Superintendent's Message for August 2022

Welcome Back!  We are ready for the 2022-2023 Southwest Valley School year to begin!  I am beginning my fifth year leading this great district and plan to be intentional on making this the best year yet.  Our district has a very low turnover in staff which means we bring back a great team for the upcoming school year.  We have completed projects over the summer and continue plans for a bond referendum proposal to update and improve our east campus facilities in the spring of 2023. 

The administration team met over the summer to analyze the 2021-2022 school year and plan for this coming year.  We noticed an alarming number of student absences across all four buildings.  Our students missed a combined total of 9,000 days of school last year for multiple reasons, both excused and unexcused.  The district administration team understands that appointments, funerals, and illness will happen every year, but we had a large number of unexcused absences.  We have set a goal to “strive for five.”  This represents students missing less than 5% of the days over the course of the year or in other words, two days per quarter.  We have 1080 hours a year to educate and develop your child and every hour is important to achieve student success.  Our goal is to develop our students to be well-rounded and productive citizens in our community.  Please work with us and help us reach our “strive for five” goal!

Another focus we want to emphasize is to volunteer to serve and support our booster clubs.  The SWV activities booster club and music booster club provide funding for many great projects, equipment, and uniforms for our students every year.  Unfortunately, membership numbers are down and the need for more members is essential.  If you have a student involved in activities please consider joining.  It is time for more people to volunteer an hour or two when needed!  It takes a village to raise our students, so please consider joining.  Call the school and we will get you signed up!

We have installed a new playground at Enarson Elementary as well as new windows.  The middle school has new doors and some new flooring to welcome students back.  We have replaced the sidewalk on the north side of the high school and in front of the agriculture building.  We will be installing new curtains, sound boards, and carpet in the auditorium.  The elementary school is a focus point for the proposed bond referendum.  There are many areas of this building that need to be replaced or updated.  The bond referendum will not be a list of wants, but rather a list of needs.  These upgrades will include all of our buildings and athletic fields.  This project is similar in many areas to the 2019 Villisca bond referendum project.  The buildings are used every day for a minimum of 171 days a year and require constant maintenance.  These improvements will provide our district with a safe and efficient building to continue to provide a quality education in our Corning community and attract new families to the district.  The Corning district has had community meetings monthly to discuss this potential project with architects.  The Corning board will review the recommendations from the community group and formulate a plan to share with the community this fall.  Stay tuned. 

In conclusion, enjoy the rest of the summer!  We will be ready to get the school year kicked off on August 23rd.  Have a great day!