Superintendent's Message to the Class of 2022: There Will be Mountains

Good afternoon to the Hudson High School Class of 2022. On behalf of the Board of Directors of the Hudson Community School District, I would like to welcome you, and all of our guests who have taken the time to join us today! This afternoon it will be with great satisfaction that we recognize the accomplishments of an incredibly talented group of young people who have enjoyed a distinguished career as students in our school district. 

The achievements of this class are nothing short of amazing and span a variety of academic, extra and co-curricular activities that touch every discipline available to our student body. From an academic standpoint, we are proud to honor a class that has an average GPA of 3.57, 10 students who have achieved the remarkable feat of earning a 4.0 throughout their high school career distinguishing them as valedictorians, and finally this class has earned $473,220 in scholarships to continue their educational journey. There is no doubt, this class is prepared for the next step, whatever that might be. We are proud of you now, and most certainly will be proud watching your future unfold. 

While our celebration here will serve as a crowning experience that has, by in large encapsulated your entire lives to this point, it is not lost on me, or those in attendance that very soon this commencement will be a fading memory in the rearview mirror as you eagerly enter a world that awaits your contributions.

Ten years from now, perhaps even six months from now, you probably won’t remember the words that I am saying to you today. I suspect the majesty of this ceremony will largely dim into the background of experiences that are yet to come and the life that you are about to lead. Truth be told, I remember very little about my own high school graduation. The procession into the gym, a solo performance; and if I try hard I can almost recall walking across the stage. Don’t get me wrong, this day is incredibly important, noteworthy, and perhaps even life changing. What we are preparing to do [here] momentarily is confer upon you a diploma from Hudson High School sealed with the imprimatur of this institution. This is our community’s opportunity to see their investment in you come to fruition. It is for your parents and grandparents to celebrate your coming of age, perhaps breathe a sigh of relief, and to take pride in you! Indeed, it is a very big deal. I urge you to savor this moment, because these final minutes that are left on the clock will soon evaporate into fragmented memories.

Yes, today is a monumental occasion for you. But what led you to this day is even more noteworthy. Hopefully in these few remaining moments together we can reflect on the experiences you have had, the challenges that you have overcome, and the legacy you will leave behind. That—all of that has brought you to this defining moment that culminates today with your graduation. When you leave here with diploma in hand, understand the significance in this ceremony is much more than the ornate parchment you will be vested with shortly. The value, well that is in everything that has led up to this moment.

The life you choose to lead when you depart our halls will be marked by watershed moments. Moments that, decades from now you will remember with such vivid clarity that they could have happened yesterday. A marriage. The birth of a child. Others, perhaps memories like today may fade with the passage of time yet still be cause for a fond memory and warm smile. But at the same time, I must warn you, the sun will not shine every day. There will be days that cause you anguish. Outside those doors, the doors to this institution, it will not always be easy. The world that awaits you beyond these walls will not always be kind or courteous. The good news though, of all the challenges, triumphs, heartache, and disappointment that is yet to come: you have been well prepared to confront those obstacles in the months and in the years ahead. By all measures, you are much better equipped to handle what lies ahead than I ever was.

You see, I graduated from high school more than 30 years ago. In many ways our experience is similar. I was raised a little more than an hour from here with about 60 students in my graduating class. I had many of the same experiences that you had, we likely participated in the same activities, ran in the same circles and; well we probably both found ourselves somewhere we weren’t supposed to be on a random Friday night from time to time. Like you, I found my niche, discovered and mastered a talent while realizing I was pretty good at it—at least for a small-town Iowa kid. The trouble was, once I got to college and saw there were 50 other guys just like me I knew I was in trouble. Then to learn that compared to them I was mediocre at best was a bit deflating. Needless to say, my experience with mediocrity was not well received! But with a lot of hard work and a more than a few lucky breaks I was able to move those proverbial mountains and persevere. 

Setting the trip down memory lane aside, the picturesque small hometown Iowa high school upbringing is where our similar experience ends. I would argue your experience is much richer because of the tribulations you have faced. Where I needed a good dose of luck, you have all had a good dose of life.

Across this generational divide we have shared collective moments that have altered society in ways that were unimaginable a few short years ago. I can promise that this epochal time will leave an indelible mark on you that you will recall with amazing clarity decades from now. And you will be able to leverage those unplanned lessons in ways that are yet to be determined. You will move mountains. And it will be a sight to behold.

