“Where Children and Learning come First” Volume 37—Number 4 May 2017

May 26th is the last day of school!

Office of the Superintendent Hello FMCSD Community! I can’t believe it was nine months ago when I wrote to you in this format as the new superintendent who had been in Fort Madison a month! I am as excited about the FMCSD today as I was nine months ago. I am impressed with our staff, our students, our parents and the community that surrounds us. Last July, I wrote to you the following:

My leadership priorities this year include making connections and building relationships with the communities that make up the Fort Madison Community School District. I value the relationships with our stakeholders. This also includes continuing to build visibility and connections with outside entities including representing the FMCSD at leadership and networking meetings through the Great Prairie Area Education Association. I strongly believe in a shared vision between the board of directors, the superintendent, administrators, teachers, staff and community for the school district to maximize student learning. As a part of this vision, I strongly encourage you to become involved in our bond referendum project. Our goal is to provide students with a safe, secure environment with engaging learning spaces. Our two elementary facilities fall short of this goal. The elementary students in this district deserve a safe, secure facility with engaging learning spaces that mirror the high quality instruction for our students’ future. Why do I circle back to this? I do so because I believe in what I wrote and I want to hold myself accountable to what I told you back in July. My focus this year has been on building relationships. I believe having the FMCSD represented in service organizations like Kiwanis, Rotary, Fort Madison Partners and Lee County Economic Development are a few examples of our district’s responsibility to the community. I’ve made connections within all of our buildings, at community and district events, and the school district’s AEA region to help put Fort Madison on the educational map. I was just asked yesterday to present to new superintendent’s this July because of the relationships and reputation of the FMCSD. The Iowa State Board of Education’s Director visited us last month. FMCSD is definitely on the educational map! I also talked about a shared vision. The board and I have worked all year in creating new strategic goals aligned with our vision. We will next be sharing with buildings and the community. Finally, I talked about our need for a new elementary school. Our need has not changed…it continues to increase. Please be informed about this need and vote on June 27. In closing, I want to thank the board, staff, students, parents and you as a community for a wonderful 2016-2017 and I am excited for 2017-2018 and beyond! My email address should you ever wish to reach me is [email protected]

www.fmcsd.org

Summer School and Iowa Assessments Kim Harmon, Curriculum and Student Services Director

K-2 Summer School Program If you have paid any attention to the workings of the Iowa state legislature this session, you know that several of the anticipated mandates for education have been delayed or dropped completely. Examples of such mandates are third grade retention and summer school. There will no longer be a required retention or summer school attendance for those students who are not proficient in reading by the end of third grade. As a district we are committed to best practice for kids and are planning to offer summer school for identified students in grades K-2 who are not quite where we would like them to be with their literacy skills. We will be sending letters to families of students who, based on the results of data on Formative Assessment System for Teachers (FAST), will benefit from a few additional weeks of intensive literacy instruction. The program will run June 5-30, Monday-Friday, from 8:30-11:30 a.m. with transportation available. Sack lunch will also be available for students each day. The primary focus of the four-week session will be literacy but math, science, and social studies content will be woven in through the weekly themes. We are excited to provide this extended learning opportunity for our students this year and look forward to growing the program in coming years. Spring 2017 Iowa Assessments Statewide assessment is another area of much conversation over the past few years at the state legislative level. The anticipated implementation of the Smarter Balanced assessment to replace Iowa Assessments has been placed on hold with an uncertain future. We can feel fairly confident that we will see changes in the not too distant future to better align our statewide assessment with our mandated instruction from the Iowa Core curriculum. For now, our evaluation as a district is based on our results on Iowa Assessments. These results feed our score on our state School Report Card. Below are the results of our spring 2017 testing. If you have questions, please contact me at [email protected] or 319-372-7252. GROWTH REPORT This graph summarizes student growth on Iowa Assessments from spring 2016 to spring 2017 in comparison to state and national growth.

Sincerely, Erin M. Slater Superintendent of Schools

Kevin Moon – Director of Maintenance & Operations ___________________________________________________________________ Spring is here and the 2017 summer construction season will soon be upon us. This year we are targeting three major construction projects which are all at the Senior High school. We will continue with phase 2 of the window and HVAC renovation project. This phase will target the remaining north facing classrooms and the two chemistry classrooms. The project will replace the window system, HVAC system (adding air conditioning) and repaint and replace the floor covering in each room. Our other projects will be replacing 5,500 square feet of roofing and replacing the track running surface. Summer is also a busy time for the district Maintenance and Custodial people. We use the summer months to repair, install, modify, clean and refinish as we prepare for the students return in late summer.

