By Elaine Rassel
Public Forum had Eric Mitchell from Oyens, and other concerned parents, addressing the Boards regarding the elimination of bussing for Oyens students that open enroll to Le Mars.
Ms. Brenda Bird, Spanish instructor spoke to the Boards on a trip to Costa Rica for her Spanish class students. In regards to students traveling, they expand their knowledge of the world around them, discover more about themselves, and grow more confident. She said, “Skills are critical for creating the global citizens of tomorrow, and we would love to have your student join us on this adventure.
The trip is not school sponsored. There would be 8 days of travel scheduled for mid to late June, 2024. One adult would be responsible for every 6 students. $95 deposit is due per student by the end of September to secure a place on this trip. Total cost for student is $3,629.
Day 1 has them flying to Liberia, on Pacific coast of Costa Rica, with dinner provided. (fees for checking bags is NOT included).
Day 2 is Sustainability Farm Tour/Ecological Workshop and cooking class in the morning: ziplining and thermal pools in the afternoon. Dinner is provided at the hotel.
Day 3 there is snorkeling/local exchange with a family or playing soccer with school children.
Day 4 has them going on a tour of Rincón de la Vieja National Park; travel to Arenal location in the afternoon. Dinner at hotel with free time afterwards.
Day 5 is traveling to Los Chiles and touring the Caño Negro Wildlife Refuge, including a guided boat tour. Dinner is included at the hotel with free time afterwards. Day 6 is a hike to La Fortuna waterfall, then traveling to San Jos and a guided tour of a coffee plantation in the afternoon.
On Day 7 they will be traveling to Sarapiqui for whitewater rafting. Lunch is included on-site. They will return to San Jos in the evening.
On Day 8 they will be flying back to U.S. from San Jos. The trip to Costa Rica was approved by the Board.
(There was a trip that was approved to go to Costa Rica and then the pandemic came about and the trip was cancelled. Now, there is no pandemic and this could be for some students—a trip of a life-time for them!)
Time for reorganizing for 2024. Ahler’s & Cooney PC of Des Moines was approved for the district attorney for MMC and RU.
Marcus News was approved as the district newspaper on record for MMC and Remsen Bell for RU.
State Savings Bank, Farmers State Bank, United Bank of Iowa, and Bankers Trust ISJIT with a limit of $7 million were approved for MMC. American Bank and Iowa State Bank were approved for RU with a limit of $7 million.
Brandon Weisert (MMC Principal) and Alecia Regennitter were approved as Level I investigators for MMC as were RU Principal and school nurse for RU. Marcus Police Department and Remsen Police Department were approved as Level II investigators.
District 504 Coordinators approved are Toby Young for RU and Kayla Schroeder for MMC.
The District Homeless Liaison Coordinator approved for MMC and RU is Alicia Hergott.
Courtney DeMey and Billie Smith were hired as Paras for MMC.
Board/Superintendent/District Goals were approved as the following: A. hold a board workshop focusing on school district finance/strategy for MMCRU. B. Foster/facilitate improvement in instruction/curriculum/test scores in the area of science district-wide. C. Provide opportunities/methods for increasing collaboration between staff to take full advantage of new facilities.. D. Develop and implement a marketing strategy for the MMCRU Schools. E. Refine the safety/security protocols for MMCRU Schools. F. Focus on improving communication between board, administration, staff and general public of MMCRU Schools.
The Purchase of School Vehicle was a Remsen issue and a Telephone Bid from Westel to replace telephones in the RU building was a Remsen issue.
Toby Young, MMCRU Middle School/Remsen Elementary Principal reported: The school year is off to a great start! Students and staff are settling into their classes and daily routines. JH Activities (Cross Country, Football & Volleyball) have begun as well and we’ve already seen great things.
Staff professional development days have been very productive with our focus at our Elementary/Middle School. Elementary—CKLA Reading curriculum, Preschool—Gold Teaching Strategies/New curriculum, TK—bridging gap with Kindergarten, MTSS, IXL, ISASP/FAST (Data/Training). Middle School—Character Strong, LiveSchool, ISASP (Data/Training), Iowa Core-Alignment/Instruction/Assessment & Science curriculum. All Levels—ALICE & SEL Training.
PS through Grade 8 Enrollment: PS (23); TK (7); K (18); Grade 1 (25); Grade 2 (22); Grade 3 (15); Grade 4 (21); Grade 5 (55); Grade 6 (35); Grade 7 (34); and Grade 8 (51).
Elementary’s total is 131 (134 -2022) and Middle School’s total is 175 (17-2022). RU’s TOTAL is 306 (307-2022).
JH (Junior High) Football is 20. (10 in Grade 8 and 10 in Grade 7) Volleyball is 21 (Grade 8 has 10 and Grade 7 has 11) and Cross Country has 3 (2 in Grade 8 and 1 in Grade 7)—2 Boys and 1 Girl.
