Eastern Iowa Schools

WEST LIBERTY – For a school with about 80 seniors in the Class of 2012, West Liberty High School doesn’t fit the exact mold for the “best” of Iowa.

“I heard the news yesterday and I was really excited about it,” said principal Jim Hamilton on Thursday.

What makes West Liberty stick out – with its #7 ranking in U.S. News & World Report’s Best High Schools Rankings — is that the school is not located in a metropolitan area nor it is in a small town with a college or university.

Out of the top twelve schools, seven of them are within the KCRG-TV 9 viewing area.  Cedar Rapids Washington (#1), Cedar Rapids Kennedy (#2), Decorah (#4), Linn-Mar (#5) and Cedar Falls (#6) are ahead of West Liberty.  The survey ranks Williamsburg 11th, a school of a similar size to West Liberty.

Yet while Decorah is also a smaller town, Luther College is on Decorah’s north edge.  West Liberty is a town of about 3,300 with a major turkey processing plant, as West Liberty Foods is headquartered there.

The demographics of West Liberty are also different than many other districts in the state.  Hamilton said about half of the students at WLHS are of Hispanic or Latino heritage.

For a high school to score high on the survey, student success in Advanced Placement exams and courses plays a major role.

At West Liberty, the progression to offer more and more AP courses has been gradual.

“It has expanded to eight and we’re proud of the work we’ve done,” said Hamilton.

Hannah Miller and Alexis Sagastume are in the Class of 2012 and heading west to college.  Miller to Iowa State and Sagastume to Iowa.  On Thursday, they each rattled off their list of AP courses they had completed during their final two years at West Liberty.

Miller’s List: AP Spanish, AP Biology, AP U.S. History, AP Calculus, AP English, AP Spanish Literature.  She said she is planning on a chemical engineering major.

Sagastume’s List: AP Spanish Literature, AP Biology, AP U.S. History, AP Calculus, AP Chemistry.  He said he has been accepted into the engineering school at U of I but is undecided on a major.

“(AP courses) should be a small school option rather than just larger high schools in Des Moines and Cedar Rapids,” said Hamilton.  “We’ve actually gotten a lot of good ideas from Cedar Rapids Washington and what they’re going as well as from Cedar Rapids Kennedy.”

U.S. News & World Report uses numerous criteria to determine where the schools rank.  Performance on AP exams.  Overall performance on state exams.  Note high school that exceed the state average for their “least advantaged students”.

A major component of the rankings comes down to the “College Readiness” index.  A look at the top-ranked schools:

Note: The survey does NOT include some private high schools within the region, such as Cedar Rapids Xavier or Dubuque Wahlert.  A search of both schools did not turn up any results.

1. Cedar Rapids Washington, 43.7

2. Cedar Rapids Kennedy, 38.8

3. Ames, 38.4

4. Decorah, 36.5

5. Linn-Mar, 33.0

6. Cedar Falls, 27.7

7. West Liberty, 23.0

8. Moc-Floyd Valley, 22.1

9. Bettendorf Pleasant Valley, 20.2

10. Indianola, 19.3

11. Williamsburg, 18.0

12. Sioux City North, 17.3

Note: This College Readiness figure was not the only component in the rankings.  Many other Iowa schools had high entries and were not listed in the top dozen.  Iowa schools include: Iowa City West (36.9), Bettendorf (28,7), West Des Moines Valley (28.2), Dubuque Hempstead (26.4), Norwalk (25.9), Iowa City High (22.6), Johnston (22.3), Mid-Prairie (21.6), Dubuque Senior (20.2), Cedar Rapids Prairie (19.2), Gilbert (19.1)

Other Eastern Iowa Schools with CR numbers above 10:

Clear Creek Amana (15.2), Cedar Rapids Jefferson (14.7), Solon (13.2), Mount Vernon (13.1), Fairfield (13.0), West Branch (12.5), Waverly-Shell Rock (12.3), Anamosa (11.9), Center Point-Urbana (11.5), North Cedar (10.2).

CEDAR RAPIDS — The documentary film “Bully” has been in Cedar Rapids theaters for less than a week, but it’s already inspiring members of the community to reassess and attack the issue of bullying schools.

About 100 people turned up for an anti-bullying panel to discuss the movie Wednesday evening in the auditorium at Linn-Mar High School in Marion to hear experts discuss ways of confronting bullying and to listen to some of the voices behind the documentary.

David and Tina Long, two of the subjects interviewed in the documentary, answered audience and panel questions to kick off the event, appearing via webconference from their Murray County, Georgia, home. The Long’s son Tyler, took his own life in October 2009 after years of torment from classmates, and they have sought solace by fighting in his memory.

