Reflections from Retiring Board Member Traci Trunck

After deciding not to run for a third consecutive term, Vice President Traci Trunck has retired from board service as of November 15, 2021. In one of her final acts as a member of the board, Mrs. Trunck took action to approve the hiring of an architect that will help lead the process of renovations and remodeling at the high school. As is custom with an outgoing member, Mrs. Trunck was asked to provide her reflections on board service and offer words of advice to the new board. Those reflections and advice are included below and have been lightly edited for voice and clarity. 

Following eight years of service, she wants everyone to know that she believes a good board includes those who have a variety of experience, background, and areas of interest. A board that both supports and challenges each other can, and does work well together with the best interests of the kids, district, and entire community. During Traci's time on the board, she shares that every two years, the makeup of the board has changed. Each time, every member has brought different strengths, energy, and passion to the school district. 

Traci wants to makes sure that everyone, especially the new board, recognize that school finance is complicated! It will take new board members at least a year to feel fully comfortable with all the rules and laws of school finance. It is important to ask a lot of questions, read the financial reports, and relying on those who have a strength in this area makes it very manageable! She believes we are lucky to have a superintendent who is very strong in this space and is a great leader for the district. 

Funding is tight and when determining how to allocate funds for improvements, choices always have to be made. The list of what needs to be done is never ending and prioritizing is difficult, especially when there are competing interests. A lot of time is spent on strategic planning for funding and prioritizing projects. At the same time, the board has to account for and consider emergency items that come up each year: because there are always emergencies!

Mrs. Trunck also wants to ensure the community understands the role of the board and what they are elected to accomplish. First and foremost, they are tasked with creating and approving policy. They should be thought of as a legislative body. It is also important to understand that a single board member does not have any more authority than any other community member. The board exercises its authority as one body, and only when a majority of the board has spoken. They are not tasked with running the school district or have authority over the day to day activities of the school. The administration is tasked with the operation of the school district. 

From time to time, board members have to make tough decisions, and as such have access to information that is considered confidential. There is almost always 'more to the story' that the general public won't know and board members can't share. They take their service seriously and take an oath to uphold the law. Because of this, they have to be able to separate emotions in their deliberations and decision making. Oftentimes these result in hard decisions that are based on precedence, policy, strategic direction and the law. She wants her successor(s) to know that they will never make everyone happy, and that is has become further complicated in this polarized environment we are currently living in. 

She considered disciplinary hearings over whether to expel or readmit a student among the most complex and stressful. The decisions require board members to balance the interests of the individual child, other children, teachers and the overall school with the implementation of our policies. These decisions were never easy. 

Mrs. Trunck understands that everyone has an opinion on how decisions should be made in the school. She admits that it is very easy to complain about an issue, but oftentimes the general public doesn't have all the facts that led to the decision that is ultimately made. She encourages stakeholders to get involved and to be helpful. It would be wise to empathize with the stress and pressure everyone at the school is under: including the teachers, staff, and administration. In closing Traci Trunck has this to say: 

"Overall, my eight years of service has been rewarding. We have a great school, administration, teachers and staff that truly care about the kids, district and community. Our district is growing and Hudson is community that families want to live in.  It has been an honor for me to represent this community.   My decision to not seek re-election from the board was not taken lightly; I truly enjoyed being a part of a high performing team and making important decisions that affect the future of our children. Thank you to my colleagues on the board, Dr. Voss, administrators, teachers and staff for everything you do every day to make this an excellent school system."  

In Front of a Live Studio Audience

Over the course of the last year and a half, our fine arts department has gotten the short end of the stick. They were among the first to feel disappointment as the pandemic began to take hold of our country. I will always recall the moment I spoke with Mrs. Davis as the music department was beginning their spring music trip. The skyline of New York City was just coming into view when I called her on the tour bus; they were shutting down Broadway and they needed to start making preparations to turn the bus around. It didn't get much better from there. You see, our students were in final preparations for the spring musical. It was among the first of our spring activities to become, at first postponed before finally capitulating to the inevitable. During the entirety of the 2020-2021 school year, our music and theatre department was relegated to remote, prerecorded performances. Theatrical productions were live-streamed. It wasn't until the very end of the school year we finally were able to have a music concert with a limited audience. 

This year we have largely returned to normal. At this point, we have had our first concert of the year, the marching band has impressed us during halftime shows at a stadium of full capacity, and our students will be able to participate in the full 'All State' experience in just another week. For me though, everything came full circle with the production of the fall play, 'Murder's in the Heir'. 

With the production of this play, it seems to me that we are truly back to normal. I attended on Friday evening and it was wonderful to see a nice crowd in attendance enjoying this outstanding performance! And there is no doubt our young thespians took advantage of performing in front of a live 'studio' audience. Yet, in my view the biggest winners over the weekend were not the audience members by a long shot. The biggest accolades need to go to the young people on the stage and the director of the show, Mr. Stover. 

