Closings, Delays, and Cancellations

Last week I met with the National Weather Service out of Des Moines to discuss the upcoming winter weather season. During inclement weather, school superintendents rely on the resources provided by the service to help make decisions regarding changes to the school day. These services include bulletins, webinars, and direct line communication to the meteorologists. The purpose of our meeting was simply an opportunity for them to hear feedback on the quality of their service and to see if I found it helpful. Sure it's helpful. The fact is, I rely on those reports quite a bit. However, had I known it would have foreshadowed what I found in my backyard this morning, I may have declined their offer: 

Yep, it's October 29th and that is our first measurable snowfall of the year. When I went to bed last night it was snowing a bit. Luckily the weather forecast did say this snow wouldn't stick to the roads and schools would not have to  make any changes to their schedules for today. Nonetheless, according to the forecast, we could see another measurable amount on Halloween. I kind of feel bad for the kids that are going to be out for 'trick or treat' that night. Most of those costumes aren't built for cold weather! 

This early arrival of winter is a good opportunity to remind everyone to please sign up for our text and email service for weather related school announcements. You can sign up by going to our website and scrolling to the very bottom of the page: 

You can either select to receive a text alert or an email (if you want to sign up twice, you can get it in both versions if you like). Whenever a school wide announcement is made regarding weather, the very first posting is through this system. So if you want to know about a closing, delay, or cancellation even before the news, sign up right here! Following that, we post to all media outlets. I would also encourage you to please refrain from calling any of the offices. During these events, the office staff is typically very busy making last minute arrangements for buses, rides, or they simply don't know the answer to your question because a decision hasn't been made yet. 

Let's hope this mornings snow wasn't a sign of things to come!

School Board Election

Service on the local school board is perhaps one of the most thankless jobs in public service. Consider this: of all the elected offices one can choose to run for, a seat on the school board is the only one that doesn't come with a salary. Instead, it oftentimes comes with a plethora of complaints! Class sizes are too large. The teachers are mean. The administration makes awful decisions. Why on earth are they teaching 'that' in math class? The list goes on and on, and if you ask your school board members, they may have even more examples. 

But at the same time, in my opinion, there is no better example of seeing our democratic form of government in action than the local school board. How much of what happens in Washington truly impacts your everyday lives? Now how much of what happens at your local school district impact your daily lives? I contend school board service is rich, rewarding, and an enormous responsibility. Indeed, it is a very exciting time for our school district as we execute plans and prepare for a future that includes projected enrollment growth, significant improvements to our facilities, and the opportunity to cement our place as an educational destination in the Cedar Valley. We are on our way! It is within that context that I introduce to you the following candidates for the school board. Your vote counts. Don't forget to vote on November 5!

Dave Ball, (Incumbent President of the Board) Candidate for School Board

Dave Ball

Dave is finishing his first term on the Hudson Board of Directors and is excited to be running for a second term and continue to be involved in the great progress the district is making. Originally from Dubuque, Iowa Mr. Ball graduated from Wahlert Catholic High School and served 3 years in the U.S. Army. Post-secondary education includes: Associate of Arts from Kirkwood Community College, Bachelor of Arts in Sociology/Political Science from Mount Mercy University and Master of Arts in Educational Leadership and Public Policy from Iowa State University. For the past 28 years he has worked in higher education with 15 of those years spent currently at Hawkeye Community College as the Director of Admissions, Student Life and Athletics. 

Dave and his wife Lisa moved to Hudson 11 years ago and have three adult children. Ryan is an administrator for Humana Insurance Corporation, Emily is Associate Director of Economic Development for the City of Marion and Drew is an attorney in Chicago.

Mr. Ball has prior service on a school board for several years in a district much the same size as Hudson. He feels this experience is of benefit to the District. Hudson is a great place to live and he believes it is his responsibility to get involved in the community.

Dave believes equitable and sustainable funding continues to be a challenge and one that doesn’t appear to be going away anytime soon. Integrating technology into the curriculum continues to be a topic schools districts need to stay on top of as well. Dave hopes to offer an objective and unique point of view, he has experience working with numerous K-12 schools across the state. His overall vision and agenda for Hudson schools is to support and advocate for our teachers, administrators, and most importantly our students.

Kala Featherstone, (Incumbent) Candidate for School Board

Kala Featherstone

Mrs. Featherstone began her tenure on the Hudson Board of Education a year ago when she was appointed to finish the term of Karyn Finn who resigned due to a move to Missouri. Kala is now honored to be running for a full term.

Originally from Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Kala and her family are proud to call Hudson home! Her parents still live in Sioux Falls and she has a sister who lives in Minneapolis. Mrs. Featherstone attended Iowa State University and earned degrees in accounting and management information systems. After obtaining her CPA license she worked for an accounting firm in Des Moines which gave her great insight and experience in multiple industries including school district auditing.

Kala currently works in the risk management division of Wells Fargo bank. She has been with the bank 15 years holding positions in financial planning, accounting controller, and technology/risk divisions. Mrs. Featherstone feels her position is a great fit for her young family because it provides the opportunity to work from home so she can be with her children before and after school.

