It’s a Wonderful Life!

Not only the title of the play our students will be performing this fall, but I have to believe that it is one of the codes that Julianne Meyer, our play director lives by. She overflows with enthusiasm and passion whenever you engage her in conversation about students and education, as well as any of the multitudes of interests that she has. What will strike you when you meet her, and get to know her a little bit, is the optimism she expresses. That coupled with a very quick wit and one cannot help but fell comfortable that their child has her for a teacher. And there are also those wonderful colloquialisms that flow naturally from her in conversations!

Mrs. Meyer is not new to the high school, as she has worked as a paraprofessional prior to being hired to teach in our special education program. She has also been involved in our theatre and speech programs as an assistant, providing a great deal of support and guidance for our students. She brings a perspective to our program that is different from most new teachers as she is, how should we say it, more “mature” than most rookie teachers. It is my opinion that this is a huge advantage for the students. Mrs. Meyer is not the first “non-traditional” teacher that I have had the pleasure to hire. It seems to me that their life experiences bring a knowledge base to the classroom that twenty-something teachers simply have not had the opportunity to learn.

With all her responsibilities, I know at times she believes that she is in the middle of a hurricane. Special education teachers have responsibilities that go far beyond those of their colleagues in other content areas. The paperwork is excessive, and the preparation time to meet the individual needs of their students can take a tremendous amount of time. Throw in the fact that she is directing her first major production at N.F.H.S. and you have a very busy lady, not to mention the fact that she is a mom and spouse and has all of those things going on in her life! But, I bet if you ask her, she wouldn’t have it any other way! Yes, it is a wonderful life!

Strike Up The Band!

In the process of interviewing Mr. Ted Schacherer for our band position at North Fayette High School, one of the questions that I asked was “what will be your first halftime show?” His response surprised me a little bit as I had expected every young director with a liking of marching band to have that “dream show” that he or she had thought through night after night when they struggled to sleep. However, I didn’t get an answer like that. Rather, he responded, “Geez, I would have to get to know my band and their capabilities before I can make that determination.” Right there, I knew we had the right guy. He did share what his program at Tri-Center was last year, but this was a young director that was going to come in and see what he had, rather than force something preconceived. The analogy is the basketball coach that designs his offense or defense based on the abilities of his players, rather than force a specific type on them because that is his preference. His answer was one of an individual who has years more experience!

Mr. Schacherer joins us from western Iowa, teaching a year at Tri-Center Community Schools. For those of you unfamiliar with my old Western Iowa Conference stomping grounds, Tri-Center’s school is located right along Interstate 80 out in the country, and is made up of the towns of Neola, Persia, Minden, Beebeetown, and the surrounding rural areas. Why they didn’t call it Quad-Center, I don’t know! Anyway, he was there one year after graduating from Luther College and attending high school in Knoxville. From my South Central Conference days, Knoxville was a strong rival of my former Chariton Chargers! I guess when you have been as many places as I have, you can lay claim to all kinds of connections!

The band program at North Fayette is off to a flying start with Mr. Schacherer. He is enthusiastic and has hit the ground running. Students have already learned a lot of new things, particularly aspects of marching band. He has been able to build on the outstanding program Mr. Greg James has built over the years and is adding something new. The halftime program is “Journey,” and when you watch and listen, people from my generation can reminisce about that incredible voice of Steven Perry and those high school dances when if you got lucky, there was at least one girl left to dance to “Open Arms” with. A lot has to go into building a marching band, and you can see some of those initial steps being taken. Though he doesn’t have them roll-stepping yet, the band is starting to get comfortable showing a little of that “swagger” that marching bands have in their performance. They are taking it one step at a time (pun intended)! We are excited to have Mr. Schacherer leading our instrumental music program and look forward to an outstanding future!

