As the Economy Goes - So Goes Our School Budget

The recent economic downturn in our states economy and that at the federal level may have a significant impact upon our ability to retain personnel and programs in the Rock Valley School System in the future. During the past fiscal year nearly $62,303 (including Phase I) was trimmed by our governor in an across the board cut impacting all Iowa public schools. Further, increased labor costs and general budget costs have increased nearly $165,000 over that same period of time. The Rock Valley Community School District also anticipates that we will receive an additional across the board cut in the current fiscal year – however, this cut could be significantly larger than last years cut in state aid.

While it is true that the federal stimulus dollars have backfilled some of this downturn in economic conditions and across the board cuts, most administrators in the State of Iowa are very concerned about the effect of long-term cuts and FY 11. In particular, they are worried because the federal stimulus dollars will stop being distributed to public school districts in FY 10 and the State of Iowa will be left trying to come up with money to cover promised school revenues increases for FY 09, FY 10 and FY 11. Frankly speaking, not many expect the State of Iowa to be in any position to make up prior fiscal revenue commitments – thus the school districts will be left without their planned increase in revenue which pays for salary increases, general budget increased costs and categorical funding increases.

Historically, public school districts have been resilient institutions. Further we have weathered the storm many times before; however, we are facing unprecedented economic times which may impact our ability to provide the educational product that we have come so used to providing in the Rock Valley Community School District. In the future this might mean that we may need to consider possible cutbacks in course offerings and/or personnel.

Parents Can Learn About the Iowa Core Curriculum

Recently, the Iowa Department of Education announced the launch of a new Iowa Core Curriculum website at www.corecurriculum.iowa.gov. The purpose of the official Iowa Core Curriculum site is to help Iowa parents and all citizens learn more about the state-wide academic expectations for kindergarten through 12th-grade students. The website offers a look at the skills and concepts all Iowa students must know under the Iowa Core Curriculum, signed into law by Governor Culver in 2008. This includes concepts and skills in literacy, math, science, social studies, and 21st century learning skills (civic literacy, financial literacy, technology literacy, health literacy, and employability skills). Parents will be able to do customized searches by academic area or by grades.

Superintendents, principals, and other education leaders in Iowa are currently receiving training on how to implement the Iowa Core Curriculum, which must be fully put into practice in high schools by 2012-2013 and in kindergarten through eighth grades by 2014-2015. Iowa’s area education agencies and the Iowa Department of Education have collaborated to provide this training. This cooperation will continue as districts begin to provide professional development directly to teachers on the Iowa Core Curriculum and supportive teaching strategies.

For background information on the Iowa Core Curriculum, please visit the Iowa Department of Education’s website at www.iowa.gov/educate and click on “Iowa Core Curriculum” on the left-hand side of the page.

New Teachers Receive Training

Rock Valley Community School District recently welcomed three new teachers to the school district staff. They are: Christine Blenner - Science, David Vonk - Elementary and Cody Van Sloten - Elementary. Training sessions were held in regard to school district expectations, classroom management and new teaching strategies. Further, the new teachers were treated to a noon luncheon with school board members .

The objectives of the two days of training are to help the new teachers develop successful classroom strategies, improvement instructional efforts, increase student achievement and to be successful as a teacher within the Rock Valley School District.

New teachers will continue to receive additional training during their first year in the school district. Each new teacher is assigned an experienced mentor-teacher to facilitate their personal growth.

Community Provides Input

One important aspect of having a public school is to seek input from your constituents. With that thought in mind the Rock Valley Community Schools recently held a School Improvement Community Meeting (July 17, 2009). Community members developed a consensus on the following items that they would like to see our school district work on:

At the elementary level, the Rock Valley Community School District will:

• continue to work on decreasing the amount of students in the non-proficient areas of math, science and reading
• work on developing academic and social home/school connections
• make a concentrated effort to provide keyboard instruction
• develop writing applications that use real life situations

At the middle school level, the Rock Valley Community School District will:

• continue to work on decreasing the amount of students in the non-proficient areas of math, science and reading
• keep up with technology improvements and needs
• improve building level communication to parents
• improve scheduling (regarding 4 year plans)
• improve plans to deal with anti-bullying and harassment

At the high school level, the Rock Valley Community School District will:

• continue to work on decreasing the amount of students in the non-proficient areas of math, science and reading
• improve college preparatory classes
• improve plans to deal with anti-bullying and harassment

If you have questions or comments please feel free to contact me - we are always trying to improve!

Iowa Core Curriculum

It is truly an exciting time in the Rock Valley School District as the Iowa Core Curriculum (ICC) shows incredible promise for our students and other students across the State of Iowa.

