That's a Wrap!

In my final message to the graduating class, I remind our departing students that although the days may appear slow, the years go by fast. I am not certain who first coined the phrase, but a quick Google search attributes the saying to Gretchen Rubin, but there is also reference in a country song! Whatever the case may be the phrase certainly rings true, especially this year. With only three short days remaining it is hard to believe we are wrapping up the 2018-2019 school year! Like you, I wish it was a little bit warmer outside, but after the winter we had this is somewhat of a relief (provided it would just dry up and stop raining). You do remember that cold stretch we had in the middle to late January, right? It seems so long ago!

This will certainly be a school year to remember! Our students achieved great accomplishments and received accolades in numerous disciplines and activities. The learning that has occurred no doubt will serve them well in their future endeavors, whether that be as a first grader next year or as a college freshman. 

For the most part, the formal work of teaching and learning comes to a close. Many of your will use this time to rest, relax, and recharge your batteries before we begin anew in August. By all means, please do so! You have most certainly earned it. However, I caution you to please not entirely disengage over the summer months. Take time to learn a new skill or read a book. Anything to make sure your skills stay sharp, because you will need them again real soon!

The central office will be open during the summer, Monday through Friday during normal business hours. If you are planning a trip to the school on Friday, you are urged to call ahead since I am typically the only one in the office that day. 

Superintendent's Message to the Class of 2019: Get Everything You Can out of Today

Good afternoon Class of 2019! Along with the Board of Directors; I would like to congratulate you. Parents, grandparents and other distinguished guests, welcome to the Hudson Community School District. What an exciting day for our graduating class! This annual rite of passage is a milestone that we are honored to celebrate with these students as they look back with finality on these formative years; and look forward to a future that is yet to be written.

The last couple of weeks have certainly been a whirlwind for all of you. Celebrations of your accomplishment began as early as the first weekend in May and will carry on for the next several weeks. You have experienced your final track meet, music concert, and; a well whole host of finales. Two weeks ago we were thrilled for you during our Senior Awards assembly when you were presented in excess of $600,000 worth of scholarships to begin your post-secondary journey. Then just a few short days ago you experienced a final lunch in our cafeteria. 

All of these events, those of the mundane; and those that highlight your experiences here have been done together as a class. Have you contemplated that today, this very event in fact will be the final time you all gather together? Sure there will be reunions, but regardless of the intentions you make here this afternoon not everyone will attend. I’m a little embarrassed to say that I have been out of high school going on thirty years and have not been a faithful attendant at my own high school reunions. Certainly some of you, many in fact will remain close throughout adulthood. And if we are blessed as a community you will soon return home to raise a family right here. But the fact remains: this is it, your final time together. The passage of time is fast—so abrupt in fact that before you know it, you too will have realized thirty years have gone by. There is a saying that ‘although the days may seem long, the years are short’. Think about it. In spite of our efforts to keep this ceremony at no more than an hour, for you sitting there right now it probably seems like an eternity while you wait to cross this stage. I can see it in your eyes: right now all you want is for me to just stop talking and sit down! Just a couple more minutes please!

I know, right now you are eager to get on with it. You have celebrations to attend and plans to execute—for without a doubt those plans have already been made. Always planning ahead, looking forward to the next item to check off the list. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not faulting you for it, because we all do it! This is the world we live in: goal oriented, checking items off the list, planning for the next opportunity or experience. Our ever evolving world is constantly changing and speeding up. 

Now don’t get me wrong, we certainly are happy that you have your plans set and are eagerly looking forward to your next challenge. The fact is there is probably no one happier that you have a [plan] than your parents. Frankly, they are probably just happy the plan does not include you sleeping in the basement or on the couch for the foreseeable future! I do think it is important though, to make certain that you aren’t sacrificing the enjoyment of this moment while looking for your next great aspiration. Yes! Set goals and look forward to tomorrow. But get everything you can out of today.

So let’s just pause and savor this time together, this fleeting moment that will be gone in the blink of an eye. Look around at your classmates, your parents and your teachers. Feel the weight of this day, this final time together. Think about the relationships you have formed and the thirteen years that have lapsed. Consider the impact everyone gathered has had on your life. What have they done to help prepare you for this day? Reflect on your time here as a student, the memories of your accomplishments, and those events that filled you with great pride. 

