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Keokuk to join forces with Iowa JAG
By Steve Dunn/Gate City Managing Editor
The Keokuk School Board Monday decided to participate in a supplemental educational program that works with middle and/or high school students to provide a comprehensive school-to-career curriculum.
Iowa Jobs for America's Graduates, Inc. serves about 900 students and adds 40 to 45 students a year, according to Laurie Phelan, president of Iowa JAG. Phelan explained the program to the school board on Nov. 10.
Iowa JAG hires a teacher for a school district after a memorandum of understanding is signed to invite the program on campus. The Iowa JAG teacher has two or three classes each day with six to 16 students per class.
On Nov. 10, Phelan told the school board the program works to engage students who may be at-risk, to increase graduation rates, develop workplace competencies and aid in workplace success.
“We like to have 40 to 45 students in a school in our program,” she added. “We provide individual career plans for each student in the program. We teach teamwork and volunteering in the community.”
The school board will determine the credit weight for the class. The teacher will be under the supervision of Iowa JAG and the Keokuk School District administration.
The program should be in place in the school district at the start of the 2009-10 school year. The district's share of the cost will be $13,000.
In other business, pre-school teacher Chris Hinton gave an overview of the voluntary pre-school program in the district that was established in October 2007 with 24 students. There are 10 standards and 152 criteria to meet in the program, she said.
Twelve of the 24 students had perfect attendance during the first quarter, she noted. A research-based creative curriculum is used that has 50 goals and objectives. The students have gone on field trips to such places as an apple orchard, farm, Keokuk Area Hospital and McDonald's.
Board President Dr. Wilson Davis and board members Tom Gardner and Tyler McGhghy reported on their trip to the Iowa School Board Convention recently.
Davis said it was the best school board convention he's attended. The core curriculum passed by the Iowa Legislature earlier this year is somewhat at odds with the federal No Child Left Behind Act, he added.
Gardner, an instructor at the Southeastern Community College-Keokuk campus, said he went because his students at SCC wanted him to tell people at the convention the No Child Left Behind law isn't working. Gardner attended sessions on alternatives to standardized testing, which include portfolio assessments.
Unlike standardized tests, portfolio assessments do not have to be reduced to numerical or percentage scores, Gardner said.
McGhghy described how the students in a school district near Fort Dodge have at least one year of college credit when they graduate from high school, helping reduce the cost of college in their cases.
The board also:
Approved the second reading of board policies on instructional arrangements, services, pupil progress and instructional materials.
Agreed to make no changes in the district's early retirement incentive package for now.
Approved the first reading of board policies on student personnel, tobacco-free and conflict of interest.
Approved a $637,277 request for additional allowable growth for the district's at-risk programs. The 2009-10 at-risk and Alternative School programs are budgeted at $850,306. In addition to the Alternative School and at-risk home-to-school liaisons, the program includes the before and after school program, Iowa JAG and court-placed juvenile officer/COPS officer in the middle school and high school.
Approved an employment agreement with middle school cook Barb Conn, a coaching contract with Shawn Williamson as head boys track coach and program coordinator and a 21st century learning communities grant position with Melissa Beebe.
Iowa Jobs for America's Graduates, Inc. serves about 900 students and adds 40 to 45 students a year, according to Laurie Phelan, president of Iowa JAG. Phelan explained the program to the school board on Nov. 10.
Iowa JAG hires a teacher for a school district after a memorandum of understanding is signed to invite the program on campus. The Iowa JAG teacher has two or three classes each day with six to 16 students per class.
On Nov. 10, Phelan told the school board the program works to engage students who may be at-risk, to increase graduation rates, develop workplace competencies and aid in workplace success.
“We like to have 40 to 45 students in a school in our program,” she added. “We provide individual career plans for each student in the program. We teach teamwork and volunteering in the community.”
The school board will determine the credit weight for the class. The teacher will be under the supervision of Iowa JAG and the Keokuk School District administration.
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In other business, pre-school teacher Chris Hinton gave an overview of the voluntary pre-school program in the district that was established in October 2007 with 24 students. There are 10 standards and 152 criteria to meet in the program, she said.
Twelve of the 24 students had perfect attendance during the first quarter, she noted. A research-based creative curriculum is used that has 50 goals and objectives. The students have gone on field trips to such places as an apple orchard, farm, Keokuk Area Hospital and McDonald's.
Board President Dr. Wilson Davis and board members Tom Gardner and Tyler McGhghy reported on their trip to the Iowa School Board Convention recently.
Davis said it was the best school board convention he's attended. The core curriculum passed by the Iowa Legislature earlier this year is somewhat at odds with the federal No Child Left Behind Act, he added.
Gardner, an instructor at the Southeastern Community College-Keokuk campus, said he went because his students at SCC wanted him to tell people at the convention the No Child Left Behind law isn't working. Gardner attended sessions on alternatives to standardized testing, which include portfolio assessments.
Unlike standardized tests, portfolio assessments do not have to be reduced to numerical or percentage scores, Gardner said.
McGhghy described how the students in a school district near Fort Dodge have at least one year of college credit when they graduate from high school, helping reduce the cost of college in their cases.
The board also:
Approved the second reading of board policies on instructional arrangements, services, pupil progress and instructional materials.
Agreed to make no changes in the district's early retirement incentive package for now.
Approved the first reading of board policies on student personnel, tobacco-free and conflict of interest.
Approved a $637,277 request for additional allowable growth for the district's at-risk programs. The 2009-10 at-risk and Alternative School programs are budgeted at $850,306. In addition to the Alternative School and at-risk home-to-school liaisons, the program includes the before and after school program, Iowa JAG and court-placed juvenile officer/COPS officer in the middle school and high school.
Approved an employment agreement with middle school cook Barb Conn, a coaching contract with Shawn Williamson as head boys track coach and program coordinator and a 21st century learning communities grant position with Melissa Beebe.
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