The Keokuk School Board met at 6 p.m. Monday, March 25. This is a summary of the principals’ reports,
Torrence School
Torrence held our first Preschool Round Up event. Preschool Director Meaghan Leggings and the whole Torrence Team made this event a success. Parents had many positive comments about the program changes that will help guide us for next year and the organization of the event. Just shy of 50 students attend, which is around the average for this time of year. Our next Round Up event will take place in late April.
Family Reading Night, which was provided by our Family and Engagement Committee (FACE), along with the Title team, was very successful. This was a combined event for Torrence and Hawthorne families, with private school families also invited to participate. Over 100 families attended and we heard great comments from parents and students. A big thank you to the KHS student council for volunteering to help and serve during this event!
The Lions Club will be coming to Torrence in early April to complete a vision exam/screener for all families who want to participate.
Hawthorne Elementary School
All current Hawthorne certified staff have been notified of their placements for next year as we continue conversations about the reconfiguration to George Washington for K-1 and Hawthorne for 2 -5.
To continue our focus on reading, Hawthorne partnered with KHS Student Council members to form reading buddies on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
Parent/Teacher conferences were well attended (K = 91% attendance, 1st = 92%, 2nd = 88%, and 3rd = 86%). Thank. you to the PTO for providing dinner on Thursday night for all teachers.
Our Little Chiefs filled the office Chief Change bucket for being respectful, responsible, and ready, and earned a school-wide, Stop and Dance celebration. For March we are focusing on Going for the Gold and demonstrating Perseverance in all that we do as Little Chiefs.
A thank you to our PTO for running our Spring Book Fair so students had the opportunity to visit throughout the school day!
George Washington School
Having met with all certified staff to collect input, all have been informed of their position and building assignment for next year as part of the building reconfigurations.
Spring Parent/Teacher conferences provided communication and collaboration with families on March 6 and 7. The 4th grade had 69% attendance and the 5th had 93% attendance.
Thank you to the PTO for all their fundraising efforts to support students. Their recent sale of Krispy Kreme donuts generated over $6,000 in profit.
Student behavior continues to improve. Students receiving the monthly PBIS reward for respectful behavior traveled to The Edge for fun and games on Feb. 28, and 96% of our student population was rewarded.
Keokuk Middle School
Teachers completed their second RACE strategy data collection. This is our strategy for our building goal to improve writing, “Given a writing prompt, students will answer using RACE (Restate the question/Answer the question/ Cite evidence from the text/Elaborate or explain further).
We had 35 total Positive Referrals for the month of February (6th — 13/ 7th — 22).
Thirteen MS students attended the Eastern Iowa Science and Engineering Fair in Cedar Rapids on March 16. These students completed nine projects, and six students received outstanding awards.
Keokuk High School
Teachers continue to receive training from the AEA on The Writing Revolution.
Instructional Coach, Candy Berquam, presented to staff as a follow-up from the presentation during TQ day on HRS engagement strategies. Teachers have started ISASP prep and will be examining last year’s scores with students, reviewing academic vocabulary, and using practice tests with students. Staff has established incentives for testing.
We have had several meetings with students and parents regarding attendance.
We continue to reduce the number of online students.
We have reviewed graduation credits with seniors so everyone knows where they stand.
The Career Expo was a huge success. Thank you to Jen Roederer, Jessica Martin, Tina Clark, and Charlene Kloster for the hours of work and attention to detail that made this event so successful. Over 90 presenters were on hand. Representatives from the military, several colleges, and businesses from across the area met with students about their career options and what it takes to be successful in their respective fields.
