.
We are here to help and understand that many factors cause students to be absent from school. We want and need your child at school so that they can receive the necessary instruction to be successful. The research is very clear about the importance of a child’s attendance. Read the NCES 2009-804 Feb 2009 Article.
The law clearly states that failure to comply with the absentee prevention plan will result in the case being referred to the county attorney for potential civil enforcement. It is our hope that by working together to fix the absentee issues, this can be avoided. Please keep in mind that we want to avoid this, but we must comply with the law.
Finally, the administration and school board are working to ensure our board policies and student/parent handbooks are aligned with this recent change. This communication is the first attempt to inform students and parents of the change and the processes being developed. As the year progresses, you will receive additional information from your child's principal and staff.

School Board Highlights and Agenda

The school board met on September 9, 2024. Some of the highlights were to continue moving forward on monitoring and repairing issues at the middle school. The school board approved several contracts with Joiner Construction of which one was the installation of Frost Stoop at the middle school for $28,245.

The school board also approved a contract with 10Fold Architecture and Engineering for their professional services for the amount of $104,250. This contract is to design and project preparation, approval of project specifications, and the release of drawings and specs for bidding.

The school board also approved the purchase of five new school buses from School Bus Sales of Iowa. These buses have a tentative delivery date of March 2025. The buses consist of: three route buses $130,704 each, one special education bus for $155,559, and one activity bus for $195,086. Our district has done a nice job of keeping the maintenance of our buildings on schedule but not so well in the area of our transportation department, including our buses and small vehicles. In the coming months, the school board will consider purchasing buses for the next two years. This is a change in how things have been done in the past due to the timing of getting buses promptly. To get competitive bids we need to order buses 18 months earlier than the time they are needed. This is a healthy investment in order to get our fleet of vehicles back on a normal rotation.

Please take special note of our principal reports from Mr. Schwarte, our middle school leader and Mr. Morgan, grades 3-5 leader. They both highlighted our district’s initiatives and the wonderful things done so far in our schools.

Finally, the linked agenda focuses on learning reports, principal reports from Van Allen and the CCMS Middle School, and my superintendent's report. These reports are in a new format that reflects our work and learning in the Capturing Kids Hearts professional development and conferences we participated in during the spring and summer of 2024. Public School Board Agenda 9/9/24

Initiatives Our School Districts in Engaging in During Professional Development

The first district initiative I wanted to inform you about is the Professional Learning Communities framework known as PLCs. This new framework to enhance teacher collaboration has been an emphasis in our district for quite some time. With this framework, we refine our skills and improve “best Practices.” We are utilizing two primary resources while learning. The first is a book - Learning by Doing, the 4th edition. This book has several authors: Richard DeFour, Rebecca DeFour, Robert Eaker, Thomas W. Many, Mike Mattos, and Anthony Muhammad. The second resource is All Things PLC. This resource is very important and will be utilized to do the work this year. Staff can gain knowledge and information from the website to support their journey. Ultimately, the PLC framework and philosophy is to support our teachers in their professional growth, which will directly impact the learning experiences of our students. The following information was taken directly from the website to communicate the concept of PLCs and what we are trying to accomplish.

Collective inquiry into best practice and current reality (from allthingsplc.info)

The teams in a PLC engage in collective inquiry into both best practices in teaching and best practices in learning. They also inquire about their current reality including their present practices and the levels of achievement of their students. They attempt to arrive at consensus on vital questions by building shared knowledge rather than pooling opinions. They have an acute sense of curiosity and openness to new possibilities.

Collective inquiry enables team members to develop new skills and capabilities that in turn lead to new experiences and awareness. Gradually, this heightened awareness transforms into fundamental shifts in attitudes, beliefs, and habits which, over time, transform the culture of the school.

Working together to build shared knowledge on the best way to achieve goals and meet the needs of clients is exactly what professionals in any field are expected to do, whether it is curing the patient, winning the lawsuit, or helping all students learn. Members of a professional learning community are expected to work and learn together.

The second district initiative is called Capturing Kids Hearts. Our staff chose this initiative and its philosophy to support our students in their social and emotional learning. It was chosen specifically because it supports and grows relationships with students in our classrooms, buildings, and school system.

This quote from their website sums up what we are working on to achieve.

Through experiential training, expert coaching, a character-based curriculum for students, and personalized support, Capturing Kids' Hearts® equips professionals in K-12 education to implement transformational processes focused on social-emotional wellbeing, relationship-driven campus culture, and student connectedness.

The Charger Way

When interviewing for the superintendent position of this district, a clear message from the focus groups I interviewed with was to focus on operating as a school system instead of a system of schools. Simply stated, how can we enhance the student's and parents' experiences when progressing through the years? Develop consistent messages and philosophies that our district believes in regardless of your age or attendance center. The schools and staff were all doing GREAT things, but we needed to discuss and develop collective commitments to share with students and families as a school system. We started conversing at the administrative team level, the District Leadership Team, the Building Leadership Teams, the School Improvement Advisory Committee (SIAC), and the school board. Our conversations centered around our district’s vision and mission statements. The following graphic, which contains our philosophies and current practice, was formed and adopted aligning with our district mission - “Successful Learning for All Students.”

GO CHARGERS and THINK BIG !!!!

Mr. Baker, #LBE

Phone - 641-774-5967

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

Twitter - @Super_Charger