Kala and her husband Joe have been married for almost 12 years and have 3 children who currently attend Hudson schools. Their oldest, Katie is in 5th grade, Chase is in 3rd grade, and Brooke 1st grade. Kala wants to point out they moved into the district prior to Katie starting kindergarten so their children would be in a community with great schools and people. Their children are very active, love school, their teachers, and all the friends they have made at Hudson Elementary!

Mrs. Featherstone is interested in board service out of a desire to ensure the needs of our elementary children are considered in all decisions. She is attuned to the fact that new neighborhoods are under development which will lead to an increase in enrollment in the district. Within that context, she wants to ensure class sizes don't become too large, particularly in the elementary school where studies suggest student achievement is impacted by class size. Kala also believes her skill set will be a great fit for the board and a way to give back to the community, ensuring Hudson Schools is a top district in Iowa! At the same time, she recognizes the challenges that schools in Iowa have with regard to funding and other legislative requirements and mandates.

In Hudson, Kala believes the greatest challenge facing our schools is the ability to provide diverse offerings and extracurricular activities to meet the needs of multiple student interests and remain fiscally responsible. At the same time, it is important to consider the additional costs that parents must contribute in order to participate in these activities. She is also a proponent of new cutting-edge technology and wants to ensure Hudson remains a leader in this arena. Kala is excited about school board service and would look forward to working with school stakeholders to make Hudson a premier school district in Iowa. She feels her perspective and skill set would be a valuable asset to the board and points out that with young children, she would be able to be a voice on the board for years to come.

Underpass Coming Soon!

For a decade now the idea of an underpass at Highway 63 has been something of a white whale for me. Early on during in my tenure the plans for an underpass were presented to me not as an idea, but a reality that would happen within the next 6 months. Then 6 months would go by and, well before you know it here we are. Over the years there were multiple iterations of the project. At first it was to be included as part of the original bike path project. Then it was delayed and scheduled to be included as part of what was coined 'Phase II'. I'm not sure what else might be included in this Phase or if it has happened yet. Then when the DOT took up the replacement of Highway 63 through town I thought for certain that would be the year! After all, they tore up the entire road (bed and all) from Silver Eagle north of town to just south of Mrs. Petry's. It made perfect sense to do it then, right? Wrong. (The road by the way is awesome, remember how bad it was?)

Originally the design called for the underpass to be constructed at the site of the current crosswalk to the school. This would have been roughly at the intersection of Highway 63 and Wood Street (or Schrock Road depending on your orientation). For a crosswalk this serves our purpose of a safe route to school well. For an underpass on the other hand, the grade just doesn't work all that well. So we came up with the suggestion to move it to the location where it is currently being constructed. Where First Street intersects Cedar Street. There are a couple of key benefits to this location. First, the grade works much better; and second, the location puts it not quite in the geographic center of the neighborhood across the highway. This means it is much more likely to be used by someone who lives on Carmela Drive (for example) as opposed to walking all the way town to Wood Street.

Admittedly this change in concept was probably at least partially to blame for the delay. Nevertheless, it takes a lot of time and patience to convince the Department of Transportation that it is necessary to close down a portion of a major US Highway! Then when you involve engineers in the mix it really tends to gum up the system. In the final analysis though, a big thank you needs to be extended to the City of Hudson and the Council for their perseverance over the years. Had they not had the fortitude to stick with it, we may still be wondering if the underpass was going to come to fruition!

We are very close at this point. The underpass is scheduled to be finished sometime in late October or early November. Our intention at the school is to discontinue the use of a crossing guard at that time. During the initial phase of opening, we'll have our crossing guard stationed at the corner of Ardis Street by the cul-de-sac where it traverses back to the northeast (running somewhat parallel to the higway). They will be responsible for directing pedestrian traffic to the underpass. Soon afterward we'll close in the fence at that opening, remove the stoplight on the highway, and remove the sidewalk across the south end of the football field. After a few weeks we'll also stop using that crossing guard. Please be sure to stay tuned as we get closer to project completion.

Unfunded

It's hard to find anything wrong with a recent administrative rule change enacted by the State Board of Education that now requires seat belts on all new school buses purchased after October 1, 2019. Of course at the same time there wasn't anything preventing Iowa schools from doing just that prior to the change in rule. But as this proposal began to go through the vetting process and the public momentum for seat belts began to grow, many school districts decided to accelerate purchasing plans and get new buses on order prior to the change in rule. That is because the estimated cost of seat belts on new bus units is expected to increase the cost by roughly $8,000. We weren't in the market for a new bus this year anyway, since we purchased new buses the last two years in a row (and typically we only purchase every other year). But considering our last 78 passenger unit came in at $82,252 I can understand why a 10% cost increase would force some districts' hand to move up their timeline. Nonetheless, when we purchase our next school bus we'll happily pay the upcharge for seat belts because it is the safe thing to do.