The Future of Farming/Agriculture

“I believe in the future of farming, with a faith born not of words but of deeds . . .” That’s all I remember from those six weeks of learning the FFA Creed my freshman year at Oakland High School. Now even what I remember has changed as the opening line goes: “I believe in the future of agriculture; with a faith born not of words but of deeds . . .” Agriculture has changed dramatically over the 30 years that have passed since Mr. Kearney made us memorize one stanza at a time during that first week of my voc ag experience. And now, after nearly thirty years, a change has taken place in the vocational agricultural program at North Fayette High School.

Ryan Holthaus is a graduate of Decorah High School and Iowa State University (where else do ag teachers graduate from!). He has taught previously at Anamosa High School. When he applied for our position, an all to common thought came across me: why would he want to move from a school the size of Anamosa to one smaller, like North Fayette? Then, I looked in the mirror and realized that I had a similar answer almost a year before. In Mr. Holthaus’s case, Brian Harper had built a very strong program, making it an attractive place to teach. Believe me, when I saw the principal position opened up, North Fayette was an attractive place to me because of the quality people that work in this district and the quality families that send their kids here to school. I also know it was a plus that he was able to move his family closer to where both he and his wife grew up. In this respect, luck on our behalf doesn’t hurt!

This is my fifth school district that I have worked in, and the eighth Iowa community where I have lived. I have a pretty good handle on this state, but must admit that our move to northeast Iowa has been a great new adventure. Every trip we take north and east of West Union seems to expose us to something new. This is also the most agriculturally intensive place I have lived in years. What I mean is that the agricultural industry has a greater impact on our local economy and culture than it did in the other places I lived in Iowa. A lot of that is due to the changes that have taken place over the years, but what I see here is still a strong attachment to the family farm. Because of the dairy industry, farming here is still labor intensive, much more so than in the western part of the state where many livestock operations are a thing of the past and what huge hog confinements do exist are highly automated. In other words, farming is still a way of life here, not simply an occupation.

So what does this have to do with Ryan Holthaus? I believe that he is the right person in the right place at the right time for North Fayette. He is a young man committed to students and the future of agriculture. From what I have seen, he brings a solid focus and balance to production, business, and scientific aspects of the industry. And most important, he shows a passion for what he does. If you have not had the opportunity to meet him, please take the time to seek him out and introduce yourself. You won’t have to look far because he is out and about all of the time. Welcome to North Fayette Mr. Holthaus!

What Are We Dealing With?

Over the past few years, I have seen a number of videos that are intended to present facts and give perspective to the world we live in. I know it is easy to dismiss them because it is also easy to feel like we are in rural northeast Iowa and a long ways away from this global perspective. However, just a few years ago we were quite a ways away from Direct TV and cell phone service! Folks, we need to pay attention to this stuff as we chart our educational course for the future.

Healthy Kids

Some of you may have heard about the Healthy Kids Act. It is a federal piece of legislation that has forced quite a bit of change on schools in the past couple of years. This year full implementation of this act must be in place. While I do not believe that anyone will disagree with the idea that we need to do what we can to help children lead healthy lives, there is some interesting debate about this legislation. Some of you will find some of the changes we have to make going to far. Others will understand why it is being done.

Senator Tom Harkin has been a leader in the development and passage of these new laws. I remember a few years ago that money was made available to qualifying schools to put fresh fruit and vegetables in front of students for snacks during the school day. At Indianola High School, there were boxes of apples in the hallways for students to pick up and eat on the way to class. At Creston Elementary, students received carrots, celery, broccoli, and cauliflower with ranch dip in the afternoon. The Senator had a lot to do with this, but interestingly, I don’t hear about this much any more.

Now that the act is to be fully implemented, a number of noticeable changes will be in place this year. No carbonated beverages can be sold during the school day. No candy or other restricted items can be sold during the school day as a fundraiser, which includes some of the bake sales groups have had. No pizza parties during the school day. I know that there will be disagreement on a number of the things that we are required to do, and honestly, I’m not sure I agree with all of them. However, it is law and we will input the changes with integrity. The one thing about this that truly bothers me is that while we are required to make all of these changes because of the high levels of childhood obesity in our country, we seem to be the only ones required by law to do so. This is certainly a scary health problem. But I do not believe for a minute that the diets and levels of exercise will change outside the school. In my opinion, there needs to be a much bigger attitude shift in our country. Since schools receive public funds, it is easy for our government to invoke rules on us, and at the same time, nearly impossible to do the same thing in the private sector. And, we are charged with education, and thus it does make sense that we have a role in this effort. However, as long as they give out toys in kid’s meals that are limited in their nutritional value, are we fighting a losing battle? Are there other sectors that can help fight the battle?

