T-R PHOTO BY LANA BRADSTREAM Marshalltown Community School District Board members Zach Wahl, Elizabeth Wise and Sara Faltys listen to the updated goals for the board and the superintendent during the regular meeting. Due to Labor Day, the meeting was held on Tuesday.

Following the Aug. 18 Marshalltown Community School Board work session, Superintendent Theron Schutte said he did his best to revise stated goals for the board and himself. He presented the information during the regular meeting held on Tuesday due to Labor Day, rather than the first Monday of the month.

The revisions are to be more reflective of what the board discussed, he said.

“For the board – student achievement, continued emphasis on making sure we are providing concise and meaningful and regular data presentations,” Schutte said. “I also added a note that as we develop additional key performance indicators for the strategic plan, that will become part of that as well. Then continued emphasis on improving or increasing student attendance and reducing chronic absenteeism.”

Schutte said they will continue to participate collectively in board development opportunities and added that the Iowa Association of School Boards is planning on hosting a December workshop in Marshalltown at the Orpheum.

He said they also talked about the presence of board members at school functions, which has never been an issue.

“I think extra points were earned by the concession stand workers the other day,” Schutte said. “That was quite a feat.”

A short, light-hearted conversation followed amongst the board members on how busy the concession stand was for the Marshalltown vs. Ames football game on Friday. It was suggested by Board Member Zach Wahl that they might have set a record. Schutte said that might apply since it was the first game, and the opponent was Ames.

Schutte then continued with the updated goals, stating board members will continue with school building curriculum visits as those have been well received.

“We will, this year, assign a board member to each of the six elementaries and Lenihan, for sure,” he said. “So you can make a special connection there and then over the years, we can rotate that so you can get exposed to different people, different buildings. We will probably give it another week or two for things to get settled with the new school year before we do that.”

The conversation moved to the superintendent goals, and Schutte said they will continue monitoring strategies addressing achievement gaps and accelerated learning.

“Which is mission critical to our achievement of all buildings being commendable and better on the report card,” he said.

For construction, Schutte said they will continue to push hard to successfully finish Franklin Field this fall or early winter.

“Things are moving extremely well with the Reimagine Miller project,” he said. “I would anticipate at our next meeting, or shortly after in October, you will be hearing again from Invision and Boyd Jones in terms of where things are. They’re still tracking to hopefully go out to bid in late January or February.”

An emphasis will also be placed on implementing and monitoring strategies to reduce chronic absenteeism. As far as communications are concerned, Schutte said they will continue highlighting successes of students, staff and community partners and making a point to have two points of pride at each school board meeting. He hopes to find additional MCSD employees to contribute to the monthly opinion pieces in the Times-Republican.

For safety, Schutte said a lot of work has been done on the plan and cheat sheets have been made for teachers for easier implementation.

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Contact Lana Bradstream

at 641-753-6611 ext. 210 or

lbradstream@timesrepublican.com.