The Perry Community School District Board of Education received upbeat reports from the Summer School and PACES programs at their monthly meeting Monday.
Amy McCord was present to report to the board on what she termed “a very successful” summer school program.
The program, for kindergartners through fifth graders, ran from June 29 through July 30. McCord noted that of the 200 invitations sent to parents, 136 had returned enrollment forms. Among those attending were 12 students were from St. Patrick’s Catholic School and three who were new to the district and had exceptional needs, including beginning English.
The program was instructed by 16 elementary and six middle or high school teachers, as well as seven teachers from outside the district and 14 para-educators.
In a typical summer school day, students spent 90 minutes in a reading classroom, broke for recess, then had 90 minutes of math, with kindergarten and first grade students receiving one-on-one tutorial instruction on phonics. Lunch was served to all, and the students were treated to a Summer Safari educational fair July 16 that was presented by Iowa Public Television.
McCord noted students checked books out of the library throughout the program, and they could earn “Perry Prides” for meeting reading goals and for good behavior, which they could exchange for new books for their home libraries.
Board director Marjean Gries said she “liked the idea of books instead of rewarding them with ‘stuff.’ I think that was very proactive on your part.”
Gail McFarlin, director of Food Services, reported on the summer food program. She said the daily average for lunches at the high school had been 31, down from 47 in 2014. The elementary school served an average of 144 breakfasts daily — up from 130 last year — and that lunches averaged 207, down from 211.
“We picked up quite a few breakfasts from kids who were walking over from the McCreary Building after morning swim practice,” she noted.
She also explained a grant received from the Bureau of Nutrition. Termed “First Books” and administered by the USDA, charitable fraternity Pi Beta Phi helped distribute the books, with Des Moines one of only five places in the U.S. chosen as a distribution hub.
“From that they chose us,” McFarlin said, noting that to be eligible a school must make the request and have at least 70 percent of the summer meal program qualifying for free or reduced meals. “We received 400 books that were targeted for pre-teens in grades five and six. As you can imagine, that was pretty popular.”
McFarlin explained to the board the avian flu epidemic was affecting Perry and a number of area schools and would greatly reduce the availability of eggs and of freshly baked items.
“We will make do,” she assured the board. “It just might be that not everyone is going to get blueberry muffins every day.”
Mary Hillman, PACES Director, provided information to the board on their summer program.
“We just had our 15th birthday,” she said. “PACES was born in August of 2000 and had our first program in 2001 and, boy, have we grown since then.”
The summer program ran for nine weeks and operated from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays. A total of 122 children were registered, of whom 17 were of preschool age. The average daily attendance was 90 children.
Hillman noted PACES received a $10,000 grant from the Central Iowa Juvenile Detention Center in Eldora that allowed her reduce most enrollment fees by $20.
“They said they recognized that we have a great reputation for dealing with at-risk kids,” Hillman said. “We received nearly $55,000 in grants, and those monies go a long way towards allowing us to do what we do.”
Hillman presented a detailed syllabus to the board, explaining what the educational focus of each week was. She noted students were able to visit the Iowa Arboretum, Iowa Hall of Pride, Iowa Capitol building, the Science Center of Iowa, the Iowa State University Engineering Department, the Iowa Art Center and Pappajohn Sculpture Park on their Friday field trips. Stops also included the Boone and Glidden pools and the aquatic centers in Ames and West Des Moines.
“Everywhere we went we heard nothing but compliments on how well-behaved our kids were and how they all showed great manners,” Hillman said. “They were extremely interested in every site we visited and, in fact, were so well-mannered when we visited the capitol that we were given a tour of Governor Branstad’s office, which was a real thrill for them.”
In other action, the board approved revisions to the 2015-2016 Preschool Program Policy Handbook, approved an agreement with Perry Child Development Center regarding the provision of daily meals and consented to revise several board policies.
Hires, transfers, resignations and lane changes were also approved, as was an agreement to name Hy-Vee as produce vendor. The board gave their consent for an allowable growth request for special education deficit.
Superintendent Lynn Ubben noted with sadness the resignation of Merrilee Bales as Drama Director at Perry High School.
“Merrilee has done a wonderful job, and she is going to be missed,” she said.
The meeting adjourned at 6:43 p.m. The PCSD Board of Education meets at 6 p.m. on the second Monday of each month in the Brady Library at the Perry High School. The next scheduled meeting is Sept. 14.
