CCSD board explores district services

Trish Dickinson provided her first report as director of district services to Creston’s school board Monday, sharing details on numerous programs, including curriculum standards, the TAG program and the school’s Lau plan, which focuses on English language learners.

Dickinson said the district was collecting data on state standards to improve curriculum and instruction, including revisiting curriculum cycles and how they play a role in instruction. She said her team is also taking a look at data from the Iowa Statewide Assessment of Student Progress, taken annually by students in grades three through 11.

“We are looking at our ISASP data and looking at where our strengths are to see which areas we need improvement and how we can impact that as a district,” Dickinson said. “There’s different pieces we have to report to the state in terms of how our students are doing related to the state standards, what that looks like in our district and how those kids are performing.”

The talented and gifted program handbook and the Lau plan were finalized and approved by the board, two items the services team has been hard at work on. ELL Coordinator Sydney Cruz shared what the Lau plan entailed.

“The Lau plan is essentially a plan for serving English language learners. It’s called the Lau plan because of a Supreme Court case [Lau v. Nichols] that occurred in 1974, which says that we cannot discriminate against students based on their language background,” Cruz said. “Some of the big highlights of it is just what we do when a new student comes to our district, how we assess them for the English language program and how we will serve them through their journey through English proficiency and work towards exiting the program.”

Cruz said the program had about 38 students last year, with nine testing out. This year there are 40 students enrolled, most speaking Spanish. There are two French-speaking students and one Georgian-speaking student. Cruz said the students in the program are not just those that permanently reside in the district.

“One of the new laws in the state of Iowa is incorporating foreign exchange students into the English language learning,” Cruz said. “When we have foreign exchange students, they must be assessed for the program, and if they qualify, they’re entered in just like any other students.”

According to the Lau Plan, once a student takes the language assessment, they will be placed into a classroom with students of a similar age and entered into a personalized Language Instruction Educational Program. There are a number of LIEP models, including Newcomer Program, Sheltered Instruction, Dual Language and English as a Second Language.

In order to exit the LIEP, a student must achieve a proficient score on an expert language assessment. A student may only exit the program between May and September, once assessment results are received. The student then enters a two-year monitoring period before fully leaving the program.

Dickinson was also approved as the district’s new District Homeless Coordinator. The district is expected by the federal government to always have this position filled due to the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, which requires students experiencing homelessness have equal access to the same free public education as provided to other students.

Though only just approved, Dickinson said she’s been researching what the role entails.

“I am learning more about this every day. I’m trying to get a handle on what this looks like, what’s expected by a liaison,” Dickinson said. “Just kind of moving forward, [finding] what you need to do to better assist those families that are considered homeless.”

In other school board news...

A number of new roles were assigned to various district staff, including: Bill Messerole as District 504 Coordinator, Kelsey Malmanger and Scott Driskell as Sexual Harassment/Level I Investigator, Union County Attorney as Sexual Harassment/Level II Investigator, Deron Stender as Equity Coordinator/Affirmative Action.

The school board approved the October 2024 list of contracts and resignations:

Contracts: Abby Menefee, para; Heather Brown, para; Shyla Stow, para; Lara Anderson, cook; Daniel Clark, custodian; Jessica Hotchkiss, para.

Resignations: Bridgette Johnson, para; Andrea Slight, para.