HTC Early Childhood Centers
School Board Report – December 15, 2009
Melissa Pieper, Director

I apologize that I am not able to make it to the meeting.  I have class at 6:30pm on Tuesday nights.  Have a wonderful meeting and please let me know if you have any questions about my report. 

Faith Development-

1. The kindergarten will be singing at the concert on Wednesday night in West Point at 7:00. 

Instructional Leadership/Curriculum

1. All the Fort Madison ECC teacher had their formal observations with Doris .  From what I have heard it seems that all of those observations went well. 

1. The dates for kindergarten round up have been set.  The parent meeting will be in Fort Madison on February 16^th at 6:30pm and on February 18^th in West Point at 6:30pm.  The actual round ups will take place in Fort Madison on February 23^rd starting at 9:00am and in West Point on February 25^th at 9:00am. 
2. The folders to pass out at the parent meetings are being put together.  We plan to have at least 50 folders prepared for the meetings. 

Building Updates-

1. Cyndi Mason, our nurse consultant, has agreed to add our substitutes to her list for both CPR and 1^st Aid.  It will only cost $3.50 for each class.  I did attempt to contact some other individuals and did not hear back from them. 

Fort Madison :

1. The heater/boiler has been working great so far this winter.  The mixer has still not been installed. 
2. The daycare and school age care will be open the 2 holiday weeks with the exception of December 24^th and 25^th and January 1^st. 

St. Paul :

1. St. Paul ECC will continue to collect cans at the school at every other month in West Point and Houghton.  The proceeds go to the school. 

    

HTC Elementary School Board Report

December 15, 2009

Sara Mohrfeld

* Sorry, I will not be able to attend tonight’s meeting.  I hope everyone has a blessed and safe holiday and I will see you all in the New Year!  -Sara

Faith Development

We will be having an Advent Mass on Wednesday December 16th at 8:45.

Students are not attending Mass with the residents at the West Point Care Center during the cold/flu season.  Once the Care Center thinks it is safe for the students to be around the residents, we will resume attending Mass on the first and third Thursdays of each month.

We will be having our 4th week of Advent service on Friday, December 18th.

We participated in communal penance Tuesday, December 1st.

The Catholic Messenger page for the elementary was wonderful!

Students took part in a Christmas card coloring contest through the Catholic Messenger; if they are chosen they will be featured in the Catholic Messenger in December.

Instructional Leadership

Teachers are continuing their hard work implementing the Just Ask science, ESC math, ELY science, and many other initiatives.

We continue to learn about the promethean boards and the wonderful asset they are to our classrooms!  Even the teachers who don’t currently have one in their rooms are learning a thing or two!

Public Relations/Student Involvement

1.         Students in grades 4-6 that are involved in the YC (Youth Crusader)

Choir did a fantastic job performing at Christmas party at Dennis and Kate Menke’s home!  Thank you to them, all the parents, and especially Judy Peck!

We have been lucky to been given a recycling trailer from the GRRWA.  We applied for this trailer through a grant and were happy to receive it!  Students in grade 6 help to gather each room’s recycling each week to load into the trailer.

All students donated money to the local Project child; we then went and purchased over $200.00 in items for the children!  They also collected over $90.00 and 70 boxes of cake and brownie mixes for the food pantry.  These were our Advent Angel projects.

Student Activities

The Christmas concert for K-6 will be Wednesday, December 16 at 7:00.  The students have been working hard to make this a great concert!

The 5th/6th grade girls/boys are in full swing with the basketball season!  Good luck!

The 5-12 band concert is rescheduled for Wednesday, January 13th.

Building

I am still looking into purchasing a bench and trash can for our playground with money from a memorial.

 HTC Board of Education Report, December 15, 2009

Doris S. Turner, Chief Admin. Officer

Faith Development   The 7 – 12 building will have their Christmas Mass on

                  Thursday.  The band students will be included in the music liturgy.

The vocal music deparment presented a wonderful Christmas concert on

Sunday at St. Mary’s Church in Ft. Madison .  We are so thankful our students can celebrate the season with Christ at the center stage.

The National Honor Society is collecting socks and underwear for the

Head Start children of the area.  The student council had a successful

“Toy Dance” this past Saturday.  The religion classes have sent several

packages to our military stationed overseas.

Professional Development – Teachers continue to participate in various initiatives

                  through the AEA.

7-12 teachers are continuing to practice the on-line grading so that the

system can become active for the second semester.  Donna McVeigh is

responsible for the necessary training. 

Instructional Leadership – I continue to observe faculty.  The 7 – 12 building visits

                 will be completed by January 8.  Post –observation conferences are still

                 being held.

I will meet with the super-conference superintendents on Thursday

afternoon.  Topics of discussion will be levels of competition at the

various schools, transportation, etc.

Students and teachers were very flexible with the changes necessitated by

the bad weather.  Remember that there are no open gyms, practices etc

when the weather has caused bad roads or severe wind-chills cause a safety issue.  HTC’s position is always to do what is safe for the student and or employee.  The district is so large that we always need to let parents, teachers, determine whether the road conditions need to keep certain people home.

Diocesan, State, and Federal Issues    The December Diocesan principals’ meeting

                was cancelled due to bad weather.  We meet again January 12, 2010.

This Sunday’s “ Des Moines Register” had an article addressing some of

State’s tax credit programs.  The STO program was briefly mentioned. The email stream that has been forwarded to you over the past several

weeks has addressed some of the comments by legislator, lobbyists, etc.

We need to keep aware of the situation and contact people when necessary.

Other Information and Questions:  We need to firm up what we want to do for Catholic Schools “State of the Schools” meeting as far as date and format.

We will be discussing budget. . .