Superintendent's Message for October 2020

In reviewing the letters I have sent out previously I am realizing how much has changed in the twenty-seven months since I have been the Superintendent at Southwest Valley schools.  My internal drive to make this school district the “destination district” has not changed through all the changes and challenges.  The journey has not been a road of mountain peaks or deep valleys, but rather a flat path with a few bumps in the road.

Since the beginning, I established a vision of moving the district forward in all facets.  We needed to look at personnel, facilities, finances, and transportation to ensure we had the means to reach our goal.  Tough decisions had to be made and changes were necessary to move forward and provide the best education and facilities for our students.  As a result, we have several new faces in leadership roles and our teaching ranks.  As a leader, my philosophy is to put people in positions they can make a difference in and let them do their job.  We have hired four new principals who have come from the teaching ranks at Corning and Villisca and they are doing a great job of leading their buildings.  They have a passion for education and share my vision for this district to be a destination district!

In the first year in the district, I spent time looking over the physical plant and deciding our facilities’ condition.  The west campus did not have heat in either building in certain areas. The excellent school board, citizens, faculty, and I developed, explained, and passed a 6 million dollar bond referendum so we could upgrade the buildings.  We replaced HVAC, electrical, roofs, and fire alarm systems to update our buildings.  The construction project is 99.9% complete and the winners are the students using the facilities this fall.  On the east side of the campus, we had a building that had been empty and we needed more space for a greenhouse.  The middle school building was demolished and we have replaced it with a state of the art greenhouse and maintenance building.  We still need to repair some areas and roofs, but we have excellent facilities throughout the district.

Then the bump in the road came last March with the COVID-19 pandemic shutting down schools across the country.  Our team went into action and we provided meals for our students and a remote learning option.  We also worked hard to ensure our senior students had closure with an outdoor graduation ceremony.  The great parents we have in our district had a prom for the students and on August 24, 163 days from when we were shut down, we welcomed our kids back to school.  Our team of administrators, directors, teachers, support staff, and students have adhered to the policies and protocols we outlined in our Return to Learn plan and we have had very few cases of COVID-19 in our buildings.

So what will be the next challenge or bump in the road?  We cannot predict that, but I can tell all of #twolvesterritory, we will be prepared and ready to conquer it on our way to building the Destination District!