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School Board members get ‘energized’ at Monday meeting

By Lana Bradstream 5 min read

Marshalltown Community School Board members were able to get on their feet and participate in an activity during the regular Monday meeting. The activity, Energizer, was during the Franklin Elementary Showcase. School staff Principal Tim Holmgren, Counselor Dani Minkel and Instructional Coach Amy Phillips gave the showcase presentation.

"Thank you for us having some time with you tonight to showcase things happening at Franklin Elementary this school year," Holmgren said.

Since the board members were sitting for a while, it was an opportunity to showcase the activity. Standing up, the board and district administration gathered in a circle to participate. Holmgren said the activity is used to reenergize students who might be sluggish. It also gives them an opportunity to laugh after a lot of school work, while still focusing on academics.

"The Energizer is one of the instructional strategies, tools I should say, we use throughout our building throughout the day, when we get to points in the day when kids are maybe a little restless or maybe they need something to pick them up," Holmgren said.

Holmgren laid out the rules of the Energizer activity called "Nine." Participants said consecutive numbers, up to nine, going to the left. Holmgren said the trick was to not be the person to say "nine," because if they were, they would have to sit down. A participant had the option of saying two consecutive numbers, rather than just one.

"The trick is trying to use number sense to kind of predict who is going to sit down first," he said. "You go until one person is left standing. We're going to energize the group and play 'Nine.'"

Director of Technology Amy Harmsen won the game.

"As you can see from that brief time, it energized the group. We had laughter. We had people thinking," Holmgren said. "We were listening to each other and we were having fun."

Besides learning firsthand about Franklin students' school life, board members heard all three of the staff speak about different aspects of the learning environment. Minkel shared the Social, Academic, Emotional Behavior Risk Screener (SAEBRS) with the board. SAEBRS is administered in response to how students in kindergarten through fourth grade behave in school.

The goal of SAEBRS is for low-risk behavior at school to increase and the higher risk behavior to decrease throughout the year. Minkel said that would show the work staff have done to improve social emotional wellness since the 2021-22 school year.

"You can see from last year at Franklin, every grade, except fourth grade, made improvements and fourth grade did not see a decrease in scores," Minkel said. "They, overall from fall to spring, stayed right where they were at."

She said it was the first time since SAEBRS was implemented that Franklin reflected improvement.

Holmgren said Franklin has implemented a system to control and maintain voice levels, with Bobby the Bobcat featured prominently. Voice levels (0, Silent; 1, Whisper; 2, Indoor Voice; 3, Partner Talk; and 4, Outdoor) are indicated on posters in common areas of the building so students are aware which level is acceptable.

"We try to use this common language throughout our building, not only in our classrooms, but in our hallways, restrooms, lunchroom, recess at times and district buses," he said.

Franklin has also implemented Responsive Classroom teaching practices, such as the Energizers. Other practices include Quiet Time, Morning Meeting and Interactive Learning Structures.

Another practice is Establishing Rules, in which teachers and students identify goals and determine rules to help everyone reach those goals. Minkel said it is stressed to have less than six rules, and the implementation is different from other schools.

"They still want the students and the staff to have common area expectations, but they do not want the expectations to be predetermined by staff and then taught to students," she said. "Instead they want it to be a collaborative effort between the staff and the students."

Another aspect of the showcase was the literacy program, presented by Phillips. She said they have a plan to improve literacy scores consisting of literacy flex time and coaching teachers about instruction. Holmgren said they are also focusing on reading accuracy to improve comprehension and fluency.

Holmgren ended the showcase presentation by highlighting the three goals of Franklin Elementary. The first two are for all of the grades to meet literacy and math goals. The final is for 95 percent of the students to have one or less major office referrals.

In other business, board members:

• Approved a request from Director of Special Services Matt Cretsinger to request $575,650 from the School Budget Review Committee to cover the special education deficit. The deficit is in a decline, which is good and bad. Cretsinger said as much as he enjoys seeing the deficit decrease, one reason it is occurring is the struggle in hiring special education staff. Cretsinger said special education funds primarily support salaries and the remaining is used for equipment, instructional materials, program expenses, services and more. He told the board it is federal law for districts to provide services to students at no cost to families. Student Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) determine how the funds are used. IEPs can include activities, services and equipment specific for a student's education. The highest enrollment of Marshalltown Community School District special education students was more than 850 last year.

• Approved hiring Ahlers & Cooney as bond counsel for the $3 million in SAVE revenue bonds. Board member Zach Wahl abstained from voting.

• Scheduled a Nov. 6 public hearing to adopt plans for the Marshalltown HIgh School Career Technical and Education (CTE) wing project.

• Approved the plans and costs of the tornado safe room and the high school HVAC projects.

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Contact Lana Bradstream at 641-753-6611 ext. 210 or

lbradstream@timesrepublican.com.

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