School Board Convention
On Wednesday and Thursday of this week, I was able to accompany some of our school board members to Des Moines to attend the Iowa Association of School Board's Convention. This is a great learning experience for board members to improve their skills as board members. This year, the New Hampton Board was awarded a "Team Achievement Award" for the learning activities they've completed over the past year.
They were one of nine boards out of 367 school districts in the state of Iowa to receive this award. They've devoted some of their personal time and we've taken some time at the board table to improve their skills and knowledge as board members. They have received no compensation for this and do it just to make themselves better board members. In addition, when we attend the school board convention they usually have to take vacation or personal days from their place of employment in order to attend. This is one way that really shows their commitment to our district.
I'm sure you're wondering what do they learn at the convention and what other things have they done to improve their learning. At the convention this year, they learned about school safety and the various threats that exist in schools. This will help them as they review and approve the district's "Crisis Plan" that we are currently revising and updating. One of the things that stood out to me was the focus that schools place on preparing for active shooters. This is an important thing and we are doing things to make sure we are prepared, but there are other safety issues that are much more likely to happen in a school that could cause harm to our students and staff. These are things that may or may not have been in our previous plan, but I'm sure didn't receive enough emphasis. The board now has the knowledge to know what questions to ask and what to look for to make sure we are covering all areas of safety and not just what has been in the news. They also attended sessions on school finance so they learn about things to look for that may be overlooked by boards or not presented clearly by the superintendent. They also learn about what to question and why it's important to not just go with what the superintendent says, but to make sure they understand why something is the way it is. Finally, they get a chance to see what other schools and districts are doing across the state and nation and how it compares to what we're doing here and what may be appropriate here.
Our board members are dedicated to doing the best they can for our students, staff, and community. They do all of it on a volunteer basis. If you see one of our board members, I would encourage you to ask them about the convention. I'm confident they will have a lot to share.
Future Ready Iowa
On Tuesday, I attended the Future Ready Iowa Regional Summit in Cedar Falls with some of our staff members. If you're not familiar with Future Ready Iowa, I encourage you to check out their website at www.futurereadyiowa.gov . This is the "top priority" of Governor Reynolds to meet the future workplace needs of our state.
The goal is to have 70% of our workforce with some sort of post-secondary credential by 2025. This may be a 4 year degree, 2 year degree, or even some type of training certificate. The basis for the goal is that is what will be needed by our employers based on current projections. As the following chart shows, the most help is needed in the middle skill occupations. 54% of the jobs from that time period were middle skill jobs, but only 34% of the workers have these skills. High skill workers are matching the available jobs pretty closely, but the low skill workers far exceed the available low skill jobs. That is the target group.
This is for the entire state, what does this look like for Northeast Iowa?
It's not exactly the same data, but it gives you an idea of where we are. First, 58% of Iowans have some type of education or training beyond high school. Here in Northeast Iowa it's 53%. In the next area, you can see our region needs an additional 21,800 individuals to attain these credentials in order to meet the goal. An interesting note, the largest area that will need these additional skills is the 25 and older group with no postsecondary educational experience. If you want to know more about the data and a lot of additional information, you can check it out here in the Future Ready Iowa Workbook.
Other Stuff
The building project continues on. They are installing the kitchen panels on Friday and looking to come back Saturday to install the Vocational Agriculture/Industrial Tech areas. Because of the snow in the forecast, it looks like they will be doing the Ag/IT panels on Monday. The roofers are going full speed to get the roof fully done and there is a lot going on every day. If they do the AG/IT panels on Monday, the driveway will be closed all day.
Finally, Monday night is our monthly board meeting. I will be posting the agenda and all additional materials to this website later this afternoon. Please take some time to check it out. You may also sign up for an account and you will be notified anytime there is an upcoming meeting. Or, you may simply click on the link to this month's board meeting in the upper left corner of the page. These are usually posted to go live around 5 p.m. on Fridays. There is a lot going on with our district, but we have the board, staff, and students to handle it all. Go Chickasaws!