The ICC is a guide for teaching and learning that identifies the essential skills and concepts students in kindergarten through 12th grade need to master in order to succeed in today's technology-rich, global economy. High schools must implement the Iowa Core Curriculum by 2012 and K-8 grades must implement this curriculum by 2014.

The Rock Valley Community School District began working on this curriculum during the 08/09 school year and further work will take place over the next several school years. Our school district envisions the development of stronger standards, assessment and accountability policies that lead to greater achievement gains in students. Further, we hope to develop more rigorous curriculum within our academic content areas that lead to high expectations of our students.

The Rock Valley Board of Education has committed significant resources to this project and anticipates that the long-term results will show a marked improvement in student achievement thus preparing our students for tomorrow's jobs.

Rock Valley School Board Recognition Week, May 10-16

As citizen leaders, school board members face complex and demanding challenges. Yet few people fully understand the scope and far-reaching implications of board members’ responsibilities. All Iowa citizens should recognize the vital contributions of these men and women and focus attention on the crucial role these elected public officials play in the education of our children. Their job is to establish a vision for the education program, design a structure to achieve that vision, ensure schools are accountable to the community and strongly advocate continuous improvement in student learning. That job entails an endless string of meetings and school functions to attend; reams of reports, agendas, proposals and other information to read and study; and a host of difficult decisions to make.

School board members come from all walks of life. They are farmers, travel agents, farm machinery salesman, bankers, and business owners, to name a few.

Athough they wear many hats in the workday world, school board members put on a collective hat when they get down to the business of leading their school districts. Board members must pull together as a team toward a common goal—helping students achieve. Though they may individually disagree on certain issues, their role as a board is to consistently strive toward that goal.

Board members contribute thousands of hours each year leading their districts. Whether it be crafting policies, hiring top-notch administrators, listening to staff and student concerns or recognizing outstanding programs, board members always keep their eyes on the goal of student achievement.

 The time spent in board meetings represents just a small fraction of the hours school board members spend leading in their districts. They also work hard at seminars and training sessions to keep abreast of the latest trends in educational leadership, are deeply involved in community activities and spend many hours in the schools and at extracurricular events.

In recognition of the dedicated service of Iowa school board members, May 10-16 has been designated School Board Recognition Week. This is a time to show our appreciation and begin to better understand how school board members work together to provide a better future for our children. Join with others from throughout our district and state to salute the men and women who provide grassroots governance of public schools. Make a special effort to tell each school board member that his or her hard work has been noticed and is truly appreciated.

In the Rock Valley Community School District the following citizens serve as school board members:  Al Vermeer, President, Mary Pat Miller, Vice-President, Scott Kooima, Board Member, James Van Veldhuizen, Board Member, and Terry Van Mannen, Board Member. Dennis Mozer, Superintendent of Schools.  Randy Taylor is the school board secretary and treasurer.  Their efforts and belief in our educational system make a difference in the way the Rock Valley School District educates its students.

Latino Focus Group

On Monday, February 16, 2009, the Rock Valley Community School District held a Latino Community Focus Meeting. Six people were present at this meeting. The meeting was quite productive in that we started conversations that will be ongoing in regard to the educational opportunities available for our students as well as their parents.

The follow are some of the topics that were discussed:

• Mr. Mozer's position and responsibilities as the school superintendent
• Mrs. Luevano's ESL position and the ESL program
• Latino Parental Involvement: We discussed the level of involvement and we discussed ways in which we can improve this area
• Parents must understand that the success that their child will have depends unquestionably on their level of involvement in their children's education
  
• As a school, we need to look for ways to ensure that parents know what we offer so that their students can take 100% advantage of the learning opportunities available to them
• There is a need for more information for parents and students regarding post-secondary educational opportunities for minority students

We would like to thank everyone who was able to meet with us. We look forward to more meetings similar to this in the future. Please do you part in spreading the word that we are interested in the parents thoughts and comments concerning the education of their child as well as providing opportunities to be involved in their education both in and out of school. In conclusion, we must work together as a team of parents, teachers and students to provide the best education possible for our students!

Schools Reveal Quality in Subtle Ways

How can you recognize a quality school? There are no flashing lights, no banners, and no loudspeakers announcing this distinction. There are, however, other more subtle signs.

First, start with your own child. How does he like school? Is she happy and well adjusted? Does he have friends? Do her standardized test scores (Iowa Tests of Basic Skills) indicate progress over previous years? Finally, how are his grades?

Once you have answered these questions, look at your child’s school. Quality schools start with good staffing at all levels. These schools set high academic standards and provide the ongoing staff development to ensure that their teachers maintain that special teaching edge in the classroom, and they evaluate teacher performance based on rigorous guidelines.

