MP sets goals for upcoming school year

BY KARYN SPORY

Mt. Pleasant News

As the days tick away until the 2016-17 school year begins, Katie Gavin, Mt. Pleasant School District?s Director of Instruction, is setting goals for students, staff and administration.

During Monday night?s school board meeting, Gavin, who took up her post last month, presented the district goals she?s been developing. Of the eight goals, over half of them dealt with teacher recruitment, retention and why faculty decided to either stay or go.

?The first two goals are mentoring induction and retention of staff,? said Gavin.

Another one of the goals is to have a 90 percent retention rate. ?We know we set before us a less than 10 percent turnover for the upcoming year, right now we?re at 11 percent,? said Gavin.

Gavin said this year?s high turnover rate had to do with some faculty members moving out of state, following spouses to new communities, as well as some staff members being hired for instructional jobs within the district. According to the data, the district hired 18 new certified staff for this school year.

In the month that she?s been in the district, Gavin said she and Superintendent John Henriksen have worked very diligently to ?hire well so that we?re not in a turnover mode.?

Gavin said the other component to making sure faculty stay is providing as much support as possible to incoming staff. ?To prevent (turnover) we?re making sure our mentoring induction program is strong,? she said.

Improvements to the teacher induction and mentoring program include a new staff day, which is planned for Aug. 18. ?Administrators will be working on a new staff day, which builds that culture that honors the support and work they?re doing with our students every day,? said Gavin. ?We want to kick that off on the right foot.?

Other goals include allowing teachers to meet as a professional learning community to focus on student achievement, conduct ?stay? interviews for employees who remain in the district, conduct exit interviews for those leaving, evaluate the district?s assessment system and have instructional walk throughs with building administrators.

?We?re biting off small chunks so we build a good foundation,? Gavin said of the goal list.

During the meeting, the board also approved the Iowa Association of School Boards (IASB) 2017 Legislative Priorities. The IASB sent a list of priorities to all of the school districts in Iowa and asked the boards to select four priorities they would like the association to focus on during the upcoming legislative session.

Board member Dave Christensen said the Policy Committee took a look at the 30-some possible priorities and selected teacher leadership, unfunded mandates, the penny sales tax and three-year term limits for school board members as the most important for Mt. Pleasant.

?We focused on which ones were the most local control,? he said.

The penny sales tax is set to expire in 2029. Earlier this year, Gov. Terry Branstad presented a plan to extend the penny sales tax, if a portion went toward water quality. ?The original intent, the state promised to always keep the penny sales tax for schools, we agree with that,? said Christensen.

Christensen said during the discussions, the policy committee acknowledged that Iowa probably does the most with technology than most states and that?s due to the penny sales tax, which in the Mt. Pleasant School District has funded the 1:1 initiative as well as upgrading the network, which was approved during Monday?s meeting.

?This is because of the penny sales tax,? said Christensen. ?California spends billions on education, but they are no where near the tech level of Iowa, except for a few isolated areas.?

In other business, the board approved a $15,000 contract with Melaney Quereto, school nutrition specialist, to provide oversight for the district?s food services. Last year, the food service director quit and instead of filling the position, three employees stepped up and have shared the directors duties. Henriksen said the employees had asked for some oversight and guidance on a few aspects of the job. Before approval, Henriksen said the contract would still be less than what a director?s salary would be.

On Monday, the board also approved a 28E agreement with Young House Family Services and Christamore Family Treatment Center. The contract includes providing one special education teacher, textbooks and supplies and payment to Young House Family Services for two teachers, textbooks and supplies. The contract is similar to that of previous years.

The next regular meeting of the Mt. Pleasant School Board will be Sept. 12, 2016, at 6 p.m., at the High School Media Center.