Superintendent's Message for June 2021

Summer has arrived in T-wolves territory.  The 2020-2021 school year was a year of change, but a very successful year!  Another class has graduated and are now Southwest Valley alumni.  The administration team is already planning for another exciting year! 

Since my arrival here in 2018, I have spoken about creating a “Destination District.”  What does that mean and what progress has been made?  We want to be the district where families come to settle down and raise their children in a great environment and great communities.  It means everyone is involved in some capacity to work together to make our children’s educational experiences the best in the area.

What have I done to begin the process?  We passed a six million dollar bond referendum to improve our facilities in Villisca.  We demolished the old middle school building in Corning and built a state-of-the-art greenhouse and utility building for the maintenance department.  We have branded many of our facilities and will continue to brand all of our venues.  We want our visitors to know they are in #twolvesterritory!

We placed four homegrown leaders in our buildings as administrators.  These administrators care about the welfare of all children.  They communicate with each other to ensure we provide the best learning experiences for our children.  We have two new early childhood education centers to allow us to begin educating our children as babies and prepare them for their elementary education in our district.  We are also revamping our alternative education program to include adults wanting to obtain their degrees.  Our goal is to educate children from birth to adulthood.  The process is still developing.  We need more input from everyone to help become this great district.

Twice a year the School Improvement Advisory Committee meets with the administration team and evaluates the progress we are making on our goals.  One of the questions asked in our needs survey was, “Do you have an opportunity to provide feedback on your child’s education?”  Every parent already has this opportunity by attending parent/teacher conferences, but this is another avenue.  Consider this opportunity to be involved in your child’s education and help us become a great school.  We need people to serve. 

Another area of our district that we want to continue to improve is our athletic program and fine arts program.   Athletics and fine arts teach our children about being a part of the team, improving a skill, and performing in front of audiences.  The music boosters and athletic boosters are two outstanding organizations that help our programs achieve success.  These groups work to provide funding for our programs and they need your help.  If we genuinely want to see our school grow and field competitive teams, this is one of the first steps.  When adults model for children what teamwork looks like, it provides a powerful example for our children.  Many of the current members have been a part of these groups for many years and need your help to keep the groups going strong.  Please consider volunteering some of your time to these organizations so we can continue to provide the best opportunities for our children!

Another opportunity to serve is with our parent-teacher organizations at both campuses.  These organizations have great leaders and continue to look for new members.  These organizations require just a few hours of your time a month. 

If you want to step up and make Southwest Valley a place that all families want to send their children, please contact Allen Naugle for the boosters, Chris Fenster for the SIAC, and building principals for the PTO.  Let us all come together as we did the last fifteen months and make Southwest Valley school district the Destination District in all of southwest Iowa!