The Camanche School District’s Board of Education held their regular monthly meeting on Monday, May 20th. Please note that these are not the official minutes. The official Agendas and Minutes from the Camanche Community School District school board are available and posted on our school district website (camanche.k12.ia.us).
Items to highlight from this school board meeting would include:
- The Board heard a proposal from the elementary school regarding the concept of departmentalization of 3rd grade and 4th grade. Basically, teachers at these levels would divide the responsibility of teaching reading, or math, or science and social studies among themselves and during the school day students would rotate between teachers in these subject areas. This option would be used instead of having one teacher teaching all of these subjects to one class room of children all day long. This will allow teachers in these grades to focus on a specific academic area, which will allow our students to receive more specialized instruction in these key academic areas.
- The Board approved renewing our partnership with CAS which has provided before and after school childcare for our elementary school families for many years. The district appreciates the support CAS provides to our families with young children.
- The Board entered into a partnership with the Estes Construction firm as a part of the Iowa Construction Advocate Team (ICAT) which is sponsored by the Iowa Association of School Boards. This program’s purpose is to provide the necessary support to the district when working through determining facility needs and receiving community input. The goal is to develop a plan that identifies the needed facility improvements and to estimate the approximate cost that this plan would have. This plan would then be shared with the public in order to receive input from the community.
- The Board voted to enter into a 28E Agreement with Clinton County to participate in the Clinton County Student Loan Assistance Program, otherwise known by the name Peanut Butter in the community. This program would provide funding to be used to help pay the student loans of individuals who come to live and work in our school district. Several other communities and school districts in Clinton County are considering being involved in this program.
- The Board heard an update from elementary school Principal, Aimee Dohse, regarding the proposal to end in-take conferences on the first day of school and to replace these conferences with a back-to-school night program. The Board will look at taking action on this recommendation during its regular June meeting.
- The Board renewed its memberships in several statewide educational organizations.
- The Board heard the First Reading of several policies that are being reviewed, revised, or replaced to comply with new state laws or requirements.
- Superintendent Parker shared with the Board the great news that the Iowa High School Athletic Association has honored several of our winter sports teams with its “Distinguished in Academic Achievement” recognition. This includes our wrestling team with a team grade point average (GPA) of 3.48, our basketball cheerleaders with a GPA of 3.44, our boys’ basketball team with a GPA of 3.34, and our boys’ bowling team with a GPA of 3.31. Mr. Parker congratulated the athletes and coaches for their ability to maintain the balance of being very successful in the classroom and on “the playing field.” The Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union has not published their information for girls’ winter teams at this time.
As is usually the case, the school board completed the meeting by approving administrative recommendations regarding personnel and also approving open enrollment requests into the Camanche School District.