Superintendent's Message for June 2019

The 2018-2019 school year has come to a close.  It has been a great year and I have enjoyed it thoroughly.   It has been a very busy year for me, but I have enjoyed meeting new people and observing the district as much as possible.  I have observed many great things we do in this district and other things we need to continue to work on for next year.

I had a plan when I came to Southwest Valley CSD last summer.  I told the board of directors I want to make Southwest Valley a “Destination District”!  I walked the district and listened to concerns from stakeholders and things they thought needed to be changed.  I researched the whole grade sharing agreement and educated myself on the process of reorganization and how this would be a great step to begin the process towards building a “Destination District”!  

What do I mean, when I say “Destination District”?  My vision is a district that will educate students from birth all the way through adults.  A place where people come to live and work, drop their children off at our daycare or at school, and trust us to provide the best education for their children.  Also, offer classes to adults in the evening so everyone is a part of the learning community.  We have great towns, recreational facilities, dining, and affordable housing.  We also have a great school that is working every day to be better!  We have the resources and now we will begin to bring it all together as one school district that will be the strongest one in southwest Iowa.

The foundation is being laid and we want everyone to be a part of it.  In the next year, we will be establishing committees and holding meetings to explain the Reorganization and Destination District concept.  We will begin to partner with the daycare in Corning and the newly formed daycare committee in Villisca to offer affordable child care to our community members.  We want to attract others to our district.  We will recruit a full time director to be shared between the two facilities.  We will train the employees and offer a fair wage to eliminate high turnover.  This is a big investment that will set the tone for us to attract young, new families to our district.  The next step will be to reorganize to one district with one set of financial records, but keep the capacity we have now.  We will not shut down buildings or layoff personnel with reorganization.  We are simply combining our finances to become a solid district.  We want to control our own destiny, not be at the hands of the state, as Farragut CSD succumbed to a few years back.  We will be a strong and vibrant district with momentum to be the best!  We will have two new administrators with lots of passion who understand what our vision is.  We have two veteran administrators that have passion to make their buildings the best in the district.   We have an excellent faculty and support staff that provide a great environment for our students to learn.  The stage is set for our district to take off and become the best in southwest Iowa and the state.  Talk is cheap, and unless you put it to action, it is just talk.  I am a leader that will lead by action, not cheap talk.  I challenge you to become a part of this process to make our district the best!  Stay tuned for opportunities to be a part of the movement! 

It’s a great day to be a Timberwolf!!!!

Chris Fenster, Superintendent