IOWA CORE REPORT This graph summarizes the percent of students determined to be proficient on the Iowa Core in Reading for the district, AEA, and state.

Fort Madison High School Greg Smith, Principal “It is a matter of doing what you do best, and not worrying about what the other fello is going to do.” ~ John Adams The calendar says it’s May again, but it sure seems like October…well, ok maybe March, but it sure doesn’t feel like we have a full year in. I hope that for you and your children who were enrolled at FMHS that all in all, you can reflect upon the year and say it was successful! That is truly what we strive for each school year!

The High School continues to create and nurture partnerships in the community. This year we have been working closely with the Lee County Economic Development Group and local business and industry to improve our Career and Technical programs. We know that nearly half of our graduates do not attend a two or four year college program. They require “hit the ground running” work skills that will help them to be successful in technical programs, apprenticeships or the world of work. We will be adding more Construction Trades classes, a new CAD Design class and more Family and Consumer Science Courses. For those students who are planning to attend a college program, we are adding AP classes and more Dual Enrollment courses through our partnership with SCC.

I love this quote from John Adams because it represents what we try to instill in our students. Learning, growing and becoming better people is not a competition with others. There will always be those who excel in areas that we do not. “Do what you do best and do your best at the things you don’t”, that’s my message. We have done a lot of great things this year. Our data tells us that more of our students came to school more often. That the number of students who struggled in their classes was less than the year before. We had far fewer students who ended up in the office and of that almost none who came back for an encore. The High School was a place of growth and change. The biggest change for us this year was the work done on our 21st Century Lab. We were one of 7 schools state-wide to receive the Iowa State STEM Grant worth $25,000! This allowed us to begin putting the final touches on our new space. Here are some pictures of last year and then some from this year. Quite a change in the look of the room, but more importantly, many more students were able to have a place to collaborate, problem solve and learn from one another. Here are some before and after photos to show you how things have changed!

We’re not quite done! Here are the highlights for the rest of the year. Seniors Last Day (All work in!)

May 19

Alumni Hall of Honor Inductee Reception May 23 [5:30 pm Media Center] Senior Scholarship Night

May 23 [6pm in the MPR]

Graduation Practice

May 25

Senior Luncheon

May 25 [Holy Family Parish]

Graduation

May 27 [11 am, HS Gym]

Note: Make sure your Senior has completed CPR certification and Service Learning hours!

Federal Civil Rights Statement USDA Nondiscrimination Statement

We also had our first “12 Plus” class in this new Lab! 16 students partnering with local industry, spent twelve weeks learning about specific skills necessary for successful employment in our area! We also previewed some brand new curriculum with a new Pre-Algebra class for incoming freshmen. Many students benefited by this new class who were not quite ready for Algebra I. We think it will pay dividends for them as they enter their sophomore year. Our Iron Chef students took second place at Indian Hills College, in the fall and first place in the spring! Quite an accomplishment for such a young program. Band and Choir were invited to the 75th Anniversary celebration of Pearl Harbor in Honolulu. What an experience for our kids! Our Construction Trades Program are State Champions this year! This young program (3 years) is growing and meeting the needs of many of our students! We finished our first year with the Creative Learning Center in our building for the first time! Things went very well as the students and staff settled in nicely.

For all other FNS nutrition assistance programs, State or local agencies, and their sub-recipients, must post the following Nondiscrimination Statement: In accordance with Federal civil rights law and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) civil rights regulations and policies, the USDA, its Agencies, offices, and employees, and institutions participating in or administering USDA programs are prohibited from discriminating based on race, color, national origin, sex, disability, age, or reprisal or retaliation for prior civil rights activity in any program or activity conducted or funded by USDA. Persons with disabilities who require alternative means of communication for program information (e.g. Braille, large print, audiotape, American Sign Language, etc.), should contact the Agency (State or local) where they applied for benefits. Individuals who are deaf, hard of hearing or have speech disabilities may contact USDA through the Federal Relay Service at (800) 877-8339. Additionally, program information may be made available in languages other than English. To file a program complaint of discrimination, complete the USDA Program Dis-

crimination Complaint Form, (AD-3027) found online at: http:// www.ascr.usda.gov/complaint_filing_cust.html , and at any USDA office, or