Quality schools are proud of student achievement as reflected on the scores of the norm-referenced, standardized tests that are taken annually. Typically a quality school will score ten or more points above the 50th percentile in all subject areas.

Another sign of quality schools is that they rarely use social promotion as a means to move students between grades. Instead, these schools rely on mastery of subject matter to promote students to the next grade. They also provide for early intervention when students falter and offer tutoring, mentoring, remediation, and summer school as alternatives to student retention.

In a quality school, technology is viewed as a valuable educational tool that is used to enrich, remediate and introduce new ideas and concepts. It provides students with a window to the world through which they can soar on the wings of their imaginations. The quality school also believes in the fine arts as an important learning resource. In such a school fine arts are used to teach critical thinking skills, to build self-esteem, to develop self-discipline, and to provide children with different learning styles as alternatives to more traditional approaches. 

What is a quality school? It is a school that offers a well-rounded curriculum with a commitment to high academic standards while providing a caring atmosphere that uses a wide variety of instructional approaches to reach and teach every individual student. In such a school, students feel safe and secure and achieve success with a staff that is well trained and dedicated to learning. If you have questions about these important issues or anything else concerning your child’s education, you should call your Rock Valley Building Administrator at 476-2701. 

Design of Rock Valley Schools New Facility Earns National Exposure

The National School Board Association will showcase the design of the new Rock Valley School District library, renovated middle school and elementary at its annual convention in San Diego on April 4-7, 2009. The Association represents the nation’s 95,000 school board members that govern 14,800 local school districts.

A jury of three members selected by the NSBA members and two members of the American Institute of Architects in Alexandria, VA, selected the project in late January. The entries were judged on the following criteria: response to the educational program, organization of instructional areas, flexibility, technological systems, community use, site development, and over-all presentation.

The additions and renovations to the Rock Valley School, which were completed during the fall of 2008, included a 56,364 sq. ft. new elementary and library facility. These additions and renovations replaced the Rock Valley School District’s elementary school and located the district’s pre-K -12 program into one building. The expansion project included new elementary classrooms in a traditional corridor floor plan. Priority was given to day lighting with 12 linear feet of window area in each classroom. Also, translucent clerestory windows provide day lighting to the school’s new commons area. The media center features a barrel roof design with day lighting provided by similar translucent clerestory windows. A limestone band follows the building’s original design to provide a seamless exterior look.

The architect team for the Rock Valley facility was Foss, Englestat and Heil, Sioux City, Iowa. Current board members for the school district are: Al Vermeer, Mary Pat Miller, Scott Kooima, James VanVeldhuizen and Terry VanMaanen. Past school board members who worked on this facility project were: Kevin Boeve and Gary Miller. Dennis Mozer is the Superintendent of Schools.

New Middle and High School Principal Selected

The Rock Valley Community School District will have a new Middle and High School Principal when the 2009-2010 school year begins next fall. Selection committees consisting of parents and community, students, staff, administrators and the Rock Valley School Board helped select Nicole Salazar to fill the principal position vacated by the retirement of David Meylink.

Nicole is currently a Spanish teacher and coach in the West Central Valley School District in Stuart, Iowa - a district of nearly 1,100 students. She has been teaching high school for eleven years and will have a Master of Arts in Education Degree from Viterbo University, LaCrosse, WI. Her Bachelor of Arts is in Spanish Education and is from the University of Northern Iowa. Nicole’s professional experience, other than classroom instruction includes: using CRISS and differentiated teaching strategies, BEST mentorship, facilitating staff meetings and professional development, implementing attendance codes and senior honors seminars, beginning a Spanish Club and facilitating five student trips abroad. Nicole has indicated that her professional mission will be to “lead, motivate, inspire, and create an educational environment for students to obtain an education that exceeds others.”

Ms. Salazar grew up on a farm in the Hartley area and is familiar with northwest Iowa culture and values. In college, she was involved in sports, choir, band, and student government. Nicole and her family plan to move to Rock Valley sometime during the summer months.

Dennis Mozer, Superintendent of Schools, indicated that Nicole was selected from a very strong pool of nearly thirty-five applicants and was chosen for this position based upon her professional strengths which include: enthusiasm, thoughtful decision making, strong work ethic, organization, positive change agent, bilingual skills, quality and compassionate classroom teacher and resiliency. Mr. Mozer went on to say, that “We are very excited to have a quality applicant such as Nicole on our administrative staff. We look forward to working with Nicole, as we address the changing landscape of public education. We are certain that Nicole can help lead and direct our school district as we educate all students.”