NCSD board discusses professional development days

Newton Community School District principals probably weren’t planning on discussing the value of its professional-development arrangement at Monday night’s board of education meeting, but a question from a board member brought out an interesting dialogue.

After outlining what went on during Monday’s professional development day, and what will go on during the other PD days this year, the principals took questions from the board. Board vice president Travis Padget asked to hear the pros and cons of using the last Monday of each month for a full PD day, compared with the previous format of having early-dismissal Wednesdays.

“A year ago (at the start of the 2014-15 school year), we changed the calendar to have longer durations, compared to having a Wednesday every week,” Padget said. “So, are we seeing what we were looking for when we changed that?”

Berg Middle School Principal Lisa Sharp said her staff doesn’t have any kind of common collaboration time in the regular schedule now, so there are no common times for, say, all of the math or science teachers at BMS to meet within the school day.

Woodrow Wilson Elementary School Principal Todd Schuster said his school’s schedule allows for common collaboration time, so he likes the one-day-per-month PD format.

Berg Elementary School Principal Jolene Comer said teachers could make either model work. A negative to the early-dismissal Wednesdays was trying to cram in instruction on a day when students were excited about going home at 2 p.m., while now it’s tough for general-education teachers to meet with specialists, or anyone else, without an early-release day.

Thomas Jefferson Elementary School Principal Tom Bartello said there are benefits to both models, as his school’s teams have time to meet with each other about once per six-day cycle.

Newton High School Principal Bill Peters said it’s not a huge difference, but he prefers the once-per-week format. Basics & Beyond Principal Laura Selover said business and faculty meetings, which took place during Monday’s student-free day, could be done on Wednesday afternoons.

Aurora Heights Principal Jim Gilbert and board members Ann Leonard and Donna Cook were not at Monday’s meeting. Deb Rose made a presentation at the Board Leadership Workshop prior to the meeting about the TLC Grant application, which will be covered in detail in Wednesday’s Newton Daily News.

In other action Monday, the board:

• Released the names of the people assigned to the bond committee, that will help advise FRK Design on the features of a potential new Berg Complex: Lisa Sharp, Barbie Burnett, Stephanie Langstraat, Amy Moore, Casey Price, Doug Smith, Darin Tisdale, Tara Zehr and Seth Banwell will represent the NCSD on the committee. Craig Armstrong will represent the City of Newton, while the community members on the committee are Emily Allen, Rita Baker, Jordan Bell, Kristi Cummins, Carol Farver, Dan Goetz, Mark Hallam, Fran Henderson, Karen Hoffmeier, Tom Hoover, Jane Johnson, Chantelle Lundberg, Toni Peska, Sue Pickett, Amanda Price, Danielle Rogers, Nathan Unsworth and Amber Zink.

• Approved a Newton High School DECA trip to the  Central Region Leadership Conference, to be held Nov. 20-22 in the Kansas City area, and any subsequent qualifiers for the international conference in Nashville, Tenn., in April 2016. Peters tried to ask for an approval for FFA to attend its October nationals as well, but that item wasn’t on the agenda, and Peters was told the FFA request would have to wait until the Oct. 12 board meeting.

• Heard from naturalists Katie Cantu and Greg Oldsen of Jasper County Conservation about field trips that involve Newton-area students. Cantu said the JCC programs made a total of 7,486 student contacts in Jasper County in 2013-14, with 256 of their 427 presentations targeting Newton Schools students. Board member Robyn Friedman praised not only the field trips to JCC facilities and other destinations, but also the use of some of NCSD’s extended on-campus green space.

• Decided to keep the regular Oct. 12 meeting date at Emerson Hough, despite Superintendent Bob Callaghan and Padget both announcing they have prior commitments. An Oct. 19 open-to-the-public board work session will be held at Emerson Hough to go over a variety of issues, including reconfiguration and its statistics, bond committee issues and a recently completed teacher survey.

• Approved the district’s Certified Annual Report, which had the district come out ahead by about $160,000 at the end of the 2013-14 school year. Director of Business Services Gayle Isaac thanked staff members Lorraine Bricker and Debbie Swank for their hard work.

• Acknowledged donations to the district, including winter fleece hats from Lynnville-Sully senior Marissa Vos as part of her 4-H citizenship project, a used trombone from Judy Monroe and a school supply donation from First Christian Church.

Contact Jason W. Brooks at 641-792-3121 ext. 6532 or jbrooks@newtondailynews.com