write a letter addressed to USDA and provide in the letter all of the information requested in the form. To request a copy of the complaint form, call (866) 632-9992. Submit your completed form or letter to USDA by: (1) Mail: U.S. Department of Agriculture Office of the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights 1400 Independence Avenue, SW Washington, D.C. 20250-9410; (2) Fax: (202) 690-7442; or (3) email: [email protected] . This institution is an equal opportunity provider. Iowa Nondiscrimination Statement It is the policy of the Department of Education not to discriminate on the basis of race, creed, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, gender, disability, religion, age, political party affiliation, or actual or potential parental, family or marital status in its programs, activities, or employment practices as required by the Iowa Code sections 216.9 and 256.10(2), Titles VI and VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Equal Pay Act of 1973, Title IX, Section 504 (Rehabilitation Act of 1973), and the Americans with Disabilities Act. If you have questions or grievances related to compliance with this policy by the Iowa Department of Education, please contact the legal counsel for the Iowa Department of Education, Grimes State Office Building, Des Moines, IA 50319-0146, telephone number 515-281-5295; or the Director of the Office for Civil Rights, U.S. Department of Education, Citigroup Center, 500 W. Madison Street, Suite 1475, Chicago, IL 60661, telephone number 312/730-1560, fax 312/730-1576, or email: [email protected] Revised August 2014

Lincoln Elementary

Summer

Tracy King, Principal

Todd Dirth, Principal

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Lincoln Elementary School for a fantastic school year. It has been a year of changes and adjustments with me being in one building, but your kindness and generosity have made it successful.

This time last year I was explaining the changes that were going to take place at the Middle School for 2016-2017: put the 4th and 5th graders into the east wing and make it ‘upper elementary,’ move the 6th grade to the north wing for the transition year between upper elementary and middle school. I am thrilled to report there was not a single negative consequence with the moves we made last fall. For the first time in five years I can honestly say the new 4-8 school feels right. We are providing for each grade level an appropriate, quality educational experience.

Our students have worked hard to grow socially, academically, and physically. I can’t believe how tall everyone has gotten during the year. I know our families will continue to work over the summer. Spend time reading, writing, and practicing math to ensure a great start to the school year in the fall. I appreciate all that our parents have done. Without your support, we could not do our jobs. Thank you for sending us your students and entrusting us with their education. The staff have been amazing! They put in countless hours to ensure the best education possible for the students in their classrooms. Not only do they teach meaningful lessons, they make learning fun. Our tutoring program has been a huge success also this year. A special thank you goes out to the Parent/Teacher Group at Lincoln. They have been wonderful and have put in countless hours raising money to provide our schools with amazing amenities. Their energy and commitment to our schools is to be commended. This year was our third joint carnival. We had a tremendous turnout at the high school. I want to thank all that helped make it successful and all the families that came to support our schools. Their energy and commitment to our schools is to be commended. Again, thank you for a super year and I look forward to the 2017-2018 school year. A Few dates to remember:

Aug.3rd and 4th

Registration for new students Lincoln Elementary Th, F 8:00 A.M. – 3:30 P.M.

Aug. 21st

OPEN HOUSE at Lincoln from 4:30-5:30

Aug. 24th

First day of school for 2017-2018

Richardson Elementary Emily Wilson, Principal

As the year winds down the staff and students here at Richardson would like to thank you for your support. Many wonderful things have gone on in our building this year. They include – Walk-a-Thon, Fire Safety week and the assembly that went with it, Kindness week, Read Across America Day, many holidays and the celebrations that come with them, PBIS tickets and celebrations, 2nd and 3rd grade visits to the middle school, homecoming week and the fun activities that we got to participate in, a visit from the Burlington Bees mascot to promote reading, PBIS ticket competitions and prizes, the 100th day of school celebration, Superhero Day, and many more. Your child’s teacher and the team of supports here have also worked very hard to provide a strong academic year for your student. Professional development time has been spend working on the Iowa Core Standards and the instruction tied to them. Teachers have worked with MAP, FAST and Iowa Assessment data to make sound educational decisions for your student. It has been a great year overall and we look forward to working with you again in the fall! Have a great summer! Future dates to put on your calendar: 

August 3rd and 4th – Registration for new students at Richardson 8-4pm

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Mon August 21 – Richardson Open house 4:30 – 5:30pm

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Thurs August 24 – 1st Day of School

