The principals from all three Perry public schools addressed the Perry Community School District Board of Education at their September meeting, with all three agreeing the school year had gotten off to “an even better than expected” start.
“There are a lot of people to thank for the smooth start,” high school principal Dan Marburger said. “The bus people under Troy (Griffith) have done great, and Gail (McFarlin) and her crew are managing to feed 1,000 kids in 90 minutes between the high school and middle school. It is something else to watch.”
Marburger noted that PHS has 625 “kids on the roster” which equates to “600 or so on campus” and that, so far as he was aware, “we have one open locker.”
He discussed at some length the upcoming switch to Standards Based Grading (SBG) and what that will mean to the high school, as grades 9-12 cannot jettison a 4.0 GPA for numerous reasons, particularly on account of colleges and universities relying upon it.
“We have had building leadership teams at all three buildings working on making sure a 4 is a 4, a 3 is a 3, that kind of thing, because it is crucial we have that kind of uniformity,” Marburger explained. “We will have a pilot program in place for spring of 2018 to use and explain to the public. At the high school we will used a 4-3-2-1 system with an ‘IE’ or ‘insufficient evidence’ as well, while K-8 will use 3-2-1 and ‘IE’ for their grades.
“We are still looking at other districts that are making this switch and will happily steal any ideas that work,” he continued. “There will have to be a lot of outreach, a lot of working out how report cards will work and what they will mean. We have a lot of work to do, but it is going well so far.”
Middle School Principal Shaun Kruger echoed Marburger’s remarks concerning the seamless start to the new school year.
“You expect there to be a few hiccups along the way, but nothing like that this year,” he said. “I agree with Dan that our staff and workers have done an outstanding job.”
Kruger discussed with the board what he called “the ongoing success” of the ‘Power Up’ program, a 30-minute period where students can receive aid in reading and math.
He also noted the middle and elementary schools will be moving, as planned, to SBG in 2017-2018, a full year ahead of the high school.
Joel Martin and Ned Menke, Perry Elementary Co-Principals, joked that they, too, agreed the school year was off to a successful start. The duo discussed student behavioral expectations — which they said were being met — as well as other topics, including a planned ALICE drill slated for late October.
ALICE, or Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, Evacuate is part of a system to help insure school safety.
Students will leave the building in a rehearsed and pre-planned order, proceeding “at a brisk walk, call it a 25 percent (running) pace,” Martin said, to one of several rally points.
Authorities will, of course, be involved in the drill, and Martin said the school would be notifying neighbors so as to not cause alarm.
“We will make sure to publicize everything well ahead of time so the public is aware of what we are doing,” he said. “And we will have gone over everything with the kids several times. They will know what to do and will not be surprised when it happens — the last thing we want to do is frighten the students, and we won’t.”
New Opportunities, Inc. (Head Start) and Perry Child Development Center had food service agreements with the Perry schools approved. The former will reimburse the district $1.95 for each child breakfast, $3.15 per child lunch and 95 cents for each snack. PCDC will reimburse the district $3.08 for each lunch. It was noted that the difference in lunch prices were based not on transportation or distance to site but rather that PCDC does not receive milk.
In other action, the board approved a master form of contract for game officials and authorized signatures to be used for those contracts and for other matters.
The board approved several minor changes to policies, agreed to participate in the Iowa Drug and Alcohol Test Program and approved a Title I application.
Superintendent Lynn Ubben briefly reported to the board, the board approved personnel matters and several committee and board appointments were made.
The board also approved setting a standard time for their monthly meetings, which will remain at 6 p.m. on the second Monday of each month in the Brady Library at PHS.
