POINTS of PRIDE: Calamus-Wheatland Community School District

In the FFA Building with Mr. Ewers

Duck Blind

ATV ramps and Deer House

Calamus-Wheatland stands for family, an extended family that includes not only the elementary in Calamus, the middle/high school in Wheatland, but also the entire Cal-Wheat community. One organization that helps to bring that family together is the Cal-Wheat FFA - providing supper before the school musical, serving as valets at the funeral of a respected community member, creating a deer house or a duck blind or ATV ramps.  All add to the hands on experiences given students at Cal-Wheat.  With over 90 in the FFA grades 7-12 much can be accomplished.  Whatever needs to be done is done in house because that's what families do for each other.

DEMOGRAPHICS
Enrollment:  529
Free and reduced lunch:  under 50%

Superintendent Lonnie Luepker

Principal Christine Meyer

The buildings are run by capable and focused leaders, Superintendent Lonnie Luepker and Principal Christine Meyer.  The district described their annual Veteran's Day Assembly where a mini-van brings the people from Wheatland Manor to the school to honor our veterans.  Gary Metivier was the keynote.  Poster contest and essay contest winners were announced. The band and chorus performed, and the names of all area vets were read.  The color guard was present and taps were played.  In TAG the students are involved in the Library of Congress Veteran's project, creating a record of the stories of veterans to be archived in the Library of Congress.

Cal-Wheat's professional development is focused on implementation of the Iowa Core.  They are also implementing a new math series.  Multi-Tiered Systems of Support along with the Iowa FAST tests are changing the framework of instructional delivery.  There is an advisor-advisee program in grades 7-12 where each teacher has 14-15 students that meet twice a month to check on grades and to discuss any issues they may be facing.

Another active group at Cal-Wheat is the FCCLA - providing meals as needed for special occasions and using PD days to make visits to the local nursing home.  The focus for all school groups is to constantly give back to the community.  Most recently, Cal-Wheat was awarded $10,000 from Monsanto to purchase Vermeer probes for testing water temperature and quality.  These resources will be used in both the science and the Ag classes.

Cal-Wheat is in year 4 of its 1:1 initiative.  They are moving from MacBooks to Chromebooks.  Grades 7-12 can take the computers home.  There are computer carts at the elementary.  Stacy Luepker has a technology class with a 3D printer and students are involved in a virtual reality course. (VRep)

At the elementary, the day I visited was National World Kindness

Words of encouragement

Day.  Lockers were adorned with encouraging notes to everyone.  Good News reports are placed in a mailbox in the hallway - completed by staff as they observe the traits of character being displayed by students.  These notes are read once a week by Superintendent Luepker, hung in the hallways, and at the end of the year, each students gets their stack of Good News reports to take home.

Good News notes

"Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass...it's about learning to dance in the rain." We can all learn from Calamus-Wheatland about feeling like a family, the importance of giving back to the community, and the value of recognizing the good in others.