Charles City School District looks to get ahead of snow days

By James Grob, jgrob@charlescitypress.com

After a double-digit number of snow days last winter caused scheduling havoc, the Charles City School District hopes to get ahead of the weather this year.

The idea is to build at least three snow days into the schedule, so they won’t have to be made up.

At Monday’s meeting, the Charles City Community School District Board of Education set Nov. 11 for a public hearing regarding revisions to the 2019-20 school calendar. The public hearing is required in order to change items on a school calendar that has already been set.

Superintendent Mike Fisher led a discussion regarding the method to make up snow days, and said he was sharing a recommendation that came from discussions with senior leadership and teachers.

Currently, up to six snow days are made up in the spring — usually replacing the school’s scheduled professional development days — and anything beyond that is tacked on to the end of the school year, Fisher explained.

“One of the fears is they could lose all of the professional learning days in the spring,” Fisher said. “They use that time to collaborate, set lessons plans — teams get together for planning.”

Fisher said that professional development days, when teachers and administrators go to school and the students stay home, are quite important to staff.

“I know people think we just sit here and yak at the teachers all day, but there is a lot of collaboration, and that time is very valuable,” he said.

Fisher’s recommendation is to forgive three missed days first, then beyond the three days, the district may then have to lose a professional learning day, but the district wouldn’t have to lose them all.

The three snow days would be made up through additional hours built into the schedule.

“I think it’s a great plan,” said board President Robin Macomber. “I appreciate that they are not afraid to come to us and ask for a revision.”

The public hearing, which is required to make the changes, will be at 5:30 p.m. at the Iowa Big North room in the North Grand Building — after that, action could be taken at the Nov. 25 meeting.

The board also heard a presentation from CCHS German teacher Shari Stoll Monday, and unanimously approved a proposal, presented by Stoll, for a 2021 student trip to Kothen, Germany.

It’s part of the German-American Partnership Program (GAPP), which has been part of Charles City schools for more than 30 years and brings German students to Charles City, as well as taking Charles City students to Germany.

The district announced in spring of 2018 that Kothen, Germany, was Charles City’s GAPP partner school. Eight students from Germany visited Charles City for about two weeks last fall, from the district’s German partner school, Freie Schule Anhalt, in Kothen in the state of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany.

“That school is very interested in partnering with us from the ground up,” Stoll said.

Stoll said the trip will focus on the culture, history and language of Germany, as well as building long-lasting relationships between families and students. Students will spend time in Kothen as well as in Berlin and one or two other cities of the student’s choice.

The trip will be offered to juniors and seniors. Currently there are about 30 interested students. The cost will be roughly $2,000.

“We’ve been able to do this between $1,600 and $2,000 per student in the past, which has given our students opportunities to go, which is why we’ve seen an increase in the number of students wanting to go,” Stoll said.

Fundraisers planned include scratch cupcakes, Kwik Star gas cards and can drives. The students are also looking into taking advantage of opportunities at Charles City’s revamped Pizza Ranch, such as tip nights and gift cards.

Stoll and one chaperone will travel with students, with possibly one more chaperone, depending on the number of students on the trip.

In other business Monday, Washington Elementary Principal Kara Shannon, who serves on the Signature Programing Team, presented information on the team’s goals and progress toward developing a “magnet” school in Charles City.

“The vision really is to create a school that’s so distinctive — hence the word ‘magnet’ — it attracts people to the school,” Shannon told the board.

Shannon said the goal is to increase parent and community engagement and student engagement, which leads to more academic excellence.

The idea is to pilot signature programming at Washington Elementary, with guiding principles such as adaptability, integrity, communication and critical thinking.

“We really want to make sure those things are embedded within it,” Shannon said.

Examples of ideas the group is exploring include a research academy, STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) schools, STEAM schools (STEM schools plus the arts), among other things.

“There are so many options,” Shannon said. “Our team is trying to narrow that focus down.”

Shannon told the board that there are plans to go to on visits to other magnet schools in the near future.

In other business Monday, the board:

• Approved the sale of the high school dust collection system and associated duct work to Dave Bahe, in the amount of $253. The system has been advertised for sale, and Bahe submitted the only bid. The building must be moved by the buyer by Dec. 1.

• Heard a preliminary report, led by Fisher, on the Iowa Association of School Board’s platform.

• Approved the appointment of Tia McInroy, advisor to the high school annual, at a salary of $2,333, starting Oct. 28.

• Approved the appointment of Sandy Peterson, high school musical costume designer, at a salary of $250, effective Oct. 28.

• Approved the appointment of Amy Wolfe, high school musical choreographer, at a salary of $250, effective Oct. 28.

• Approved the appointment of Janeice Bergland, high school musical set designer, at a salary of $500, effective Oct. 28.

• Approved the appointments of Renee Boss and Isaak Jensen, high school musical instrumental fill-ins, at salaries of $150 each, effective Oct. 28.