School Performance Profiles and Building Update

School Performance Profile

This week, the Iowa Department of Education released School Performance Data for each public school in the state.  You can find the information here.  They look at a variety of data elements to come up with a score for each building level.  Some of the data items they look at include: Graduation Rate, Reading and Math Achievement, Conditions for Learning, Assessment Participation and Growth in Math and Reading.  They put all of that information in a formula and come up with an overall number or score for each building.  New Hampton Elementary had an overall score of 57.55,  New Hampton Middle School had an overall score of 56.61, and New Hampton HIgh School had an overall score of 57.08.  The state average for all buildings is 54.91.  It's great that we are above the state average and shows that overall our students are getting a good education.  

However, it's important to note that the New Hampton Middle School Building has been identified as a building needing Targeted Assistance.  This is because our Students with Disabilities (or IEP students) perform significantly below our other students.  Below is a chart that shows the Reading and Math Growth of our Low Socio-Economic Status students along with the Growth of our Students with Disabilities.  

The black dot on the chart represents the state average for students with disabilities and our students are coming up short in the growth they are making.  In order to address this, our middle school staff is putting together a team that will analyze this data much deeper to identify what the issues are and then make a plan to address it and help make sure all of our students are making adequate growth.  Like most things, there are always challenges that come up.  This is one of them, but I know our staff can handle this.  

Building Update

Things are continuing to progress nicely.  All of the walls on the upper floor are framed and ready to go.  The electricians are doing the wiring and the plumbers are installing the heating/cooling units and the masons are installing some brick on the front entrance.  In addition, the gym roof is installed and they are now heating the gym and locker room areas to dry them out to prepare them to pour concrete.  

They are expecting the windows to start going in sometime during the second week of January and then everyone will be able to see the progress.  They are still planning to be done in June.  It's exciting to see the changes each week.  

As the first semester comes to an end I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.  It's an honor and a privilege to be a part of such an awesome community like New Hampton and to lead two outstanding districts.  Happy Holidays and I will see you next year!  

From the Middle: 1st Semester Wrap up

Project Based Learning in the Content Area: 

Our teachers have been working hard to implement Project Based Learning into the classroom.   We have highlighted several of the units students have participated in since the beginning of the school year. Our second semester will have more PBL opportunities for students including Midmester.  Midmester will take place February 7- February 22nd.  Please mark your calendars for Presentation night on February 22nd from 4-6 pm in the Middle School.  Below are some other content PBL units teachers have been working on:

Teachers:  Mrs. Geerts, Mrs. Laures, Mrs. Quirk

Topic:  Jet Toy Activity

Driving Question: How can you design, develop, and sell a balloon-powered toy made from inexpensive, common materials that will appeal to children?

Project Summary:  Students learn about science, math, and writing in this unit. Students learn about how to collect data and compute speed. Daily reflection and writing personal goals are important in this unit. Students were given directions to build a jet toy, but then have to come up with a unique design by applying what has been learned during this class. The final step is to market the new toy and be able to sell it to others.

Teachers:  Mrs. Scott, Mrs. Bear, Mrs. Brincks

Topic:   Graphing Stories

Driving Question:  Can you design a video to help students learn to sketch a graph that represents a function?

Project Summary:  Students worked to design a video that included a short skit followed by a graph that measures variables represented in the skit.  They chose a variable that could easily be measured by their audience.  The video needed to include a short clip of the variable to be measured, the video shown at real speed, the video repeated at half speed and a final clip of the graph that shows the variable that they chose to measure.

Tell your story

If you have not yet picked up on New Hampton Community School District hashtag yet #NHTribe, please join us in telling our story.  This summer I went to a speaker who talked about that what you put out there is a reflection of yourself and what is going on.  If you are not putting anything out there, people will make up the story for you.  It made myself and other administrators in the district think about, are we letting parents/community know all the wonderful things happening in our district/building?

As teachers reflected about this, they have also started to share more with parents about what is taking place in the classroom through various ways, Twitter, Facebook, SeeSaw, Remind App, etc. 