“We didn’t have much of a direction before, but the movie has really opened a dialogue across the nation and it’s given us hope that change may come,” David Long said.

After the conference with the Longs ended, local experts from around the region weighed in on more fundamental questions facing the community, such as “What is the definition of bullying?” “How can the community help stop it?” and “What should I do if I suspect my son or daughter is being bullied?”

Defining bullying is a tricky issue as every person has their own personal experience, contributing to their definition.

The legal definition is “something that negatively impacts a student’s access to school services,” according to Tim Monson, executive director of Iowa Safe Schools, a group established by the Iowa Civil Rights Commission to help educate schools on safety issues. He cautioned that the struggle to define and label bullying can be counterproductive.

“It’s not really up to you as an adult to wonder ‘Is this bullying?’ but to report it and let that process take hold,” he said.

Parent Jen Rowray learned this first-hand during her experiences trying to resolve a situation where one of her children was being severely bullied. The situation got so bad, her son eventually needed to be transferred to another school.

Both Rowray and Monson recommend that parents document and report any suspected bullying from its earliest stages. That way if local school officials ignore or fail to take action, there are other opportunities for the state civil rights commission or the U.S. Department of Education to investigate.

“I encourage all parents to find out what the rules are so you know the pattern to follow to get real action done,” Rowray said.

Other panelists shared different strategies schools are using to confront bullying, including the Olweus system, which is used at Linn-Mar and several other area school districts.

But bullying won’t be stopped until the entire community becomes involved with its destruction, said Dr. Allan Heisterkamp of the Center for Violence Prevention in Cedar Falls. Heisterkamp stressed that all adults had to learn that bullying wasn’t a rite of passage they could turn a blind eye to, and that it was everyone’s responsibility to encourage positive behavior and intervene to stop bullying.

“Whatever your role is in this community, take what you do and amplify it. If everyone does it, that would be a big help,” he said.

The panel was moderated by Adam Carros, an editor for SourceMedia Group, which also helped sponsor the panel. SourceMedia Group is the parent company of The Gazette and KCRG-TV9.

An archive of a liveblog of this panel is included below. In the original liveblog, the names of three of the panelists, Nate Monson, Jen Rowray and Jane Balvanz, were spelled incorrectly. This has since been edited and corrected.

VINTON- After seven months of debate, state lawmakers finally made a decision about the future of education.  Now local districts are weighing in.  Upon election, Governor Terry Branstad promised to overhaul the state’s school system. He released a blueprint back in October detailing those changes. 

Tuesday, lawmakers voted to reform schools, but on a much smaller scale.  The state will not mandate college entrance exams for high school juniors, no pre-kindergarten testing, and no new tests used to measure teacher performance.

The compromise package is only 33 pages and many other bills are hundreds upon hundreds of pages.  But lawmakers did address third grade retention when it comes to literacy.  It’s something teachers at Tilford Elementary say they start in pre-school.

“I’m grateful legislators are concerned about it,” said Tilford Elementary Principal Jim Murray.

It’s the topic of discussion in Mrs. Hyland’s third grade class at Tilford Elementary School in Vinton.  Not, the recently passed school reform bill, but reading and writing.

“It has to be our highest priority to get our kids ready to learn,” said Tilford.

State lawmakers say schools can’t use social promotion in third grade anymore.  If students aren’t up to literacy standards, their parents have to decide if they repeat the grade or go to an intensive summer reading program.

“In third grade, they just kind of take all of the reading skills and use them together,” said Vinton-Shellsburg Instructional Specialist Deb Hesson.

But in the Vinton-Shellsburg district, literacy starts at pre-school.

“Rhyming, clapping syllables, learning the process of reading,” said Hesson.

And it continues throughout elementary school.  Teachers here break up students into small groups for individualized attention based upon their reading and writing levels.

“This group of students need to work on sight words.  This group of students need to work on fluency,” said Hesson.

But ultimately some students fall behind.  Tilford already offers a 6-week summer reading program for those students to get back on track.

“It won’t be a parent’s choice anymore which would actually help us out because some of our parents choose not to participate in our summer opportunity and I wish they would,” said Murray.

Along with third grade literacy, lawmakers addressed teacher review.

They’ll now be evaluated annually instead of every three years.  TV9 also spoke with superintendents across Eastern Iowa and many say they’re still waiting for details from the state.

Cedar Rapids- For months state leaders have debated on what Iowa should be doing to reform education. Lawmakers have tried to find a plan that will improve student learning and college preparation. But some Eastern Iowa schools have started offering specialized classes that cater to the interests of students.