Like your predecessors of the last two years, your high school experience was unlike those of the past. Your sophomore year was disrupted in a way that none of us could image, and we lived last year in the shadow of constant worry. Yet it is for certain your senior year was more akin to the Class of 2019 than it was to the Class of 2020 or even 2021. While safe to say this year was marked largely by a return to ‘normal’, it is also true that there have been some fundamental; if not subtle changes to the way society operates. It is certain there have been obstacles and while our journey was far from worry free, you persevered. Much has been made about the loss in learning that occurred during this time and how your education has been negatively impacted. You have proven that not to be the case and that any perceived deficiencies have been grossly overstated. I reject the notion that anything was lost or deficient and you should too. If anything, you are stronger for the experience. It would be a mistake for any of us to discount the tenacity and will of this class!

Indeed, it would be safe to say that in your short 18 years you have lived a lot of life and have had experiences that are unlikely to be repeated in the span of the next 100 years. But you will face additional challenges. This adversity will serve you well as you stitch together the watershed moments that will make up the fabric of your life. 

At the beginning of the school year I challenged the staff to move mountains where necessary to ensure that each of you had the tools and skills needed to successfully navigate the path with which you are about to embark. Now you are at the gateway of that waiting world and you alone will choose the path forward. There will be obstacles. There will be mountains. If this experience has taught you anything, it is that you have the capacity to move them. 

Congratulations, I am so very proud of you!

In Public Schools it's all About the Inputs

The legislative session is currently about 4 weeks past its expiration date. The hold up continues to be SF 2369, which is the bill that contains the voucher proposal. It appears the House doesn't have the votes to advance the measure, largely because those lawmakers recognize that this proposal will do real harm to small schools around the state. The pressure is on, and proponents are making a lot of claims that lack context. I want to spend a little time today providing that context. 

Voucher proponents suggest that the current school choice proposal won't cost the state any additional revenue while at the same time claiming it won't hurt the local public school district. If you think about this clear eyed, you have to understand both can't be true. Here's why. First, it is accurate the proposal won't cost the state any additional capital outlay. This is because the revenue will be shifted from the local public school to the 'choice school'. That's what makes the second half of this argument false. A shift of funding from public to private does in fact hurt the public school because they now have fewer dollars to work with. Proponents counter with the accurate statement that the public school no longer has the main 'cost element' [the student] in the building to educate. But that doesn't mean it isn't a real cut with consequences. The argument fails due to a lack of understanding about how economies of scale work. How does one go about cutting 1/20th of a teacher? The proponent seems to believe a direct correlation exists where it most certainly does not. There is strength in numbers and it is important to understand that some school programs are simply more expensive than others to operate. Generally speaking, high school courses in smaller schools are more expensive because they are specialized, have smaller sections, and require greater capital outlay. Funding a Family and Consumer Science classroom, Industrial Technology, or Computer Science class is not the same as equipping first grade. The cost per pupil to run an AP Calculus classroom of 5-6 students is much higher than a classroom of 23 third graders. So yes, the shift in funds will hurt public schools and cause them to rethink programming and likely cut some specialty courses because the subsidization factor [and strength of numbers] is diminished.

A couple of weeks ago, I saw a tweet that claimed the voucher program will ultimately cost taxpayers less. That deserves some unpacking and context. It's planting season, so I think the analogy of corn growing provides us a good example. If I skip fertilizer and weed control, my cost of input for a corn field is going to be quite a bit less than the farmer down the road who doesn't skip those crucial steps. I may feel pretty good about all the money that I've saved. But, since we are all from Iowa we know how this story is going to end. Come late September, I'm going to pay a pretty stiff penalty for my cost cutting.

It's all about the inputs, right? Schools are no different in this regard. If nonpublic schools aren't held to the same standards in terms of public accountability, admissions policies, and transparency; then right off the top they aren't going to have the same inputs. The most recent Legislative Services Agency (LSA) fiscal note for the transparency bill suggested a cost to public school districts of around $16 million. Nonpublic schools have specifically been exempted from this proposal. In fact, when it comes to education policy in the State of Iowa, most of the time there is a carve out exemption for non-public schools. Of course it will cost less! And by the way the aforementioned transparency proposal included no appropriation which makes it an unfunded mandate. This means of course public schools will have to find a way to pay for it, notwithstanding the fact the main 'cost element' has been removed vis-à-vis a voucher. 

