HTC Early Childhood Centers
School Board Report – February 22, 2010
Melissa Pieper, Director

Faith Development-

1. We sent home thank you notes to parents and priests during Catholic Schools Week. 

Instructional Leadership/Curriculum

1. Mrs. Knustrom received $80 worth of math manipulatives for attending the Every Student Counts (math) class.  The class is now complete and monthly meetings with other Holy Trinity teachers will continue until May. 
2. I attended a meeting on Thursday February 21^st to discuss the new format for the Children First grant.  We receive this grant to pay the salaries of the associates in St. Paul .  I will ask Kathy to help me write the grant proposal. 

Public Relations/Marketing & Development:

1. The ad for Kindergarten round-up ran in both the Democrat and the Catholic Messenger.  There will be an ad running in the Catholic Messenger this week about preschool registration.  There should also be information about preschool open houses in the FYI section of the Democrat and in the church bulletins.
2. We have 13 children signed up for round-up in Fort Madison and 7 children signed up for round-up in West Point .  Some of the children from FM will probably attend kindergarten in WP. 
3. We had more than expected at our parent meeting in FM and had 2 parents show up for the parent meeting in WP.  However, most of the parents in WP already have children in the system so that was the reason many of them did not attend the meeting.

Building Updates-

1. Round-ups will be held Tuesday February 23^rd in Fort Madison and Thursday February 25^th in West Point .

Fort Madison :

1. We finished our book fair last Friday.  We made $1,298.14.  We get to keep 40% of the profit.  Since the weather has not been very good we were able to keep the fair longer than expected so that helped us make a little extra money. 
2. After March 1^st we will have 2 substitutes who will be certified in both CRP and 1^st Aid and will be able to stay by themselves in the building.  I really appreciate Cyndi Mason going out of her way to get this done for me/us.
3. There is an open house for preschool and pre-k on Wednesday February 24^th from 5-7pm in the ECC building.
4. Our last Leap-into-Kindergarten day was supposed to be today, but since school was cancelled we will have to reschedule. 

St. Paul :

1. The thermostat was installed in the gym.  It is much warmer when the children use it for large motor activities. 
2. There is an open house in St. Paul this Sunday from 2-4pm in the preschool room.  Please spread the word!!!

HTC Board of Education Report, February 22, 2010

Doris S. Turner, Administrator

Faith Development – Ash Wednesday services were held at the various buildings.

            Reconciliation services will be held at HTC on March 11, 2010.  Students

            are involved in personal and group Lenten service projects.

2.      The Diocesan meeting scheduled to discuss the new high school religion

curriculum was cancelled because of the weather.  We will send representatives when it is rescheduled.

Professional Development  The weather continues to disrupt the observation of

            teachers in the classroom but the process will continue.

2.      Teachers at the Feb. 17 in-service identified data points for each class

level that may indicate areas of student performance that need to be

examined more closely.   These item analysis notes are one source for helping

us determine annual student goals.

3.      An AEA representative worked with the lower elementary teachers in

looking at math student assessments and how that will impact instruction at those levels.

Instructional Leadership/Programs    We have resumed our p.e. students attending

            the YMCA for classes when possible as the instructor is once more available.

            We have two periods in the morning.

            I am in the process of trying to arrange for water aerobics/exercise classes  

            later in the school year.

2.      I am recommending the we have Ryan Rump’s drivers’ education course

again this year.  He will teach one 2 week session in West Point at the elementary library and one 2 week session at the 7-12 building.

3.      Teachers sent home mid-term reports using the grading program this

weekend.  We mailed home the reports along with the Iowa tests results.  As parents are now able to check student progress on –line we have included in this mailing a request that they call our office if they wanted to continue to receive mailed reports, otherwise, to save postage, etc. we will only mail home semester grade reports.  Teachers and parents are still adjusting to the system.

4.      We are very proud of our selection as one of 12 Catholic schools in the nation to be recognized by “Today’s Catholic Teacher” magazine.  We were able to publicly announce our selection as the magazine’s edition is now issued.  The school will be recognized at the NCEA convention at an awards dinner.  As Superintendent of the Diocese Mary Wieser has been invited to attend the banquet as well.  We have ordered additional copies of the article to be used for marketing purposes, etc.  It is nice to be recognized for all the hard work and the proactive stance that allowed us to keep Catholic education strong these past 5 years and it reminds us of the importance of our decisions as we move forward into the next 5 years.

“The Catholic Messenger” should have an article concerning our award in

a future issue.

5.      The Keokuk Catholic Schools have announced that they will discontinue grades 6, 7, and 8 for the next school year.  I have talked with the principal and we have gone over basic steps to help.  Our strategy sessions on Wednesday mornings will discuss a course of action.  We need to support their elementary program while smoothing a pathway for the upper grades to be welcomed here at HTC.

6.      February 22, 2010, I was part of the interview process for candidates for the Superintendent’s position.  It was an interesting morning and I was

happy to represent Holy Trinity.

7.      I recommend that we use Drake Hardware for the purchase of equipment

for technology as outlined for this summer and for the 2010 – 2011 school year.  Included in that plan is the provision that  Drake Hardware would provide an employee to work within the HTC school system.  The purchase of said equipment/services is included in the budget for this upcoming year.

8.      The Fort Madison Public school system will be hiring an aide to help with

providing special needs help to students within our preschool/elementary program for the remainder of this year.

9.      We will advertise for a K-12 counselor for the 2010-2011 school year.

Spring Sports Coaching:

Boys Golf           Steve Rung

Girls Golf           Melissa Freesmeier

Boys Soccer       Doug Peterson

Girls Soccer       Michael Sheerin

Girls Tennis   and Boys Tennis   - Linda Reding, Kelly Sanders (coaches/teams as needed – we have not set down the details for this yet)

Junior High  Soccer – Bob Shierbrock

Junior High Track – Paul Wilkerson