POINTS of PRIDE: Central Community School District in Elkader

Superintendent Nick Trencamp

Superintendent Trencamp shared about the town of Elkader.  For
a small Iowa town, Elkader is busy and thriving.  Two local businesses are hiring - CAT and Mobile Track Solutions.  The school district has an early out every Friday and business has increased on Fridays for the downtown businesses.  The town is named after Abd el-Kader, an Algerian freedom fighter who lived from 1808-1883.  Elkader is a sister city to a city in Algeria.  Abd el-Kader was a unique leader who became known for his release of captured Christians.  He was unusually well-studied and loved horses.  In the 1880s his exploits were published in the United States.  Investors from New York came here to build a wheat mill and named the town.  There is much admiration for Abd el-Kader, and the ambassador from Algeria and some of his family have visited Elkader.  Last spring Algerian diplomats paid Elkader a visit.  Sometimes the best stories are found in small towns!

District Demographics:
Enrollment - 450
Free & Reduced Lunch - 25%
Elementary school - organized in multi-age groups - K-1, 2-3, and 4-5 with five sections of each

Initiatives at Central Elkader include a focus on Iowa Core, implementation of Professional Learning
Communities, and establishment of the Multi-tiered Systems of Support at the elementary level.  Mr. Trencamp is a firm believer in Blended Learning where you don't have to have four walls to share classrooms; this encourages collaboration between districts.  Currently in Iowa there are 338 school districts of which 143 have 600 students or less.  These school have high transportation costs due to geography, and collaboration and sharing are key for success.  These districts also face the challenge of bringing in concurrent classes.  One solution for Elkader is to train retireds to get the training to offer the classes. 

Another example of problem-solving is in the area of their school calendar.  According to their data from MAPs assessments, there was a 50% loss of skills overs the summer break.  Because of this, they built in breaks throughout the school year to lessen the summer gap.  Elkader has built in breaks after each quarter with an early out every Friday.  With built in snow days each quarter, they do not have to tack on snow days at the end of the year.

This year they are transitioning to personalized professional development where teachers choose what they want to learn, but then they must participate in a peer review component: share at a conference, blog about their learning, or create a TED talk.  They used Oelwein as their example with the focus:  creating teachers who design a plan for their growth.  According to Mr. Trencamp, a district builds capacity by building experts in a building. 

In the area of instruction, teachers have been examining standards-based grading.  They have spent time analyzing each standard in the Iowa Core and have developed a list of priority standards.  In order to monitor learning, every teacher does a pre and post assessment for each unit.  The data is tracked using Google Docs, and data-based decisions can then be made to move students forward in their achievement.

Central Community School District in Elkader may be small but it is mighty as it seeks best practices for continuous improvement in the classroom, in their staff, and in their community.