Task force visits to be paid for by CC school district

By Kate Hayden, khayden@charlescitypress.com

All trips to visit other national high school programs will be paid for by the Charles City Community School District, Superintendent Dan Cox told the Press after Monday’s Board of Education meeting.

Members of the 21st Century High School Task Force will be providing the board with reviews of several facility visits during the board meeting on either April 24 or May 8. Board of Education meetings are open to the public, and tentative agendas are released to the Press and through the district’s website in advance on Fridays.

“As of now we have four confirmed site visits, three here in the Midwest and one out to the West Coast. Each of them will bring a perspective to help us shape what we are going to do with our (high school) facility recommendation,” Cox told Board of Education members during the meeting.

Task force members were presented with eight potential school districts to visit, but some tour dates offered by four of the districts are in conflict with Charles City task force members, Cox said. Task force members will visit remodeled and new-construction facilities.

District representatives from the task force are also planning separate trips to visit high school theater and food service facilities. The total costs of all the facility trips will not be available until after all travel details are finalized, he said.

“It’s an expense that I am recommending without hesitation,” Cox told the Press. “We’re about to embark on a $15 million, at least, project … To investigate what would be the best designs and type of facility for us to educate our kids moving into the next 30 years, that’s money well spent.”

The visits include a trip to High Tech High School in San Diego, Calif., which partially inspired the design of today’s Charles City Middle School, Cox said. Cox visited the campus in 2012, before he joined the Charles City School District as superintendent.

Seven task force members — two Board of Education members, two district administrators, two district teachers and one high school student — will be traveling to San Diego for the school visit. The group’s goal is to review not only the facilities at High Tech High but also the curricula, and how the school uses the building in lesson plans.

Based upon current sign-ups on Monday evening, the California group is the largest facility visit sponsored by the Charles City school district; the second-largest visit will go to Waukee, with six group members. Other facilities the district hopes to visit include schools in Minnesota, Illinois and Missouri.

“We want a school that is visionary, is flexible, will educate children not only today but into the future,” Board of Education member Lorraine Winterink said.

During the Charles City Middle School design process, district task force members visited six schools within Iowa, Winterink said.

“We did not find anything close to what we were looking for. Nothing,” board member Robin Macomber said. “We did not find a model like our middle school. … We did build that without visiting something. Do I want to do that again with the high school? No, because things need to be tweaked. It’s always better to learn from somebody that has done to learn what they would do again and what they would not.

“We are using property tax dollars this time,” she added. “We have to be extremely aware of what we spend our money on, and I want to get it right, and I want to spend the least and get the most of what I can for my dollars.”

Funding to pay for task force members’ expenses will come mostly from the general fund, Cox said, and partially from categorical Teacher Quality funds. Those funds will support the teachers visiting who research how the facility designs aid in daily lesson plans.

“As that appropriately relates to any of the visits, that will also lessen the impact on the general fund,” Cox said.

High Tech High designed its building around the academic changes it was making, he said.

“We’re not just looking at facilities, we’re looking at programs too. And the only way to see those programs in action is to go to those facilities,” Macomber said. “It is more than just looking at carpet colors and wall colors and desk sizes.”