I have been giving a similar speech to this one for many years now. Further, I annually attempt to make my remarks unique to the graduating class and tailor my message to those of you (soon to be alumni) sitting directly in front of me. Admittedly this is a challenge because what new advice can I give that I haven’t already? Indeed if you have been a regular attendee at this commencement then you probably hear a regular cadence of phrases and topics. A favorite theme is the idea that we shouldn’t let the past define us, and a cautionary tale that our future employer will care not if we were the lead in the musical or the star on the football team. 

So then, perhaps you are wondering why my focus has thus far been on the past? It is because these experiences, while not defining moments in your lives should be viewed as cherished memories of when you showed your teachers, coaches, and parents just what you are capable of. 

In a few minutes we will confer upon you a diploma from Hudson High School, signed and sealed with the testament you have met the requirements for graduation as established by this Board of Directors and the State of Iowa. You will no longer be under the tutelage of this institution. Most of you will soon depart home for the world that waits. Believe this: the level of competition you are about to experience will increase exponentially, and the stakes—well the stakes couldn’t be higher. In the coming weeks, months and years you will experience success and failure. In this experience called life you will know happiness, sadness, devastation and joy. When the going gets tough, and it will: remember those cherished memories and lessons learned here as a reminder of your toughness, what you are capable of, and of your perseverance. For certain, what you have thus far experienced has not defined you. But it can serve as your motivation and springboard to the world that is eager to experience your contributions. Let everything to this point serve as a foundation on which to build your future.

And for certain look forward to tomorrow. But at the same time get everything you can out of today. Congratulations!

School Boards and Icebergs

According to our most recent employee census, we have 134 people employed by the district. This includes teachers, paraprofessionals, custodians, coaches; anyone who earns a paycheck from the school district. Now to clarify not all of these are full time employees. Many of our coaches are part-time employees who have a passion for a certain sport or activity. At the same time this census doesn't include the folks who mow the grass, maintain clear sidewalks in the winter, or show up in the middle of the night when the boiler alarm goes off. Nonetheless, if you add it all up it is a pretty impressive number of people who are employed in some fashion by the school district.

It takes a lot of people to make sure this pirate ship is properly trimmed and navigating a true course! But the number of employees alluded to in the paragraph preceding does not tell the whole story! The fact is, if we had to rely only on our employees we would often come up well short of completing our mission. Perhaps our pirate ship would run aground!

That's why we rely on the strength and volume of volunteers to help us out. Many of our volunteer opportunities are visible, active and provide our community with a great deal of satisfaction for their service. Some of these groups include our music boosters, athletic boosters, and the parent teacher organization. The work they do in our schools is incredibly important and frankly without them a lot of projects wouldn't be completed, or in some cases wouldn't even be contemplated. These groups often will develop a vision, a plan to bring that vision to reality, and then are able to execute their plan.  

We also have special events where a group of volunteers is necessary to ensure the event goes off without a hitch. The one that comes to mind for me is our track meets. Hudson is known for the fact that we put on a well run and efficient track meet. While this success starts with the meet manager and our professional staff, the execution is all in the number and quality of volunteers. The number of volunteers needed to execute a meet is somewhere north of 60 people! I often cringe when I hear hat one of our track teams returns home from a track meet [somewhere] and it is after 11:00 p.m. on a school night. Ironically enough, I did hear a bit of feedback this year that some of our track meets seemed to go too fast! 

All of these different groups of volunteers and individuals who always answer the phone when we call for help are so important to the work we do. The sum total of our employees, students, volunteers, and parents really are what make this the Hudson Community School District. However, there is one group of people who are equally important that are typically not viewed as volunteers. I am talking about your school board. I think school board members are not usually looked at as volunteers because they are democratically elected. Or perhaps the work they do, although done in the public eye just kind of happens and isn't given much thought. Or the work they do is sometimes viewed as unpopular. 

The fact is, a duly elected member of a school board is the only democratically elected office in the State of Iowa that comes with no pay. By definition that would make them volunteers. From the point of view of a casual observer, service on the school board probably doesn't appear to be very glamorous. Truthfully it is not. I liken the work of the school board to an iceberg. What you see on the surface is deceiving and fails to capture the breadth, scope, or IMPACT of this important work. 

