Parental concerns surface

July 19--CLINTON -- Community members raised multiple concerns with the Camanche School District on Monday during the school district's monthly board meeting.

Community member Kim Willis raised multiple concerns with the school district, citing procedures, formalities, inconsistencies and lack of communication. She said parents from the schools within the district are being told differently how a complaint is or should be handled.

"Sometimes they are directed to fill out a form, sometimes the principal verbally states he or she will look into it," Willis said. "And there seems to be a high percentage of times where there is no response or nothing is done with these complaints. This is not acceptable. If someone comes to a school official with a concern, complaint, there should be a proper protocol. And from my research there is none and nothing is being followed."

Willis suggested the school district meet with parents before the 2018-2019 school year. She said everything at the proposed meeting should be explained in full detail. She added staff should know where to go and what to do if a child is being bullied or harassed. She also suggested the school district have quarterly open forums.

"Other schools have an open forum either monthly or bimonthly," Willis said. "Since Camanche does not allow any conversations from the public during school board meetings, an open forum would help parents, staff, etc., to voice their concerns and also receive positive feedback at the same time."

Willis stated after reaching out to the school board over the last two months she had one person reach out to her. They did not meet up due to schedules. She said it was very odd to her that no one was able to respond to her.

"If none of you can bring changes to help make Camanche a safer environment for our children then you should not be sitting where you are," Willis said. "I hear it's just social media. It will calm down. To just ignore incidents is not acceptable and God forbid something drastic happens at one of our schools. If it does, in my opinion you all sitting at this table should be held accountable."

Kelli Sullivan, a community member who attended Camanche schools, also raised concern with certain trends in the school district. She referenced 114 staff members leaving the school district in the last three school years.

"My biggest question is why," Sullivan asked. "Why are teachers and support staff leaving? I know that several have left and I've reached out to them. And they said it's not due to money but due to happiness and support from the administration."

Sullivan continued it is common in other school districts to provide annual employee surveys. The results of the surveys are reviewed by the school board. Action plans are made and changes are implemented from the results. She also suggested the school district consider exit surveys to understand why an employee is leaving.

"Both of these suggestions are typical duties of other school districts' school boards and companies across the U.S.," Sullivan said. "And in fact my company and every other company I've worked for, we had exit surveys and annual employee surveys. This can drastically improve working environments and employee morale. This may also help us retain some of our wonderful staff we have in the district."

Sullivan, citing information from the Iowa Department of Education, stated open enrollment into the district decreased by 28 students from 2015 to last school year. Open enrollments out of the district increased by 10 students from 2015 to the past school year. She cited an increase in enrollment to the Northeast School District and eight personnel leaving to go to the Northeast School District. She said enrollment decreased by 77 students from 2015 to the past school year.

"These numbers do not count the families that have moved from Camanche to another district for education purposes not related to employment," Sullivan said. "I myself know at least four families that have left due to education. While these numbers are not huge they're alarming. Last year our district served 973 students. If you add up those leaving the district or choosing not to come into the district it's over 100 students we've lost the last three years. We have decreased enrollment 9 percent from 2015 to 2018 alone. We cannot continue at this rate. What we can do is understand the increase in those open enrolling elsewhere. Exit surveys with those families wishing to leave the district. Other districts are conducting surveys with the families leaving. Board members and superintendents are meeting with with the families choosing to leave one on one and they're offering solutions before they'll sign off on open enrollment. This information should be reviewed by the board and plans should be in place to help with retention of students."

Sullivan also believes it is important for the school board to be provided documentation on complaints made to Superintendent Tom Parker. She said this would help personnel be held accountable.

"One of the complaints I heard last school board meeting was that the voices of the parents are not being heard and no actions are taken," Sullivan said. "It may be a benefit for the board to see how many complaints were made to administration and by each building. This way it holds all parties accountable and will provide a way for the school board to ensure that parent-student happiness and safety is a priority."

Desirae Thomsen, who has two children in the school district, expressed concern over the utilization of paraeducators in the district. She said many paraeducators felt they were not being utilized for the job they were hired to do and instead spent much of their time on recess or lunch duty.

"I know all of them that have left, they went to jobs, other jobs, other places," Thomsen said. "They continued to be paraeducators. They just weren't liking it here. And since then and since I've talked to them they love where they're at. They love how they run it and how it's done there. So they weren't leaving because they wanted a new job or because, you know, it just wasn't working here for them. Several of them also told me that they had gone to administration and they were told that they were replaceable and as a parent this raises great concerns as to who is being held accountable for the decrease of staff and who's being held accountable for student retention."

Board member Stacy Kincaid stated the board listens to comments from the public meeting during the board meeting, stating that's how they learn what's going on in the community.

"A lot of things that you mentioned are actually being done or in the works such as we've talked about -- exit interviews with families and staff just to give examples," Kincaid said. "So just because we're not giving a lot of detail in the public forum, we are in the works with a lot of these things. I think you'll see some new things happening the next school year."

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