90s34 A New Year

You never know for sure what a new school year will bring. The 1997-98 school year had been one crisis after another. Beginning this school year I was hoping for a calmer time.

August 10, 1998 - I have been back for a while. Julie, my secretary, started back today. Things are really picking up. Several staff members have been in and we are all getting excited about the school year. Tomorrow is new student enrollment day. We are hopeful that we will get a number of new students because we are down about 40 from last spring. We have a staffing meeting Wednesday and the CAO and Administrative Council on Thursday morning. We have a staff retreat on Monday and everybody comes back to start the year on Wednesday of next week. We are starting off the year with IBI and had posters printed for the school. I’m anxious to see how that all works out. This is going to be the best year ever!!!

The IBI mentioned in the above entry is the Iowa Behavior Initiative. It really made a big positive difference in student behavior in our building that year. It is all about teaching expected behavior over and over whenever the opportunity arises. In many places it is now called PBS (Positive Behavior Supports).

August 18, 1998 - School starts on Monday and the pace has really picked up. We are getting a few new students but still nothing close to what we lost. Had a staff retreat yesterday that went very well. We worked on our school improvement plan and the student behavior expectations for the coming year. It was a very positive start for us. Everyone seems to be excited about the year. Tomorrow is the official first day for teachers. We start with breakfast on the West High lawn.

August 24, 1998 - Wow! What a day! School is underway! It was very busy around here today but all in all the day went well. We are still short an associate and a half but hope to find someone for those positions soon. A guidance counselor in the district who was a close friend of some of our teachers died today. It was very sad. I sent a teacher home as soon as the kids were gone. She was a close friend of the counselor. We seem to have some very good kids this year. We have about 20 in ESL. Lunchroom and noon recess went Ok.

August 26, 1998 - Some issues are heating up! Class size in the p.m. at 3/4 is a concern. In the morning they are in four sections so class size is about 20. In the afternoon they are in 3 sections and class size is about 28 plus the SCI kids that are included part of the time. The parents have a petition and some are calling me. One has even requested that their child be moved to another section. The 5/6 teachers are at odds with me over another issue. Over the summer we agreed to send the 5th graders to McBride Camp for a week. Now the teachers want to have a lottery and let 6th graders fill the empty slots. They can take 60 and we only have 43 fifth graders. I have said we are only sending the fifth graders and that has them upset. Met with Jerry and Brad about some misunderstandings between the Physical Plant and us. I think we got it worked out and things should improve.

The class size issues mentioned above became a nightmare! I’ll tell more about that later. I stuck to my guns with the 5th grade McBride issues and it worked out fine.