Indeed the work of your school board is done in the public. But to assume a board members work only consists of the hour and a half to two hours spent at a meeting once a month is only viewing the tip of the iceberg. I am uncertain how much time it takes to prepare for a meeting, but to give you an idea of what that looks like, our next board meeting is what I would consider to be routine. The packet of material board members must be prepared to discuss includes 46 exhibits. Many of those exhibits are multiple pages. And the decisions of the board--well those are far reaching and can have implications that are felt years, even decades beyond their current term of service. Consider for example the work being done in Phase III of the elementary renovation project. The beneficiaries of this renovation very well could be felt by our current students' children: or your grandchildren. This work would not have happened without the thoughtful deliberation, planning, and action of the board.

While the school board relies on the advice and counsel of professional staff hired to manage the school district on behalf of the community, the overall responsibility of governing the school corporation rests solely with them. This entails overseeing the fiduciary duties that come with an annual budget in excess of $13 million. At times their work requires the deliberation and execution of difficult and unpopular decisions. Employee discipline and dismissal. Staff reduction. Delaying a hiring decision. These decisions made all the more painful because of the impact they have on their next door neighbor, friend, or even family member. Yes, your volunteer school board does their work in the public eye and from time to time they do hear from the public. Particularly when the decision made is in conflict with the wishes of constituents. 

When a board member concludes their service to the district, I invite them to reflect on their service and consider what decisions they have made over their tenure they are most proud of. More times than not, they comment on the fact they were just happy to serve their community. They didn't choose this work for the paycheck, the accolades, or the phone calls from unhappy constituents. They did so because they wanted to contribute to their community and to their school. They want your children, their children, and our children to have an outstanding education here in the Hudson Community School District.

May is school board recognition month. When you see your school board members in the community, please thank them for their service. 

The Hole in One

In my first class as a high school student I had a social studies teacher who started out the school year with a pretty cheesy ice breaker. He had this list of items on a piece of paper and told everyone in the class that they had to find someone else in the room that matched an experience on the list. I can vividly recall scanning the list and seeing that one of the items was, 'hit a hole in one on the golf course'. Looking around the room at the rest of my freshmen classmates, I knew that none of us had ever done such a thing. Why on earth was something like this even on the list of paper? And then for that matter, why were we even doing this? I had known and grown up with all of these people for what, going on 10 years by now?

Obviously as a  dense fourteen year old it took a few extra moments for it to click. There could only be one person in the room with this type of accomplishment. To this day I am uncertain if Mr. Newland was bragging about his prowess on the golf course or if he was truly breaking the ice and letting us all know he had a passion for golf. (I found out that spring Mr. Newland was also the golf coach so it started to make a bit more sense.) I am not a golfer but people who know more about it than I do continue to tell me it's a pretty big deal to hit a hole in one.

That afternoon not only did I learn Mr. Newland was an avid golfer (and quite good at it (or so he says)), but I also learned he was genuinely interested in getting to know all of us. As those four years went by I recall he also had quite a sense of humor! I can also remember from those early introductory classes Mr. Newland telling us that if he ever started out a sentence with the phrase, "I would remember...." there was a very good (well 100%) chance that little tidbit was going to be on the next test. I went on to take every single class Mr. Newland taught, even an elective course most high school student where I came from simply dreaded: Economics. Truth be told, I wasn't really a stellar student; but I loved this teacher. And he loved his students. He had a passion for his content and an uncanny way of making the material both interesting and accessible. He also carried around this cheap black plastic briefcase that we always used to wonder, 'what does he carry around in that thing'.

Well you all know what happened to me. I went on to become a music teacher. That in part because of the guidance of my music teachers. They were great too, and I have also spoken of them with you here in this very column. What you don't know is that I also contemplated becoming a social studies teacher. Times haven't changed all that much from then to now in terms of the job market for social studies teachers, which could be one of the reasons I chose the route I did. Nevertheless, Mr. Newland instilled in me a deep appreciation and love for history, civics, and government. If you don't believe me, just ask my wife Ann. Many of our vacations center around history, touring battlefields, old houses, and many, many museums.

For all the parents and grandparents out there, can you remember one of your childhood teachers? I'll bet you can recall a favorite teacher or two in your life and perhaps can think if a fun memory of your time in that classroom. I would encourage you to share that memory with your own children and ask them about their teachers.