A great example of the new look at the MS took place on Wednesday, April 12. Three hundred second and third graders joined our 4th and 5th graders for a day of music and fun. The MS Show Choir and the Jazz Band each performed for the youngsters in an intimate setting, with Ms. Madsen and Ms. Knipe teaching all of the students what to look for in a good performance and what it takes to perform at such a high level. I’m not sure of whom I am more proud; the older kids for being master performers or the younger kids for being an enthusiastic, well-behaved audience, or, for that matter, the faculty from all four grades for being so positive and fun-loving. Between musical performances all students learned, under the tutelage of the MS Student Council leaders, the proper way to dance to YMCA, Macarena, and Peanut Butter and Jelly. After the last performance, all who wanted to, came down to the gym floor to master the Cha Cha Slide, again under the guidance of the Student Council. Once the ‘Slide’ was mastered and everything was put away, we played a rousing rendition of Ultimate Musical Chairs. 8th grade Student Council member Maddie Rashid rocked the gym with her dynamic DJ skills, and fellow SC leaders Madelyn Swigart and Kylee Cashman administered the game itself. Teachers of 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders participated along with a representation of the 4th and 5th grade students. Late in the game we even had some 3rd graders give it a spin. UMC is a high energy, mega-participation game, and everyone was up to the challenge. By the end of the game, hundreds of students had the opportunity to play to some degree or another. It was a great time. Following UMC, the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th grades enjoyed a delicious pizza lunch prepared by Lisa Kibby, the MS food service czar. Her staff and she really outdid themselves, and our visitors from Lincoln and Richardson were extremely pleased with the results, as was all who partook in the meal. While two grades were eating, The Prince of Play, Assistant Principal Brent Zirkel, and his lovely assistants from the world of guidance: Stephanie Dobson and Melissa Helt, led the other two grades in play on the gymnasium floor. As it turned out, the 2nd and 3rd graders buses arrived about the time they finished eating lunch, so they boarded the buses directly after lunch. This is precisely the activity we hoped to see when we moved 4/5 to the east wing and ‘opened’ our new upper elementary. I am excited to think of the possibilities in the future. I can’t say enough about Tracy King and Emily Wilson, administrators at Lincoln and Richardson, and all of their teachers. What a great group of teachers working with our 2nd and 3rd graders. Their patience and attitudes were sterling, and I much appreciate it.

Registration for the 2017-18 School Year Registration begins on-line for the 2017-18 school year in mid– July. Please watch for an exact date. To do this, you need a working user name and password for the PowerSchool Parent Portal. Call your child’s school before the end of the year, if you need assistance with your user name and password. There are directions for e-registration on the back of this newsletter. If you have difficulty completing the e-registration process, you may go to the high school during the week below. The high school library will have computers available for your use and staff to work with you on the schedule that follows: August 1 8:00-10:00 AM August 2 4:00-6:00 PM August 3 8:00-10:00 AM New families who have not attended the Fort Madison Schools may begin to register their students August 4th in any of the building offices. We ask that all parents complete registration by August 12th so that buildings may plan for the number of students who are registered. If you have questions, call your student’s school.

FREE PRESCHOOL Y Kids Preschool: (319) 372-2403 Carousel Preschool: (319) 372-1424 Children must be 4 years of age by September 15th. A small registration fee will be charged to hold your space. Enrollment will continue until all openings are filled.

PowerSchool E-Registration Parent Guide

Transportation

In order to provide a more flexible and cost effective approach to student registration, we will continue to provide an online enrollment process which will be used to register students for the 17/18 school year. If you are the parent / guardian of a returning student you are already familiar with this process. We would like to remind you of a few steps you can take to ensure that registration will go as smoothly as it did last year. ERegistration will open on Wednesday July 6th. You can start registering your student(s) for the 17/18 school year at that time.

Richard Hand, Director of Transportation

How will e-registration work? You need to have a parent portal account set up. If you do not have an active account please keep reading, if you already have an account please skip to “E-Registration Process.”

Setting up a Parent Portal Account If you do not currently have a parent portal account you will need to set one up before you can register your child(ren) online. There are a few different options to get this accomplished. Option 1: Your student’s school may have sent you a letter with the access code and access password to link your student(s) to your account. If this is the case please visit http:// wiki.fmcsd.org/for-parents/powerschool for instructions on how to set up the parent portal account using these access codes. Option 2: If you did not receive a letter you may call your student’s school and talk to someone about helping you set up your account. Option 3: Send an email to [email protected] to request the information.