At Cedar Rapids Washington, Jefferson and Kennedy, one business class is doing just that. It’s called “Video Game Marketing and Design” and it has students piling into the classroom to learn more. It could be because for an hour a day, class work seems less of a task and more like entertainment. “As soon as I heard there was a game development class, I just really wanted to get into that,” said Bryce Porazil, a Sophomore at Cedar Rapids Washington. The class had such a strong interest, the schools ended up offering it at more times than they originally planned.

The title of the class is what drew many students in. “I basically did it for the video game aspect because I love playing video games but the advertising aspect kind of also appealed to me,” said Chase Deshaw, a Freshman at Cedar Rapids Washington. But once learning was underway many realized it was more than what initially meets the eye. Students have to design and create functioning video games, applications for smart-phones and tablets, while also effectively marketing it and determining if it could make a profit. “The video game industry is almost widely considered a recession proof industry,” said Jason Wood, the Teacher of the class at Cedar Rapids Washington.

The class started in the fall of 2011 and quickly gained popularity. The idea sparked from a few students but was pitched to the district by Wood. “We’ve gotten more kids interested in great topics because of the class,” said Wood. He said the class pulls several core classes like math, computer science, and business, into one. The class also provides students entrepreneurial, troubleshooting and design skills. “I wasn’t too good with computers and designing stuff before and now that I am taking this for 2/3rds of the school year, I feel like I am a lot better with this stuff,” said Deshaw. “What i didn’t know when i was taking the hard coding class, just straight coding, there is a lot of math behind it,” added Porazil.

The class has gotten some students excited in a future career in gaming. “I want to have students want to take this class because it’s fun and exciting, and then I want them to learn as much as possible,” said Wood. Deshaw said it has always been a dream of his to work at a video design company. “The class helps you really understand it all. It helps you work with technology and get better with working with computers and understanding stuff,” said Deshaw. Porazil also looks forward to working in the technology field.

But for many high school students who aren’t sure what they want to pursue, this class provides them a place to explore their options. Experts predict a growing number of computer and technology jobs, so introducing these skills in high school could better prepare more individuals to fill them. “If we see an industry where kids can gravitate to and make money and have careers we don’t have five years to come up with it we need a quick solution. We do that, we are doing that here at Washington and the Cedar Rapids Schools,” said Wood.

CEDAR RAPIDS – City leaders will decide on a plan that ultimately aims to decrease childhood obesity on Tuesday night.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, 12.5 million American kids ages two to 19 are obese. Tuesday night, the Cedar Rapids City Council will vote on a Safe Routes to School project. Federal dollars fund the plan.

Soon, crews could pour new sidewalks near Harrison Elementary School. Plenty of sidewalks line the streets in front of the school but a few blocks down, that’s not the case. Many kids find themselves walking where there aren’t any safe paths.

“This particular project extends sidewalk on the west side of 11^th Street between N Avenue and O Avenue and then it continues on both sides of O Avenue between 11^th Street and 13^th Street,” said Cedar Rapids Project Engineer Glenn Vosatka.

If the council votes to moves forward with the project, crews will construct about $127,000 worth of new sidewalks near Harrison. It’s one of about half a dozen similar sidewalk projects scheduled for the next year and half in Cedar Rapids.

About 15 percent of the kids at Harrison walk or bike to school. Teachers and staff hope that increases along with the new sidewalks, if the council moves forward with the project.

“It helps the environment, not as many kids are being brought to school by car and also the health factor, as students walk to school or ride a bike will hopefully increase the overall health of our school and decrease obesity,” said Harrison Elementary Principal Linda Reysack.

City engineers said the project was put on hold while the district determined the future of Harrison. School administrators were considering closing the school. In February, however, Cedar Rapids Superintendent Dr. Dave Benson removed Harrison from the list of potential closures. He recommended the school stay open. He said it was in an effort to support the city’s flood recovery, but it still could close. If enrollment doesn’t grow to 70 percent of the building capacity by the 2016/2017 school year, the district will reevaluate the position.

Even though board members voted to keep Harrison open this year, some have said the district should reassess its future in the next year. Throughout the entire process, the city worked with the Department of Transportation who distributes the grant money.   

“They are aware that Harrison school certainly might have been closed this year, beyond that, they haven’t really been aware of what the future holds for Harrison. But again, no one really knows that and once we have the opportunity to put it in place, then we’ll proceed with it,” Vosatka said. 

Harrison students and staff could see construction crews as soon as next month.