The point in all this is that we have those teachers right here in our school district. They are connecting with students daily, getting to know them, nurturing them along, and providing sage advice whenever it is appropriate to do so. There must never be any doubt our teachers are helping to mold the minds of your children, who will be our future superintendents, teachers, doctors, and societal leaders. So, when you get a chance during this teacher appreciation week please thank your child's teacher for the work they do on a daily basis on behalf of our community--and for your child. 

Sine Die

Sine Die is the Latin phrase meaning 'to adjourn an assembly for an indefinite period'. Frankly, it is a date that we have looked forward to from the moment the legislature graveled in this past January. That is partially because we spend about as much time advocating for new legislation as we do trying to prevent bad ideas from becoming law! There was plenty of both this year. This first session of the 88th general assembly adjourned 'Sine Die' this past Saturday, April 27th. They were actually able to complete their work a bit early, since the legislators' per diem wasn't scheduled to run out until May 3rd. Nonetheless, as far as legislative sessions go, this one was relatively pain free and productive. Last July, our Board of Directors identified 4 priority areas in which to focus their advocacy efforts. Now that the dust is beginning to settle, we can take stock of how our efforts fared.

Topping the list was the repeal of the 2029 sunset on the statewide penny. You have all heard me talk about the importance of extending SAVE beyond 2029 for the last couple of years, so this all should sound familiar. The SAVE is critically important for school districts because it provides a dedicated funding stream to address facility and infrastructure needs. Whether a district has stable, decreasing, or increasing enrollment; all have infrastructure that needs to be addressed. Absent this revenue source, schools are limited in their ability to repair, build, or renovate schools. Usually the only option is to pass a bond issue, which is often easier said than done. Hudson schools are a great example of a community that has leveraged SAVE in a way that will pay dividends for future generations of students, particularly since our district is poised for growth. Phase III, currently under construction wouldn't be possible without SAVE funds. Further, we know that right around the corner another project will be waiting. Just like a homeowner, our work will never be done. Fortunately this year the sunset was lifted and SAVE was extended to 2051.

A close second in terms of priorities of the board was to ensure a timely and adequate funding package for K-12 education. The final decision on this came on February 13th when the legislature boosted base funding for schools by 2.06%. The term 'adequate' is most certainly subjective and depends on where you live in the state and what your enrollment is doing. Certainly we would have welcomed (and did) advocate for a greater amount, but we'll take it! For Hudson, this meant a boost in base funding of $188,647. This early decision enabled us to move quickly in setting the FY 2020 budget, finishing our contract negotiations with teachers relatively quickly, and getting our faculty and staff in place for 2019-2020. We'll take more of that next year please!

As I stated above, part of our advocacy efforts include preventing bad ideas from becoming law, which is what our third priority focused on: ensuring any choice legislation remains under the sole authority of the school board. The point we are making here, and will continue to make is that any type of funding program that siphons money away from public schools will be resisted. Again this year we saw proposals from both the House and Senate that would institute voucher programs. Fortunately they lack support at this time in both chambers to advance. That doesn't mean they won't be back again next year to take another run at it, because they most certainly will. We will just have to remain vigilant as far as this effort is concerned.

Rounding out our top four is advocacy to increase the current funding for preschools students from .5 to 1.0. Many preschools in Iowa operate half day programs, which is what we operate here in Hudson. Although a relative newcomer to the statewide voluntary preschool program, we certainly can see the value in a full day option, which would be feasible if the funding level was increased for this program. There is no doubt this would be a very heavy legislative lift! If you noticed, it would require a doubling of the funding level for preschool programming. Believe me, we are not wearing rose colored glasses so have a full understanding of the challenges with this proposal. Nevertheless, we do take note preschool funding is getting some positive attention. A proposal to provide funding for five year old students did gain some traction, but unfortunately the legislature simply ran out of time. Basically what this would have done is address a 'gap year' that sometimes happens when a four year old attends preschool for one year but isn't quite ready for kindergarten yet. The way it works now is that those students can attend preschool a second year, but have to pay tuition. I anticipate this will come up again next session and stands a fair chance of gaining approval.

In the final analysis, K-12 public schools fared well. While we certainly didn't get everything accomplished we had hoped for and had to make some concessions and compromises on some issues, we definitely moved efforts forward. We can breathe easy for now: the next session is eight months away!