Oftentimes in schools new  mandates are introduced without regard for how the district is going to pay for them. Perhaps the school bus seat belt mandate is a poor example. After all, most schools purchase school buses from either their SAVE or PPEL fund. During the last legislative session our lawmakers took steps to extend the sunset of the SAVE to 2051. For that we are thankful. Maybe their intent here was that this extension would make it more likely schools could handle the costs associated with seat belts in school buses. But at the same time, most school districts have been (or will be) leveraging SAVE funds for infrastructure projects. Case in point: that is how we are paying for our Phase III elementary renovation project. Once we finish that we'll start having a conversation about using some of those funds for Phase IV, which will be the renovation of the high school. Indeed there are a number of strains on that fund outside school buses and infrastructure projects. That is how we fund our connected learning project, purchase vans for the school, pay for emergency repairs that come up over the course of the year. Buy new desks for classrooms. You see, there is always going to be something.

Maybe this is a poor example because generally we are talking about unfunded mandates that impact the operating fund. The most recent mandate was a rule that high school students have a credit of financial literacy as a requirement for graduation. Kind of like the seat belt rule, who is going to say that is a bad idea? We've all heard horror stories of young people going off to college and getting ensnared in a credit card scheme that ultimately creates an unnecessary and quite burdensome debt load for young people. That was the litmus for this requirement. Again, this is one in which we were happy to comply with, and had made plans to begin requiring it absent the change in law. (Kind of like the seat belt rule, there was nothing preventing schools from doing this in the first place.)

Look, I'm not saying any of these things are bad ideas. Quite the contrary. They are great ideas and ones that no one can argue with. The fact of the matter is, the local public school is the one place where we can properly address many of these issues. Getting our students to and from schools safely is of primary concern. We just hope that more time is spent considering the fiscal impact of these decisions. And it is just too easy to say that our low supplemental state aid will be adequate, or that we moved the sunset of the SAVE.

Acceptance, Accountability, and Accreditation

Each year someone in the legislature files a bill that would funnel public money into nonpublic school programs. These infamous voucher programs would allow parents to apply their 'cost per pupil' allocation to any school of their choice. Framed as a way to give families options, a common argument is that parents should be able to have the choice to send their children to school wherever they wish, without regard to zip code. The problems with these type of schemes are numerous, but for the purpose of our discussion here I'll focus on what I refer to as the three 'As': Acceptance, Accreditation, and Accountability. 

In an effort to contextualize the argument in the proper paradigm, it is necessary first to underscore a key flaw, which is the idea that competition in our educational system will make the entire system better. Truthfully, I can understand this logic; albeit flawed. Educational systems are unable to fit the mold of a capital(ist) tradition because the missions of each are so contrary to one another. Even so, if we were to capitulate to such an argument there is no mistaking the harsh reality that students [[or] our 'raw material'] for lack of better terminology; are imperfect. Each student is different, unique, and has needs unlike their counterparts. And thank goodness for that! On the other hand in the traditional business model, all the raw material is the same. Quality control measures are employed which ensure raw material meets exacting standards before it is turned into a finished product. What happens when this raw material doesn't meet the standards? It is discarded, or sent back. That is not the case in your local public school. When our students don't meet the 'exacting standards' or in our terminology the Iowa Core Curriculum, we don't simply discard them. We work with them. We try a different strategy. We take them from where they are and help them to grow. Yet that is not the requirement for our nonpublic counterparts. In fact, legislation that has been proposed in the past gives them the right to refuse acceptance into their institution based on academic standards. 

Accreditation standards refer to the general programming that a school district is required to provide in order to be considered a school. In order for a school to be considered a school, it has to meet certain assurances. For example, certain courses have to be part of the program and highly qualified teachers must be properly certified and licensed in the content they teach. Granted, the majority (but not all) of the nonpublic schools in Iowa meet general accreditation requirements. But when evaluated side to side, the programming provided at Iowa public schools is very robust. Perhaps the most glaring of examples is a lack of special education programming at most nonpublic schools. Certainly this shouldn't be surprising considering the fact these schools have the right to admit based on academic standards.

Finally we have to acknowledge the fact these are public tax dollars we are talking about. Every public school entity in Iowa has the duty to operate with the utmost of transparency. We have to independently audit our books annually. The bills we pay and those to whom we have debt are published each month in the newspaper. The compensation we pay for every employee in the district is a matter of public record. If our governing body wishes to have a meeting, proper notice must be given to the public. If we want to discuss something in private, it can only be done under a very narrow scope of circumstances and we must announce in advance what we are discussing, and any action taken as a result of that discussion is done in the open, public eye. Those rules don't apply to our nonpublic counterparts.

So help me with this argument. We want to 'level the playing field' because of a belief competition is good for the system. But, we are going to have the competitors operate under two separate sets of rules. For our public schools, you must accept everyone who comes your way no matter what. The other schools can selectively cherry pick those who provide them the best academic advantage. Second, public schools have to offer a robust program that encompasses a broad range of curricula. If the other school so chooses, they can instead offer whatever they so desire. The public school must be accountable for every penny they spend, and you must be able to demonstrate that it was spent on a public purpose. The other school can pretty much do whatever they wish because no one is looking. Who do you think would win that competition?