The fifth-grade students attended 2 field trips in the month of September. Tuesday (Sept. 12), they went to Cherokee Farm/Ag Tour and on Friday (Sept. 22) they went for a social studies field trip. They toured the capitol building, state historical museum, as well as Living History Farms. Both field trips are wonderful opportunities for our students and we plan to continue these trips each year. Thank you to our staff and community partners for making this happen.
FAST (Reading & Math) Testing for TK through Grade 8 (Fall Window) and School Pictures are September 19.
Fall BEDS are Due October 30; Preschool Desk Audit is December 15; and K through Grade 12 Desk Audit is December 15.
Job Openings for 2023-2024 at Remsen Site are: JH Wrestling Coach; Elementary Paraprofessional; Substitute Teachers; and Substitute Paraprofessionals.
Brandon Weisert, MMCRU Marcus Principal reported: Last week we celebrated homecoming and hosted our High School Open House in conjunction with our first home volleyball game in Marcus this year. We grilled burgers for our free will donation supper with the proceeds going to support the playground for the new elementary. Our staff grilled 290 burgers and served around 270 people from 3:30 to 7 p.m. with far more than that touring the new facility. We got a lot of great feedback from the community.
Professional development this year will focus on aligning our assessments to the standards and essential skills that we identified last year. Not all standards are created equal and we are shifting our focus into assessing our standards at the level they should be assessed. Our elementary school is still working to refine CKLA and using the new report cards that were developed last school yea. We are in the process of defining what mastery looks like for each skill.
We are hearing great feedback on our CKLA curriculum. Our teachers, especially at the higher grade levels are noticing students being more prepared for their curriculum than last year’s class. This is a great sign that the alignment is there, last year we expected some struggles due to being year 1 and students not having any prior knowledge and experience. Last year’s experience seems to be paying off.
High School Student count: 2019-2020 (No count); 2020-2023 (175); 2021-2022 (190); 2022-2023 (202); and 2023-2024 (207).
Elementary School Student count: 2019-2020 (186); 2020-2021 (160); 2021-2022 (171); 2022-2023 (183) and 2023-2024 (176).
September 19 is Picture Day; September 21 is 1st Quarter Midterm; September 27 is Early dismissal for Professional Development and October 20 is 1st Quarter Ends.
There are no current full time teaching or paraprofessional openings in Marcus. As always we are looking for additional substitute teachers, paraprofessionals and bus drivers.
Superintendent Barkel reported: Please welcome Mr. Joe Mohrhauser to our team tonight as our new School Business Official (SBO). Joe comes very highly recommended by many in our community, and we are fortunate to have him working with us. Next week he will spend some time at the IASBO Fall conference for him to learn more about his new unique position and network with others in his new field of work.
Construction continues on the elementary/daycare area especially in Marcus. The revised date for occupancy of the elementary is early November. We hope it is no later than that so we do not need to fire up the boiler in the old elementary which gave us many difficulties last year. We are also still hoping to tear down the old elementary and do the site work in time to pour the new parking lot/drop off for the elementary/daycare. The high school open house on September 12 was largely successful. The RU HVAC Project is largely complete. EDA Engineering will be doing a “commissioning” on the equipment to make sure everything is working properly. This will also happen at the Marcus site when construction is complete. Courtney Koch of CMBA Architects shared with me that they are planning on bids going out on the RU Building Project sometime in November.
Tonight is our annual organizational meeting where the board approves various roles in the districts.
Just a reminder to the boards that the school board candidate filing deadline is September 21 at 5 p.m. with the board secretary. The deadline for withdrawal from the election is September 26 at 5 p.m.
The RU Board still needs to select a delegate for the IASB Delegate Assembly, or decide not to have representation for the delegate Assembly. The IASB Delegate Assembly votes on issues facing Iowa public schools, and helps set the agenda for the policy arm of the IASB. Usually we have one delegate from each board serve on this body. I shared information with you about the IASB convention that takes place on November 15-17. We encourage as many of you as possible to attend. The district pays for your hotel and expenses. Let me know if you can attend.
The boards need to finalize the Board/District/Superintendent goals for the 2023-2024 school yer. Hopefully tonight we can finalize that list.
MMCRU will be renting the food stand building in the Marcus fairgrounds during the months of November through March to host our junior high and high school wrestling program. Cost is $500/month plus utilities. The fair hoard will pay for the cost of running a permanent water line to the building so there is water access during the winter months.
Thank you to all who visited the high school at our open house on September 12 in Marcus. It was a successful night culminating with the volleyball win over H-LP. We also raised over A$3500 for the Marcus Elementary playground project. Thank you to all who assisted in making the evening a success!
After the aforementioned reports, the Boards went into Exempt session—Quarterly Superintendent Performance & Progress Review.
The Marcus-Meriden-Cleghorn Board of Education met in regular joint session on Monday, September 18, 2023 at 6:30 p.m. at the MMC Board Room. MMC Board Members Present were Staab, Prunty, Olson, and Leavitt. Absent: Dreckman.
RU Board Members Present were Loutsch, Penning, Harpenau, Tentinger, and Krier. Absent: No One.