We live in a land of plenty and in many respects we have become out own worst enemy when it comes to our health. Too often we do not thing about the consequences of our sedentary lifestyle, yet expect medicine to take care of problems that we have imposed on ourselves. Thinking all of this through, perhaps this is a good first step, but I honestly believe that we are going to need more Jessie Oliver’s to take on this food revolution if we are going to make a difference.

A New School Day

The day at the high school will start a little earlier this year. First period will begin at 8:15 a.m. That is seven minutes earlier than in years past. Our day will finish at 3:20 p.m. Make sure to set your alarm clocks accordingly!

Not only has the start and end times changed, but what happens in the middle has changed as well. We actually have two different schedules. The A and B Day stays, but we will have a different look on Tuesdays and Thursdays. First off, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday have a standard eight period day. The length of the class periods is longer than in the past at 48 minutes. However, on Tuesday and Thursdays, we will have an advisory period for twenty minutes between second and third period.

In light of these changes, we have an additional 44 minutes a week of instruction time. You can never have too much of that!

Registration and Class Schedules

Registration for the upcoming school year takes place next week. The process has not changed much from previous years. There are a few things that we want to draw your attention to before you come in. First of all, many students have already checked out their class schedule through Infinite Campus. If you have not already done that, we encourage you to do so. However, you do need to know that the schedule is not final! Mr. Clark is still making adjustments to balance classes and resolve conflicts. So, what you see today may actually be different tomorrow. It is also important to remember that while we make every effort to meet the requests of each student, it is impossible to do so. Putting a master schedule together is similar to assembling a jigsaw puzzle, but in this case, we often have to go with what creates the fewest conflicts, acknowledging that some students will not get all of the courses they want. This is why we asked students to list alternate choices when they selected classes in the spring. If you check your schedule prior to coming in to register and would like to go over your schedule with Mr. Clark, he will be available.

I also want to mention that we will have activity tickets for sale at registration. I am not sure that people truly understand the cost savings that exists when one purchases a ticket for a student. The Board of Education dropped the price to $30.00 for a ticket that will admit students to all high school and middle school activities except for the play and state sponsored events. With student admission set at $5.00 for football games and $4.00 for other athletic events, by attending five home football games and one volleyball game, you have basically paid for the ticket with many more events ahead! We strongly encourage parents to purchase the tickets as they are the most affordable way for your child to attend events at North Fayette.

Early bird opportunities are once again available to order yearbooks. Students will be on hand to take orders for this coming years book. I got a peak at the 2010 book that just arrived and I am sure that everyone will be impressed by the full-color edition. There are a lot of great photos that capture the essence of the 2009-2010 school year.

You will very quickly get a sense of the changes that are going on in our building once you enter the main doors. At the current time, quite a bit has been torn up and soon things will be put back together. It looks like it will go right down to the wire as far as the high school office being ready for the start of school, and the central office will be finished some time after that. However, ready or not, we will be ready to go when students arrive on August 18! Bob Heins has told me stories of what it was like years ago when he worked on the construction of the building and it was not finished when school started. Block and plank "lockers" and classrooms that had to be emptied at night so they could pour concrete! Wow!

I will be in the building on Monday and Tuesday during registration and invite you to stop in my office to discuss any matter that is on your mind, whether it has to do with school or not! Tuesday evening I leave for our state administrator convention in Des Moines and will be attending sessions Wednesday and Thursday. This is always a good event as SAI brings in a number of strong presenters in the field of education, and it is nice to see friends that I have made throughout my career as a teacher and administrator.