The play was fantastic! I would love to go through the list and tick off the outstanding contributions of each of the cast members, but this would likely become much too long to have the impact that it rightly deserves. The blocking was well thought out and provided superb balance and clear lines of sight. I thought the students' diction was clean and found it very easy to understand the action on the stage. At the same time, it was evident a great deal of thought went into character development. Were they believable? Absolutely! The timing, flow, and pace of the show was excellent and the comedic punchlines were delivered brilliantly. 

It is crucial in our school that we offer a diverse and comprehensive activity program that spans an array of interests. From athletics to fine arts, all are an important part of the overall program that we come to think of as the American high school experience. I am grateful that we have so many talented students who not only provided us with this fine performance, but also found time this fall to compete in our athletic program. It is only fitting then, they are rewarded for their efforts with the opportunity to perform in front of a live audience. I am so happy they were able to do so, and we were all treated to the experience.

To the cast and crew of 'Murder's in the Heir', thank you for such a wonderful evening of entertainment. Thank you for helping us in our journey to normalcy. I am very proud of you all!

Projecting Growth

Our enrollment has rebounded after last year when we saw a pretty significant drop due largely to COVID. With a headcount of 765 in our buildings, you have to go all the way back to 2006-2007 to see a higher number: when that year the headcount was 788. The biggest reason for the gain we are seeing this year has to do with open enrollment from Waterloo. Absent that, our headcount likely would have been stable to even slightly down. Now, when I talk with you about enrollment, there are two separate terms that are used, and both mean something quite different. Certified enrollment refers to resident students with a Hudson address. It includes those who are attending school in Hudson and those who are attending school elsewhere, usually open enrolled to another school district. Headcount on the other hand refers to the number of students who are actually attending school in Hudson. It includes both resident students (attending) and those who are open enrolling into the district. 

Certified enrollment is down approximately 7 students. However, our headcount count is up by 34, from 731-765. This represents a net increase in enrollment of 5% Our metric of comparability would be the opening day enrollment, which stood at 772. It is not unusual for enrollment to fluctuate from the opening day enrollment to the day that we certify that number on October 15. The fact is, enrollment tends to be rather fluid with students moving in and out of the district all throughout the school year!

The number of students open enrolling out of Hudson has remained relatively stable, with 45 open enrolling out of Hudson, which is one less from last year. We have 136 open enrolling into Hudson, compared to 100 last year. Again, the large increase in open enrollment to Hudson is attributable to a change in law that eliminated school districts’ voluntary desegregation plans absent a court order. With a net positive of 91 students, this is a good metric for the district.

We had 68 students who were enrolled last year but have subsequently transferred out or moved to another school district. This compares to 40 students who moved out last year and could suggest a more transient population of learners. Of these 68 students, some have elected to homeschool, which obviously has a negative impact on our enrollment. It is also worth noting that 7 students withdrew at parental request: all of which are considered ‘young for their class’ kindergarten students who we assume will be with us next year. Note: this is one of the reasons we are considering transitional kindergarten. For more on this topic, please refer to my October 13th post, 'Transitional Kindergarten?'.

At the same time though, we have a larger kindergarten class this year compared to what we had anticipated. This larger class can be attributed to open enrollment, with 15 kindergarten students open enrolling into the district. 

Of the 45 students who are open enrolled out, 28 of them are open enrolled to Cedar Falls while 4 are open enrolled to Gladbrook-Reinbeck. The balance of our open enrollees [largely] are participating in online school programs at Clayton Ridge, CAM, and Iowa City. 29% of those open enrolled to Cedar Falls have a Cedar Falls address at the time of original application. This address, while in the Hudson Community School District is on the northern border of the district and actually within the city limits of Cedar Falls.

The largest number of students open enrolling into Hudson comes from Waterloo: 73 students. This is followed by Gladbrook-Reinbeck at 20, Cedar Falls at 21 and Union at 11. The remaining students are attending from Dike-New Hartford, Grundy Center, and North Tama.

Enrollment projections are calculated based on a cohort methodology that uses a five year rolling average to calculate and estimate kindergarten size. Over the last 5 years, the kindergarten has averaged 57 students; while in the last 10 years it has averaged 56. Therefore, a projection of 57 seems to be right particularly since open enrollment from Waterloo is open due to the aforementioned change in state law. With this methodology, estimates from prior years are left static since there is no algorithm to accurately predict transfers in or out of the district. If these projections were come to fruition, we will reach our high-water mark of 784 in 2022-2023. However, an attempt has been made to account for residential enrollment growth. Under this scenario, I have anticipated 106 households between the Upper Ridges and Twin Oaks development with 1.9 children per household. Applying that in an even distribution method would suggest enrollment figures of 954 in 2026-2027. Nonetheless, this projection should be viewed critically for multiple reasons, and again it is important to point out the unknown is not insignificant. 

To view the complete analysis of both our historical enrollment and projections out for the next five years, please click here.