E-Registration Process

Fort Madison School Districts have added new lighting on some of their buses to help decrease illegal school bus passing. The small-but-bright LED units are positioned just above the bumper, with two on the front of the bus and two on the rear. The supplemental lights are wired into the existing eight-way warning light system of the bus, so they flash red when the standard red lights flash, as students are boarding or exiting at bus stops. Piloting lights The Iowa Department of Education launched a pilot project to test supplemental warning lights just above the bumpers of school buses. The idea was that these lights would be closer to eye level for most motorists — and therefore more likely to attract their attention as they approach a stopped bus. The pilot project ran from August 2014 to July 2016. The lights were installed on a total of 10 school buses in five Iowa school districts, at a cost of about $300 per bus. While the primary goal of the project had been to prevent rear-ending of stopped school buses, the testing of the supplemental lights quickly uncovered another benefit: reducing illegal passing of stopped school buses. Christensen says the districts that participated in the pilot project have seen decreases of at least 50% in stop-arm violations.

Please go to the Parent PowerSchool log in page: https://ps-fmcsd.gwaea.org/public/ In the Login box enter your User Name and Password, click Submit. If you have forgotten your username and or password simply click on the link ‘having trouble signing in?’ for help. After you sign in the PowerSchool Parent Portal screen will display. Each of the students attached to your account will display in the bar below the PowerSchool Logo (upper left portion of the screen). Choose the first student by clicking on the student’s name. Parents have the option to change the language E-Registration is presented in by clicking on

Targeting violations One of the participants was Davis County Community School District (CSD), which runs 17 school bus routes throughout an area of about 485 square miles in southern Iowa. For its part in the pilot project, the Bloomfield-based district put its two buses equipped with supplemental lights on routes that traverse the area’s two main highways. “Those are our most dangerous bus routes,” says Dan Roberts, director of support services for Davis County CSD. “They have to stop on busy highways.”

in the upper right portion of the screen.

In the left menu, scroll down and click E-Registration: The E-Registration process begins with the Demographics tab. The screen is presented with data that is currently on file in the center of the screen. Updates or new entries may be completed in the right column of the screen. Please ONLY enter updates/changes. Parents will be taken through nine steps to complete the following updates:

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Student Demographics (screen 1)

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Student – address, phone numbers, etc.

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Home Language Survey (screen 2)

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Language information required by the state to be gathered from every student.

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Guardian (screen 3)

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Parent – address, phone numbers, employer, etc.

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Emergency Contacts (screen 4)

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Name, relationship, contact phone numbers

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Health (screen 5)

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Medications and health concerns

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Permissions (screen 6)

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Parents grant or deny permission for their student school activities

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Fees (screen 7)

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Fees: School fees or lunch accounts are electronically paid here

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Forms (screen 8)

On one of those routes, at least one violation had been occurring per week. With the introduction of the extra flashing lights, the violation rate dropped to about one every two months.

“Once we put those [lights] on, we immediately got results,” Roberts says. “It was like somebody waved a magic wand.”

YMCA Kids & Company Preschool and Carousel Preschool

Other Forms: Access to district specific forms. Examples include: Athletic physical, etc. Finish (screen 9) After completing one student, parents have the opportunity to copy address and phone data to another student. The following message will be presented on the demographics, parent/guardian and emergency contact screen:

This means while on the Demographics screen for Paige, click on the other students name (Cameron), addresses, phone numbers, etc., are copied to the entry fields for Paige. Additional updates may be made after the copy is completed. All steps (Demographics, Language, Guardians, Emergency, Health, Permissions, Forms and Fees) must be completed for each student. When the message, “E-Registration has been completed” (sample below) appears, you may select another student and begin.

Registration has begun for the YMCA Kids & Company Preschool and Carousel Preschool for the 2017-18 school year! Both schools offer quality, tuitionfree preschool for your child through the Statewide Voluntary Preschool Program. There is a $20 fee required to hold your spot on the roster and spaces are filling fast! There is a 20 student limit per class and we operate on a first come, first serve basis. You can obtain more information or enroll your child by contacting the Y at 372-2403 ext. 4 or Carousel Preschool at 372-1424. Children must be 4 years of age by Sept. 15th and be an Iowa resident. Take advantage of this great opportunity to provide your child with a quality early childhood experience and enroll today!

"Do you have a child age Birth-3years? Does your child have a condition that affects his or her growth & development or do you have concerns about their ability to play, hear, see, talk or move? Building Secretaries review every change request and provide final approval for updates into PowerSchool. Thank you for participating in Electronic Registration! We appreciate your support!

If so, your child may be eligible for Early ACCESS services. Most services are provided at no-charge. For further information call FMCSD at 319-3727252 or Great Prairie Area Education Agency at 39-372-1838 or 1-800-3828970."