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.

POINTS of PRIDE: Camanche Elementary

Principal Neil Gray

The mission of the Camanche Community School District: In
partnership with the family and community, empower students to develop the knowledge and skills to become lifelong learners and successful, productive citizens in a diverse, technological, ever-changing global society.

Neil Gray, Camanche principal grades PreK-4, proudly describes the strong special education program.  This program works with a significant number of students and successfully exits many every year.  With enrollment of 486, there are six full-time special ed employees (with anticipated addition of one this school year).  Mr. Gray is happy with the same direction the staff is heading through Iowa Core training, crediting the AEA coaching as being instrumental in its successful implementation.  Camanche's math instruction has been improving through best practices being developed and implemented through a math studio format.  By studying the book LEARNING BY DOING, the staff has been simplifying its response to intervention.  It is the intent to eventually implement a literacy studio to improve practices.  The TAG program participates in Lego League and the third graders have qualified for the World Expo for the past two year.  They also have a robotics program in kindergarten. Mr. Gray says Camanche is a great community where students feel cared.

On a special note, Mr. Gray talked about Camanche's middle school teacher, Erin Montgomery, who went on the Iditarod for one month.  She faced -60 degrees weather and had to fly into some places while traveling on snow mobile where they couldn't fly in.  Because of the Iditarod, schools shut down for a week, and ushers interact with the children in the area.  Erin was able to share her experiences with the students of Camanche.  She recorded her experiences on the cite: 2015 Iditarod Teacher on the Trail blog.

The belief statements for Camanche Community School District include the belief that children are the community's future.  It is a district that believes all students can learn and that education should enrich our lives.  In the words of Allan Bloom, "Education is the movement from dark to light."