Mt. Pleasant Schools work to build online classrooms

BY KARYN SPORY

Mt. Pleasant News

The Mt. Pleasant Community School District is going to be open 24/7, at least digitally.

During the school board meeting on Monday, the board approved continuing use of the school?s learning management system, Canvas. Canvas is a system that allows teachers to organize and manage their instruction. However, board members were concerned that at this point, the system is not being used to its full potential.

?The learning system allows teachers to put their courses online, giving 24/7 access to students and parents,? said secondary technology instructional coach Dave Watts.

Watts said the technology task force looked at replacing the curriculum manager with Canvas, so teachers can compare the curriculum vertically. ?Fourth grade can see what fifth grade and third grade (are doing),? he added.

April Pforts, secondary mathematics instructional coach, said any learning management system is like a virtual classroom and is used by any organization that offers online learning. ?It?s a way for us to put our courses online so our students can access them whether they?re in the class or outside of class,? she said.

However, that wasn?t the only benefit Pforts and the technology task force saw for the system. She explained that having a system, like Canvas, doesn?t just allow a teacher to put their course online, it also helps preserve the district?s curriculum.

?It seems like (when) we lose personnel, we lose some of these vital parts of our curriculum. In this digital age, instead of all of those binders that come around, we can then make master courses (on Canvas) and seal our curriculum in there,? she said.

She continued, ?when teachers create something that?s really, really awesome, we can back that up so we have a hard copy, so that when teachers leave the district and a new teacher comes back in, Dave can go in and put that into the teacher?s course. Then, the students that following year will have access to the curriculum that we had before.?

Pforts added Canvas is user friendly and cost effective. The system costs $7.11 per student. Interim Superintendent Dr. John Roederer said the district is licensed for about 1,700 students, which costs the district between $12,000-$13,000.

?I think we?ve been able to do a lot with it,? added Pforts.

Board President David McCoid said it sounds like the district has not been using the system to its full potential. Board member Dave Christensen agreed and asked if all grade levels were going to be using Canvas, or if elementary students would still be on an older manager system. ?Whether I?m a kindergarten or 12th grade teacher, the district should provide an infrastructure that, in theory, is accessible to parents and their K-12 peers that will talk about curriculum,? he said.

Watts said the 1,700 licenses included all teachers K-12 and students fourth through 12th grade. ?Right now instructional coaches are working on pulling information out of Curriculum Manager and placing it into Canvas courses,? he explained.

High School Principal Todd Leichty added the goal for fall semester 2015 was to have staff build their skills with the system. By the end of the school year, the district hopes to have all coursework in Canvas, have the system fully operational and ready to go for school year 2016/17.

Christensen said he would like to have a more detailed action plan on paper. ?I appreciate what Canvas is suppose to do? (but) it?s of no value unless we use it; it?s just a filing cabinet otherwise,? said Christensen.

The board also briefly discussed membership of the stakeholder groups.

Previously, the board agreed to five stakeholder groups to interview the final superintendent candidates. The various groups will be comprised of parents, community/business members, faculty/support staff/administration, board/central office members, and students.

Roederer said for the parent and community groups, he is hoping to have somewhere between 12 ? 14 members. For parents, the group is targeting members that represent different attendance centers, parents of students of different grade levels and hopefully parents that have several children in multiple grades, as well as diverse. Christensen voiced that he would be in favor of making sure the committee has members representing homeschool and duel enrolled students.

For the community group, Roederer said he hopes to have some cross representation, including individuals that work at businesses like Henry County Health Center, Iowa Wesleyan University or own their own small businesses that might also have children in school.

The student group will be comprised of students from sixth to 11th grade. The faculty, staff and administration group will have representation from each education center and grade level, including two principals and a staff member either in food service, transportation, or building and grounds. Roederer said this would be the largest group and most likely comprised of 17 members.

The application deadline for the superintendent position closed on Friday and Roederer said he received about a dozen complete applications.

The board will begin looking over the applications and narrowing down the candidate pool to the finalist. The district is still looking to hold finalist interviews in February.

The next meeting of the Mt. Pleasant School Board will be Monday, Dec. 28, at 6 p.m., in the media center.