SIAC seeks more community feedback

Parent involvement was one of the big topics at the recent School Improvement Advisory Committee meeting.

SIAC met in January to discuss ways to improve Newton Community School District’s campuses. NCSD Director of Teaching and Learning Bret Miller told school board members Monday night that someone had asked how SIAC can get the community — particularly parents — involved with the recommending body.

Leading up to the January SIAC meeting, Miller sent a districtwide email and had two additional parents reach out and join in on the group’s conversation. SIAC learned that more person-to-person communication could help form stronger relationships between the community and school district.

“One idea that came way from SIAC was, ‘Hey, an email blast is great, but we get tons of those. Reach out in person, whether it’s music concerts, conferences, things like that.’ So that’s something,” Miller said. “We haven’t had a cabinet meeting since that SIAC meeting, but it’s something we’ll be able to bring up.”

Other ideas from parents suggested the school district be made more available, which Miller interpreted as “letting the community know we are approachable and we do want their feedback.” Parents also asked if these parent-to-educators interactions have to be limited on school grounds or can expand to public space.

“Maybe meeting for coffee — something to just say, ‘Hey, we’re available at this time. No pressure.’ Just being available to the community was our biggest take away there,” Miller said. “Then at the end we did an open forum just to try to seek any feedback.”

However, Miller thinks the school district and SIAC need to get more parent and community representation “before we can give a lot of feedback” to the board.

SIAC does not have a formally scheduled meeting this spring, but members did leave it as a “to-be-determined” based on the results of the Iowa School Performance Profiles. NCSD Superintendent Bob Callaghan was to present the results of the ISPP, but the state’s embargo had not lifted by Monday night.

Information from the ISPP can determine how Newton schools compare to other districts in the state. The ISPP is the latest iteration of school performance measures in Iowa that replaced the Iowa School Report Card in spring 2019, the Des Moines Register’s Mackenzie Ryan reported in December 2018.

Miller said the school board is free to read notes from the SIAC meeting listing all of the suggestions. Feedback items from SIAC are also given to the principals of Newton schools.

Afterward Miller presented the report to the NCSD Board of Education, members moved on to another item recommended by SIAC: the 2020-2021 school district calendar. In order to address this particular item, the school board has to set a public hearing date.

School board members voted in favor of holding the public hearing at 6:45 p.m. Feb. 10 inside the E.J.H. Beard Administration Center, which would take place during the next school board meeting.

Contact Christopher Braunschweig at 641-792-3121 ext. 6560 or cbraunschweig@newtondailynews.com