The other part of the argument that it will ultimately cost less is gleaned from a bit of insider information. As you know I spent first 15 years of my career in the nonpublic world. I also used to have a supervisor that would cringe anytime someone would make the claim that non-publics were in some way superior because of the fact costs were less. Let's talk about that for just a moment. As I have stated many times over, the business of education (public or private) is very labor intensive. So labor intensive in fact that over 80% of the inputs discussed in the preceding paragraphs are tied up in personnel. Any guesses why that former supervisor would cringe when talking about costs being less? The salary differential is significant. During my time as a parochial school administrator I was in a losing battle for talent. Frankly, our school served as a great training ground for educators. I would hire them right out of college, get them trained up and fully licensed only to see them depart for one of the local public schools. Why? Much better pay (oftentimes more than 20%), benefits, support systems, and overall inputs. In this labor market and battle for talent, do we really want to exacerbate low wages for educators? We've all heard the saying 'A rising tide lifts all boats'. I hope the inverse isn't true. 

Finally, proponents make the claim this bill is needed in order to help families who cannot otherwise afford private school. If that were true, this bill misses the mark by a longshot. The bill provides eligibility to families of students with a household income 400% of the poverty level. For a family of 4, that is $111,000. To put that in perspective, the median household income in Iowa is about $62,000. Believe it or not, that isn't even the main issue! The way the proposal is crafted, it permits families to accumulate the voucher funds year over year while still paying tuition at the school of their choice. At graduation, they can simply take those accumulated funds and use them to pay tuition at a postsecondary institution. One of the legislators who is a proponent of the bill states it best right here. See bullet point 2, sub 2. Frankly I'm not sure this talking point was meant to be shared publicly, particularly since the sentence begins with the phrase, "For our caucus only"! Not only does this hurt public schools for all the reasons that have already been discussed, it does no favors for non-public schools either. In fact, it goes beyond harm to the institution. It actually puts families of public school students and other tuition paying students at a disadvantage by providing 'families with means' money they don't otherwise need to pay for college.

Today the Senate is meeting to move the Appropriations bills out of committee making them eligible for full consideration in that chamber. For the last four weeks, the Senate has refused to move appropriations until the House took up SF 2369. The House has not done that yet. This means a deal was made behind the scenes to move the bill forward quickly once the House reconvenes, or that the Senate has finally realized the House has held firm and recognized this is a very bad idea that will cause real harm to our system of public schools. If you haven't reached out to House members, please do so soon and ask them to oppose SF 2369.

Right-Sizing Our District

It has been almost a decade and a half since I talked to you about the concept of 'right sizing' our district. At the time enrollment was declining and we needed to make an immediate course correction in order to protect the financial solvency of the school district. For those of you who are newer to the district, the short story was that we were already in financial trouble and had few options. Some folks were worried about the district and wondered, would we survive or become a victim of consolidation? The fact is, that was never even a remote possibility. Truthfully and quite simply stated, we had more employees than were needed for the number of students in our classrooms. Unfortunately the only way to fix that was to cut some staff positions. It was incredibly painful but we persevered. I will always be grateful to the school board that served during that time, and for making those very hard decisions. I do believe the hard work that was done then set us up for the many successes we have had since. Because of that work more than a decade ago, not only have we survived, but now we are thriving!

It is time to begin the 'right-sizing' our district discussion anew. But now it will be a much more pleasant conversation. You see, we currently have the opposite challenge (or perhaps opportunity?). Instead of having more employees than we have for students in our classrooms, we have more students than we have employees to serve them! For the 2022-2023 school year, we will be adding a fourth section of kindergarten. With more than 80 students projected in next year's kindergarten class, it is unreasonable to have just 3 sections. We have also added another section of sixth grade and split our preschool program into two separate sections in order to expand our early childhood program capacity. As it currently stands, enrollment for next year is projected to grow by over 50. That is in addition to being up around 40 in our current year. To summarize, in two quick years we are on pace to be up almost 100 students. Take a moment to let that sink in.

