T-R PHOTO BY LANA BRADSTREAM During the Marshalltown Community School District Board of Education meeting on Tuesday, President Sean Heitmann and Superintendent Theron Schutte reviewed 2024-25 goals. The goals include placing focus on facility construction projects and improving communications.

Proposed goals for the Marshalltown Community School District Board of Education and Superintendent Theron Schutte for the 2024-25 academic year were listed during a quick meeting on Tuesday. The meeting was not held on the regular first Monday of the month due to the Labor Day holiday.

Schutte said most of the goals should look very familiar to the board members. There is to be a focus on student achievement and on board learning and development. He said all of the board members obtained Iowa Association of School Board (IASB) achievement awards, as well as the team award.

“I think that makes eight of the nine years I’ve been here, or maybe seven out of the past eight years that this board has achieved that, which is pretty amazing,” Schutte said.

One of the superintendent goals involves construction projects, something which has gotten considerable attention in 2024 so far. The goal is for Schutte to be directly engaged in the various stages of the fall completion of district facility improvement projects, including:

• Completion of the Marshalltown High School (MHS) stadium FEMA tornado safe room building;

• Finishing the MHS Career and Technical Education renovation and additions and;

• Continuing the Miller Middle School facilities improvement project. Schutte said he hopes that will include the passage of a successful bond referendum in November.

Board members have goals to hold necessary work sessions to build deeper knowledge and understanding of issues, and to pay particular attention to student attendance and absenteeism “to better understand the challenges faced by students, families and the schools.”

Another goal is transparency. Schutte said the goal is to be as transparent, clear and consistent as possible. Ways to achieve that goal is to have a board presence at building and community functions whenever possible, conduct curriculum visits to school buildings and for each board member to adopt an elementary school to learn about successes and challenges.

An additional superintendent goal is for Schutte to work with his team to provide board presentations, especially ones containing data related to student academic growth and achievement.

Strategies to meet that goal include:

• Giving special attention to implement and monitor strategies addressing achievement gaps and accelerated learning;

• Implementing policies to improve student attendance and reduce chronic absenteeism;

• School buildings to show improvement and receive satisfactory or higher ratings on the annual Iowa Department of Education Report Card;

• Showcasing unique district programs which highlight student, staff and family opportunities.

“This fall here you will be reviewing, providing input and hopefully approving a five-year strategic improvement plan for the district,” Schutte said.

Another strategic improvement plan which will be worked on is for communications and marketing. Schutte added that Director of Communications Abby Koch has done a “bang up job” of addressing many of the plan points. The communications points include:

Highlight the successes of students and staff with the “Embrace the Lead” campaign;

Highlight points of pride at all board meetings;

• Choose staff and student communications or social media ambassadors who are to post points of pride while using an easily identifiable hashtag;

• Have staff write monthly op-eds to showcase efforts making MCSD different from other school districts;

• Create an internal “crisis communication plan” for the district as a supplement to the district crisis plan and;

• Provide communication strategies and methods professional development sessions for district leaders to positively engage stakeholders.

In other business, the board:

• Approved the $62,258 purchase of additional Number Worlds math curriculum for special education. Schutte said the district adopted a major math curriculum over the past year. A few weeks ago Schutte said it was discovered that there were not enough supplemental materials for all of the special education teachers.

“We apologize about the late notice,” he said. “The concern with holding off another two weeks — I don’t know how long it’s going to take to get these materials. Obviously we’re trying to have them rushed, but if we wait two weeks, that would be two [more] weeks the teachers wouldn’t have these things available.”

President Sean Heitmann commented that the board had never made it to the “Policies” portion of the agenda within 15 minutes.

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Contact Lana Bradstream

at 641-753-6611 ext. 210 or

lbradstream@timesrepublican.com.