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New leadership team member introduced at Charles City Board of Education meeting

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

A new member of the Charles City Community School District leadership team was introduced at the Board of Education meeting this week, although to some she was a familiar face.

Superintendent Dr. Anne Lundquist said she was excited to introduce Dr. Jennifer Schilling, who is joining the team as the director of academic services, and invited her to tell the board a little about her.

Schilling said she taught math in the Charles City Middle School from 1998 to 2008.

“Since then I’ve taught at Wartburg, undergraduate classes for elementary and secondary math teachers, but I’ve also spent the last six years at the AEA as a consultant, mainly in math, some in social studies, supported the special ed teams with standard-based evaluations and those types of things,” she said, referring to the Central Rivers Area Education Association.

“I have a lot of different perspectives. I’me very excited to be back in Charles City. You have a lot of good structures in place and I’m hoping to build on those,” she said. “Lots of different challenges, but also very excited to face those challenges.”

According to information from the school district, Schilling has focused for 25 years on connecting students with math and STEM instruction and problem-solving support for K-12 math education.

“She focuses on school improvement by building collaboration around a common goal and building on individual and team strengths to improve student performance,” the school district said in a statement.

Schilling noted some gains in measured academic achievement by Charles City students over the past few years.

“You’re seeing some of the progress from the first steps; now, how can we make it better? How can we take a curriculum and make it more engaging for the students, so they are more involved in problem-solving and discussion in class?” she asked.

Schilling said her top goals are “building a cohesive math curriculum” and “supporting teachers in implementing best instructional practices across all school campuses built on a common philosophy about what is best for student learning.”

“Kids need to talk about their thinking as they learn new information,” Schilling said. “It’s not only the teacher giving students information but providing classroom opportunities to make sense of the information and apply their learning to real-life applications. Students need to talk about their math and be flexible in their thinking.”

She said high priorities include having teachers review student data regularly and communicating classroom standards to parents.

“Literacy is very focused and direct. Mathematics instruction is shifting as the demands of the workplace are shifting. Students need opportunities to think about meaningful problem-solving situations. Math content hasn’t changed, but how we want kids to learn math and how we teach it has changed,” she said.

Schilling’s new director position will focus on curriculum district-wide, the local oversight of Iowa’s Teacher Leadership and Compensation (TLC) System, Title I Program, and English language learners.

“I really want to be out in the classrooms and talk with teachers about what’s happening with instruction and get a feel for what’s happening in the classroom,” she said.

Schilling earned a BA in elementary education from the University of Northern Iowa, a master’s in reform mathematics from UNI, and her doctorate of education in curriculum and instruction from UNI.

She has two daughters, Megan Vanderloop, an 8th-grade teacher at the Charles City Middle School, and Morgan Neuendorf, an environmental engineer consultant in Charlotte, NC. When she’s not working she likes to run, bike, read and quilt. Her newest passion is being a grandma to her two grandchildren. She lives on an acreage in Plainfield.

Also at the Board of Education meeting this week, Supt. Lundquist announced that high school Principal Bryan Jurrens will be taking on the added role of activities director, effective immediately, and the board later approved that appointment.

Lundquist said, “We are in the process now of updating the job description to reflect that accordingly. This is an administrative role for that aspect of our activities director, because we have a full-time employee who does the overwhelming majority of that type of work, but this would be the administrative individual for that work.”

Also at the meeting this week:

• Lundquist said that the administrators and directors are working on updating the school district’s strategic plan, which will include a revision of the mission and the vision and the values. “I’ve been working closely with the administrators, and you will see the changes reflect, we believe, more accurately what we do at Charles City schools to impact student learning,” she said.

• Lundquist said registration packets have been delivered to student homes and online registration will begin on Aug. 1, and in-person registration is Aug. 2 at the Charles City Middle School. More information can be found online at charlescityschools.org.

• Lundquist reported that beginning with the school year, the regular charge for lunches for those not eligible for free or reduced price lunches will resume, at a price of $2.70 per meal for students. During the first years of the COVID pandemic the cost of the meals had been covered by the National School Lunch Program for anyone under the age of 18. Later in the meeting the board approved a price of $4.20 per meal for adults

• The  board approved the 2022-23 preschool calendar. A public hearing on the calendar held prior to its passage had no public comments.

• The board approved its meeting calendar for the new school year, with twice-monthly meetings every month except for December, March and July, and board work sessions on Sept. 20, Nov. 22, Jan. 17, March 7 and May 16.

• The board approved the appointment of Emily Wollak as high school special education teacher and Mike Crenshaw as assistant football coach.

• The board approved the district insurance policy for $413,475, and cyber policy for $7,068.

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