Please ask your classroom teachers if you are not aware what social media they are using to see all the amazing things happening at the school.  Search for hashtag #NHtribe on Twitter and see the all the district postings of things taking place.  Follow the below Facebook pages to see each building and the district page.  Thanks for helping us tell our wonderful story! What is your story you want to tell!

https://www.facebook.com/NewHamptonCommunitySchools/
https://www.facebook.com/NewHamptonElementary/
https://www.facebook.com/NewHamptonMiddleSchool/
https://www.facebook.com/NewHamptonHighSchool/

Finals at NHHS/Upcoming Networking and Opportunity Fair/Celebrating Each Other

Finals at NHHS

We are in the final push of the semester leading up to finals next Thursday and Friday.  Some reminders during those two days:

• Open campus for all students, quiet space is available in the library and cafeteria for study
• Hallways are closed during testing time
• You may not enter a test late
• Opt out information will be available Tuesday morning
• The coffee bar held by the PBIS student team and sponsored by Kwik Star will be open during all finals outside the cafeteria

Below is the schedule for testing times:

2 day Finals Schedule, December 2018

Dec 20 Dec 21

8:15- 9:15 Period 1 Period 6

9:30-10:30 Period 2 Period 7

10:45-11:45 Period 3 Period 8

11:45-12:45 Lunch Lunch

1:00-2:00 Period 4 Make Ups

2:15-3:15 Period 5

Upcoming Networking and Opportunity Fair

The Greater New Hampton area NICC Business Sector Board spent time this fall pitching a marketing plan to Iowa BIG North including an idea to bring businesses into New Hampton and Turkey Valley high schools in a more intentional way than a career fair.  The outcome has been the upcoming Networking and Opportunity Fair.

On February 27th from 9-11:30 the NICC initiative students are hosting an event that includes speed interviewing, business and industry panels, and intentional networking for 11th and 12th graders in both districts.  Students will be preparing the next couple months to ensure that they have researched job opportunities, polished resumes, and built questions around their interest area.  Look forward to more updates!

Celebrating Each Other

The holiday season and the end of the semester can be a tough time for students and adults alike.  Although we are serious about buckling down for finals, we also want to celebrate the season and each other.  As you see above, we are providing a coffee bar during finals and we also have our Ugly Holiday Sweater event this Friday. In addition, we have started "Pass the Pig" this week among high school staff to show anonymous appreciation for each other.

You will also see decorated doors throughout the building that will be judged by students.  Keeping a positive vibe not only helps days go quickly, but adds to the comfort level of all in the building.  What are you doing to build up those around you, children and adults alike?

Wrestling Room and Building Project Update

Wrestling Room

There's been a lot of rumors and talk about whether the district is building a new wrestling room or not as part of the new building.  Hopefully, this will clear up some of the questions.  First, a wrestling room wasn't included as part of the original project.  There are several reasons for this, but the primary one was the district was worried the addition of the wrestling room may have caused the bids to come in higher than the funds that we had available.  In addition, one of the optional items that was included in the initial bidding was an enlarged gymnasium.  The primary bidding documents included a competition gym that was larger than our current gym, but not as large as we would like.  To address this, we included an option for a slightly larger gym to provide more seating and generally more space on the floor.  This was an option as we didn't know how the bids would come in, but we wanted to get the most bang for our buck.  Fortunately, the bids came in lower than expected and we were able to do some options.  What about the wrestling room?  

The board was presented with options to expand the Vocational Agriculture/Industrial Technology room or add a wrestling room to the project.  On March 27, 2018 a special board meeting was held.  Following extensive discussion, the board voted not to make any decision on using the potential extra funds or adding on to the project until the project is complete or nearly complete and the board knows exactly or nearly exactly how much money they may have available before deciding what to do with it.  They didn't say yes or no to a wrestling room or Voc Ag/Ind.Tech Addition.  They simply said let's not make any decision until we're sure how much money we will have available.  At that time, there hadn't been any concrete poured yet or anything, so they didn't know how many change orders they would have and what the final amount available would be.  They were being good stewards of the taxpayer dollars.  Good progress is being made on the building, but there is still a long way to go and who knows what may come up.  

