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Weekly Update: November 30, 2018

 

Dear Board of Education, Staff, Families and Friends,

 

I hope you had a wonderful fall break and are getting back into the routine of school for the upcoming short month that will be filled with student athletic events, concerts, and the start of our facility listening tours.  This week the Board of Education hosted a facilities workshop in which they identified our next steps and activities moving forward. Take a look at the Board Re-cap section in this update!

 

Board of Education Meeting Recap:

The Board hosted a facilities workshop this past week.  They reviewed the proposed plan to use about 4 million of our SAVE dollars in order to fix primary systems.  We will ask the Board to officially approve this at the December 12 school board meeting. Please be aware the items selected to be repaired or replaced are primary systems, which if to fail, would close a building down for students until it could be repaired or replaced such as heating and electrical. The board was provided with needs at each of the five school buildings.  

 

Next the Board committed to the following regarding school facilities:   

1. We are starting over, there is no plan

2. We are committed to find a solution regarding our facility needs.

3. We are committed to gather community feedback and ideas via diverse methods related to our facility needs that will result in a plan based upon community input.

4. We are committed to align our learning environments to our educational goals.

5. We are committed to video stream, or look at solutions to televise any of the facility listening meetings.

6. We are committed to keep an open mind and draw consensus.

7. We are committed to keep the public informed and provide access to meeting minutes from the listening events on an ongoing basis.

8. We are committed to create a chart with question/ answers on our new facilities tab page released today.

9. We are committed to our community members touring our school facilities.

10. We are committed to begin our listening sessions this December and host one at each school site and continue to host additional small group meeting sessions within our community as needed through March.

 

Next the Board identified a few non-negotiables

1. Safety and security with secure entryways included in the plan

2. We have to stay within our parameters of funding or bonding available

3. We have to examine costs for operations as a part of the process

4. We need to have a long term plan

 

The final discussion was related to timeline

1. Listening sessions extended through December-March

2. No consideration of a bond vote during the year 2019

3. Create a community ADHOC committee to review all of the information gathered to vet pro’s and con’s  (Information about the make of this committee will be forthcoming. We are looking for teachers, parents, community members, farmers, city officials, and other community representatives to participate that will consist of approximately 20 members) 

4. Following the ADHOC review, the architect will provide scenarios facility plans and analysis

5. Community members will have an opportunity to participate in a survey to examine options following input from the community and committee

6. This process will be completed during the year of 2019  

 

The first listening tour meeting will be held at Davis Elementary school on Saturday December 15 from 10:00 am-12:00 PM.  We will have the full schedule of the school meetings available next week. There will be a meeting held at each school facility.   We will also be asking several community groups to invite us to join their meeting to gather feedback.

 

Website update:   

There is a drop down tab on the District’s Website Home Page for “starting over 2019”  seen under facilities. Check it out…

 

Mentoring Program:

Wednesday, November 14th, the Grinnell-Newburg Mentoring Program met for their monthly meeting. We also had a special guest, Ash, the GMS therapy dog. For the 2018-19 school year, our beginning educators and mentors are participating in a book study over George Couros' The Innovator’s Mindset: Empower Learning, Unleash Talent, and Lead a Culture of Creativity in addition to their work over the Iowa Teaching Standards.

 

The goals of the mentoring program include the following:

1.         To promote excellence in teaching as described in the Iowa Teaching Standards

2.         To enhance student achievement

3.         To build a supportive environment for beginning educators

4.         To increase the retention of promising beginning educators

5.         To promote the personal and professional well being of classroom teachers

6.         To support continuous improvement and growth of beginning educators and mentors.

 

PE Health Survey

 

Davis Elementary Character Awards:

 

 

2nd Grade Field Trip to the Science Center:

 

Don’t forget to check the Virtual Backpack!

 

One to Watch!!

Coach Sharp is currently at 299 wins! Come watch the Tiger basketball TEAM work together to achieve win 300! The next home game is tonight vs. Oskaloosa at 7:30 or the Tigers play Saturday at 3:30 at Benton Community High School.

 

Upcoming Events:

 

Saturday, December 1

8:30 JV Wrestling Invitational @ West Delaware

10:00 Varsity Boys Swimming Invitational @ Newton YMCA

11:00 Varsity Wrestling Invitational @ West Delaware

2:00 Boys JV Basketball Game @ Benton

3:30 Boys Varsity Basketball @ Benton

 

Monday, December 3

4:30 Middle School Wrestling Meet @ Home

6:30 9th Grade Boys Basketball @ GMG

 

Tuesday, December 4

6:30 Protecting Our Youth From Human Trafficking Presentation @ Drake Library

 

Thursday, December 6

4:15 Middle School Wrestling Meet @ Belle Plaine

4:30 8th Grade Girls Basketball @ Knoxville

4:30 7th Grade Girls Basketball @ Home

5:30 Varsity Boys Swimming Meet @ Des Moines

 

Friday, December 7

4:45 JV Girls Basketball @ Newton

4:45 JV Boys Basketball @ Newton

6:00 9th Grade Boys Basketball @ Newton

6:00 GMS Jazz Band Festival of Trees @ Drake Community Library

6:15 Varsity Girls Basketball @ Newton

7:15 JV Girls Basketball @ Newton

7:45 Varsity Boys Basketball @ Newton

 

Saturday, December 8

10:00 Varsity Wrestling @ Home

11:00 Varsity Boys Swimming Invitational @ Bear Athletic Center

 

Have a wonderful weekend!

 

Sincerely,

 

Janet