Our enrollment growth is being driven by a couple of factors. First is open enrollment. Since the law changed last spring we have seen a significant uptick in the number of families choosing to open enroll in Hudson. The word is out that we have an outstanding school district with a proven track record of high academic achievement and a comprehensive co-curricular program with options and opportunities for all students. Second, enrollment is being driven by residential development. Folks have learned that Hudson is not only a great place to send your kids to school, but it is an awesome place to raise a family. The number of residential lots and developments that are available right now is just, well staggering!

As our community grows, so too will our school district. In order to take full advantage of this opportunity and maintain our reputation for excellence, we need to continue to attract and retain high powered talent for our classrooms. Luckily we have been able to do just that when filling these positions. Well, perhaps it isn't luck so much as it is a strategic hiring practice that we have in place. It begins with settling our employment contracts early. That can only happen if we present a proposal for a compensation package that is competitive and attractive. In the last couple of  years we have deliberately been more aggressive in our drive to offer wage packages [we believe] that are both competitive and tough to beat in the Cedar Valley. In so doing, we can retain our staff, get a better understanding of where vacancies exist, and enter the labor market before anyone else. 

Additionally, we are very thoughtful about hiring. While all part of the grand plan, we have to look ahead at potential retirements, courses that we may want to add to the program (or courses that are no longer relevant) and then hire to meet those needs. Being able to look into the future is critical as our enrollment increases. In some cases, we may consider 'hiring ahead' in order to get the right person into our district, knowing that while they may not have a full schedule immediately upon hire, they will in just a few short years. In the interim, we can deploy that human resource in other needed areas as we flex outward.

Frankly, all of this is possible because of the diligence in staffing and budgeting over the course of last dozen years. When basing our hiring on enrollment trends with an eye toward the future, it has also enabled us to build capital. This provides the financial backing that permits the district to make calculated hiring decisions with little risk. 

Engaging Our Community Members Around the Challenges and Opportunities in Our Future

Over the course of the last several months, we have been engaged in a community wide effort to discern future needs in our school district. While conceptually focused on the high school, this discussion has roots going back to 2018. The work done at that time resulted in the complete renovation and addition to the K-8 building. We are quite proud of this investment and swell with pride when visitors enter the facility and make the comment about our new elementary school. That's right, it has been mistaken for a new building!

When planning for and executing our elementary school project, we knew at the time this wouldn't be the end of our story. After all, right across the street is a (now) 24 year old high school that is beginning to show it's age. That is where the work of our high school task force began. Since January, this group has been engaged with our architects to dream, study, and prioritize our next facility project. 

Much like our previous project, the list of needs and wants far exceed our capacity to do everything we would like. And like the elementary school, this prioritization is so important. As we did then, we must now separate needs from wants. That is where the similarities end.

When considering all 3 phases of the elementary renovation project, we were all in at about $5.5 million. By using cash on hand and revenue bonds, we were able to fund this project with existing sources and anticipated sales tax growth out to 2029. Our investment as a community was limited to sales tax revenue with no impact on property taxes. We just had to make sure when executing this bond sale we had enough revenue left to fund our other priorities, such as our annual technology outlay. Those priorities remain sacred and must continue to be protected as we move forward with our next project.

As we now turn our focus to the high school, it is important to first understand the same funding mechanism can't be used. Why? Well, we have used all the capacity we can without jeopardizing other district priorities. Second, until we get a bit more of the current debt paid off (for the elementary), there just isn't a whole lot of capacity anyway. 

So, where do we turn? Well, to be honest the only realistic option is a general obligation bond. This will require an investment from you, the property owner. The task force has been working hard at identifying the needs of the district, and they are far reaching. In fact, they exceed even what our capacity would be with a general obligation bond. That is why your input now is so critically important. You should have recently received a post card invitation to complete a survey that helps us to identify the challenges and opportunities in our school district as we plan for this next project. This feedback will be critical to us as we prepare for a potential referendum and special election in September. If you haven't had the opportunity to complete the survey yet, please do so at your earliest convenience. Please click here to complete the survey. Time is running short since the survey closes on May 6. 

It is also important to keep this in mind as well. Our district is growing, and if the last two years are any indication, we are growing rapidly. Part of the calculus with this project will also be positioning us for the project that is likely to follow the renovation of the high school. What will that be? If enrollment growth continues, only time will tell.