At the April board meeting representatives from the FFA Alumni group asked permission from the school board if they could attempt to raise funds privately to expand the Voc Ag/Ind. Tech. Building.  Through many generous donors and two large donations from ATEK Industries and NICC, they raised enough to expand that facility without the board having to use any of the project funds to do so.  Frankly, that takes one thing off the table that may have competed with the wrestling room project.  There has been no other discussion by the board on doing or not doing a wrestling room since the March 27th meeting.  They have never said or discussed not doing a wrestling room or anything else with any extra funds that may remain after the project is complete.  I am going under the direction that we will bring this up again when the project is finished and we know exactly how much funding is left over.  I would estimate this will be some time between next April and June.   

Where am I at with this?  First and foremost, I believe the wrestling program should be housed in our facility.  There is no doubt it creates issues for the student-athletes leaving practice at the CWC and going out into the cold when they are so hot and sweaty in the middle of the winter.  In addition, it's our program, they compete in our facility, their practice room should be here.  A new wrestling room would be a wonderful addition to our facility and the board had the foresight to do the earth work to minimize costs if and when one is added whether it's after this project or some point in the future.  The site is ready to go.  However, what if there isn't enough money left after the project is complete or something else comes up that needs immediate attention?  I'm looking at other options to get them in our facility.  Again, these options would involve spending project money, and I've been directed by the board to wait until the project is complete or nearly complete so they know precisely how much money will be available.  

In the end, the board hasn't held any further discussions on the wrestling room and certainly no decisions have been made one way or the other on what to do with any excess funds that may be left over after the project is complete.  Stay tuned until next spring as that's when the discussion will likely start.  

Building Project Update

Just a few notes on the project.  The middle school classrooms are now enclosed and they are installing the stud walls on the upper level.  The lower level is being prepped to pour concrete down there sometime in the coming weeks.  They are finalizing the roof installation on the locker rooms and will be moving to get the final roof layers on the gym and cafeteria areas.  Once those areas are enclosed, they will move to the AG/IT building.  They are making a lot of progress, but it's not quite as apparent with everything enclosed.  Here's  a picture of the inside of the building.  

It's hard to believe, but they plan to be substantially complete within 6 months.  Stay tuned for more updates.  

From the Middle: RC Car Challenge PBL

Project Based Learning in the Content Area: 

Ms. Remmen is a special education teacher at New Hampton Middle School.  She chose to pursue a PBL project with students during study hall to work on problem solving skills and how things worked.  This group of students is interested in RC cars, how they are made, and how they work.  Students made video diaries as they progressed through the project.  Each day they reflected on how well they did and what the next steps will be for the following class period.  Students then learned about the different components as they took the car apart and how they worked.  The end goal is to be able to build a RC car and have it function.  Many students have broken cars and they will now be able to fix them.

Topic:  RC Car Challenge

Driving Question: Can I build an RC Car from scratch?

Project Summary:  Students will conduct research online and interview experts to explore the basics of how remote control vehicles work. Students will then collaborate with each other and outside sources to see if they can build their own RC Car from scratch. Students will document the process as they work and create a google slide presentation to share with others upon completion of the project.

Building Update/Choice Is Important

Building Update

The 5-12 addition, new gym and Ag/IT building have walls up and are within days of having roofs.  That makes it incredibly difficult to see what is happening inside.  I assure, you neat stuff is happening behind these walls. I was able to walk through the inside with Mr. Jurrens and Mr. Manson this week to see the work in progress.  Please check my twitter and/or the High School Facebook page for videos.  Excuse the audio as I get really excited when I see what is happening.  Aside from rooms getting wall upstairs, the Commons and gym are taking form very quickly.  I am amazed at how large the Commons is--- probably twice the size of our current high school cafeteria and the natural light that will fill that room will be a great highlight for a space used both by students and the community.

Choice Is Important

An important part of student-centered classroom is the use of choice for students to guide their own learning. The easiest place to see this in during hands on courses.  This week Ms. Nelson and Ms. Voigt from Luther College are working with Art 1 students on being comfortable with choice. 

Students were given instruction on a pinch pot and then given freedom to make a crazy critter out of that pinch pot using clay materials.  One of the aspect of this project that pushes students is the opportunity to fail forward regarding what will work and what will not work with clay.  Although students find this frustrating at times, it also leads to deeper learning. They figure out what works and the working memory holds this much longer that hearing or seeing information.