Baby Boom: A remarkably big Mother’s Day in the Charles City School District

By James Grob, jgrob@charlescitypress.com

Send any extra Mother’s Day cards to the Charles City School District.

The district doesn’t know exactly how many new babies will be born to teachers this school year, but the number is going to be remarkably high.

“It is exciting. It’s always exciting to add new babies. They’re miracles,” said Kara Shannon, principal at Washington Elementary. “It’s really fun. Sharing the pictures and sharing with staff is really fun. We’re adding to our family.”

According to school officials, among teachers district-wide there are more than 12 new or expectant mothers, and perhaps as many as 20.

CCSD Communications and Community Engagement Director Justin DeVore said that since July 1, 2018, there have been five pregnancies at Washington Elementary alone — at least that he’s aware of — and perhaps a dozen or so more through the other schools in the Charles City district.

“And I don’t know what everyone did over the last weekend,” DeVore laughed. “It’s none of my business.”

DeVore said that no other Charles City school year even comes close to those numbers, at least not in recent memory.

“To be honest, I’m not sure if we actually track that,” he said.

Patricia Bahlman, who is in her 20th year in payroll and human resources in the district, can’t think of a baby boom that’s even come close to this year’s.

“I can’t remember a year that we’ve had this many teachers having babies,” Bahlmann said. She added that she couldn’t think of a school year when there’s been as many as four or five new babies.

“We’ve got a lot of brand new mothers and a lot of brand new babies,” Shannon said. “I probably don’t have enough Mother’s Day cards to send out.”

The first mother to deliver at Washington this year was Jill Heeren, who teaches special education at the school. Her fifth son, Maddon Merle, arrived a couple of weeks early, on Christmas Eve.

Leading up to Christmas, she said many of her students were fascinated with her pregnancy.

“Some of them liked to rub my belly a lot, and ask a lot of questions,” Heeren said. “Lots of hugging. Now they all like to see pictures of the baby.”

She said with so many teachers at the school all expecting at the same time, a camaraderie developed, which was very helpful when she returned from her third maternity leave in the last five years.

“Everyone here is so supportive. There are a lot of moms and parents here, so everyone knows that first week back is really difficult, so they try to make it easier for you,” she said. “Every time I’ve come back from maternity leave, I’ve said, thank God I love my job, because I couldn’t come back if I didn’t.”

Heeren is a nursing mother, and said that she is able to pump at work — three times a day — in the privacy of the principal’s office.

“They give me a nice little private area to do that,” she said. “Everybody knows if the door is shut and locked, I’m probably in there and that’s probably what I’m doing.”

Shannon said that as principal, finding substitute teachers and arranging schedules with all the expectant mothers does present a challenge, but it hasn’t been as difficult as one might think.

“I would say it is difficult to line up that many subs, but luckily this year they were spaced out enough,” she said. “We have a couple really strong long-term subs who are very consistent in our building, so they knew well ahead of time about the positions. We had it all in place.”

A substitute will be needed very soon for first grade teacher Jenny Mohs, who could have her baby at any time. Her second child is due next week, and will be out and about before next weekend.

“If the baby isn’t here by Thursday, they are going to help it along,” Mohs said. She doesn’t know if the child will be a boy or a girl. “It’s going to be a surprise, that’s the plan.”

The students in her first grade classroom are taking bets, and Mohs turned that into an educational opportunity.

“They are all super excited.” Mohs said. “We actually took a vote, and they all decided that it’s a boy, so they’re very anxious for the baby to come so they can find out if they’re right or wrong.”

Mohs said she is teaching a unit about survey questions, and one of the survey questions was, “Do you think it’s a boy or a girl?”

“It’s been fun to be able to include them, too,” she said.

Mohs said there’s a definite connection that’s been made among the expectant mothers at the school.

“It’s kind of nice. We have our own little support system,” she said. “They get it. They’ve either been there, or they know what’s coming.”

Shannon Venz, a second grade teacher at Washington, agreed. Venz gave birth to her second daughter, named Harlow, on Jan. 30.

“We’ve shared stories and supported each other as the year went on,” Venz said. “We were all going through the same thing. It was fun. We were all due at different times of the year, and it was spaced out.”

Harlow’s birthday was during the polar vortex — the coldest day of the year — and Venz said she went to Mason City for the planned C-section the day before, just to make sure they could get there in time.

“Other than the cold, it was smooth sailing,” she said.

Like Heeren and Mohs, Venz said her students were also very interested in the process.

“They were very excited, and when we found out the gender that was a big deal for them, too,” Venz said.

The new and expectant mothers all received a “Comet onesie” with the words “Newest Member of the Comet Family” on it for their babies to proudly wear.

“They got us all these real little cute onesies for the babies, which I thought was great, because that was definitely not expected,” Mohs said.

Venz said she has felt personally supported by the Charles City School District.

“I would say the district has been supportive of us,” she said. “With so many of us pregnant at once, that’s so unusual for them and a lot for them to handle.”

Plans for Mother’s Day on Sunday are calm and reserved. Heeren is considering a big family mushroom hunt, if the weather allows it. Venz thinks the family may go on a camping trip.

Mohs, in particular, understandably plans to stay close to home.

“We have a pretty low-key Mother’s Day planned,” she said. “We’ll kind of hang out at the house and not travel too far, just in case.”

Mohs said her other child will likely get one last weekend of undivided attention.

“I will love on my first one, because pretty soon he’ll have to share that mommy time,” she said.