Month: August 2018

Two Days Under Our Belt — Resiliency Abounds

I’d like to publicly thank our staff members, parents, and students for their resiliency as we’ve begun the school year with so many improvement projects still underway.  Every step forward, it seems, has also been made with a half step backwards as another issue emerges.  When working on the drainage project out back, for example, workers hit one of the tubes for the geothermal heating and air conditioning system for the media center and a classroom.  Yet unexplained, however, there doesn’t appear to have been enough liquid in the tube to operate well in the long term, which may be related to why the geothermal pumps are giving us fits.

Even prior to this issue with the geothermal line, however, we were prepared to spend nearly $7,000 on various heating related issues.  These expenses serve as a reminder that replacing the boiler last summer was only phase one of a complete three phase HVAC plan that will resolve nearly all of the heating pipes issues within the building AND provide efficient heating, ventilation, and air conditioning.  We are practically “shovel ready” for this project, and we are thankful for the Gala supporters and OLV Foundation who have contributed toward the funding needed for our HVAC project.

We would also like to thank everyone for your flexibility while the Sturdevant drive is unavailable due to the drainage project.  As you experienced on Friday morning during the rain at drop off times, having many drives available makes everything run so much smoother.  That’s one reason why our campus safety recommendations included having all of the drives open for drop off and pick up times and for funerals.  The drainage project should be completed within about a week.

Actual Bus Times Greatly Improved

We hope to see the actual bus times continue to improve.  On Friday, our last arriving bus in the morning was only about five minutes late while one bus (a different one than Friday) was nearly 20 minutes late to JFK on Thursday.  There are still some issues in the afternoon, and, although improvements were made, the improvements were not nearly as great.  However, we think we’ve identified a transfer issue with Assumption that is delaying a bus from arriving at JFK on time and holding up several other buses from leaving.  On Friday, our latest departing bus left 14 minutes AFTER the first student was supposed to have been dropped off at home!

Morning Drop Off and Breakfast:

As in the past, regular supervision on the blacktop will begin 15 minutes before school begins:  7:10 a.m.  If the weather is inclement, students will be let into the building and wait in designated areas until classes begin.

Students who ride the bus will be allowed to enter the building and wait in the cafeteria until 7:10, when they will join their other arriving classmates either on the blacktop or in other supervised locations.  Our buses were supposed to arrive on campus between 7:04 – 7:06, but we haven’t seen them this early yet.

New this year is a light breakfast program.  Students arriving between 7:00 and 7:10 may purchase a light breakfast of a fruit, milk, and cereal, bagel, muffin, or the like in the cafeteria.  Cost of breakfast is $1.50 and will be deducted from the funds in a student’s lunch account.  Although the time for purchasing breakfast is only ten minutes, students can remain in the cafeteria and finish eating until classes begin.  This new breakfast program is intended to be a service for those early morning bus riders who may be dropped off before 7:10 and those who may have used our previously paid for before school care program.  Other students may also take advantage of the program by arriving before 7:10.  There may be some adjustments to the breakfast program as we see how it progresses.  We have four eaters on Friday, and no eaters on Thursday.

Campus Safety

Work on campus safety projects continues.   Cameras are being installed, and the wiring may be finished this week.  I anticipate the system being operational within two weeks.  Security cameras can help staff monitor the entire campus, serve as a deterrent, provide an early warning to potential suspicious or dangerous situations, be used by first responders should an event be in progress, and help with after the fact investigations.  We received a Scott County Regional Authority grant for this project.  We will soon have approximately 22 cameras covering the outside of the school, the main church entry, and several large common areas/hallways within the school.

We are waiting for Lovewell Fencing to install the additional gates, bollards, and basketball hoops to complete the work on the parking lot.  Phase III, when funded, will create a new visitor and handicapped parking area off of 42nd Street level with the office entrances.

Sad to See Tree Go – What Will Replace It?

To make way for the drainage project behind the school, a large tree had to be removed.  What might we do instead when the final grading is done in the spring?  A rosary garden?  Butterfly garden?  Let’s think about how we might utilize the land with which we have been blessed.  Send me your ideas!

Not Too Many Dress Code Issues

I didn’t notice too many dress code issues during our first two days.  About the only thing I noticed that needs a larger community reminder is that while the board approved logos for socks, it limited logos on all attire to one per item.  Each sock can only have one logo.

Handbook Sign-Off

Please read the parent and student handbook, available HERE, and on our website:  https://www.olvjfk.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Parent-Handbook-2018-19.pdf.  Then, print off the last page, sign it, and return it to the school office — one per family.  Thank you for helping us to reduce our printing costs.

Parish Picnic and Outdoor Mass

September 15th — Outdoor Mass at 4:30

Picnic following:  bounce houses, Iowa/UNI game available, huge pork tenderloins

Price:  $1 and a dish to share.   Please bring a serving utensil and mark all dishes and utensils with your name for return.

Last name ending in: A – H bring Salads
I – P bring Desserts
Q – Z bring Vegetables

Principal’s Post Availability

Principal’s Posts are written each weekend and posted on our website, available off the front page.  I also send a link via email and post it to the school’s Facebook account.  It then gets sent home via hard copy via “backpack mail” with the “youngest or only child” in a family at the beginning of each week.  I use the Principal’s Post to reach the whole school community and sometimes highlight happenings in particular grades.  It does not replace the many communications you will receive from your children’s teachers.

We also utilize a JFK Facebook page, and there is a closed Facebook group, JFK Moms & Dads, where people can post to others in the group.  JFK’s Facebook page can be accessed from the front page of our website as well.  Make sure you “like” us there!  Highlighted Events and Headlines on our website also tend to be updated each weekend.

An Update About Me and My Family

I am beginning my 18th year as principal at JFK.  Each year brings new challenges and has its own excitement.  Prior to coming to JFK, I worked for ten years at Assumption High School where I taught religion and worked in student services for one year.  I grew up in South Milwaukee, WI, and attended Marquette University for my bachelor’s degree in sociology and theology.  I received a master’s degree in religion from the University of Chicago, and my master’s degree in education administration is from Western Illinois University.  My superintendent’s certificate work was done through the University of Northern Iowa.

Lynn and I have been married for 23 years.  She holds two degrees from St. Ambrose and one from Drake University.  Together, we are cash poor but education rich!  Lynn has worked in a variety of roles at Assumption High School, where we met.  She is also a graduate of Assumption and St. Paul’s.

Our four children continue to scatter.  Our oldest, Colleen, moved to North Carolina this past year, and she works at the Y.  She has degrees from Ashford University and the University of Dubuque.  Tom moved to Cedar Rapids during the winter.  He manages three mattress stores in Cedar Rapids, Cedar Falls, and Waterloo.  He has an associates degree from Des Moines Area Community College.  Kirsten is in her last semester at St. Ambrose and doing her student teaching at Lourdes this fall.  She is planning on graduating in December and looking for a teaching position in the Des Moines area.  Caitlin is in her second year at the University of Kansas.  I can’t say it’s her “sophomore” year really as she already had 34 college credits when she graduated from Assumption, and she’s in a program that combines both undergraduate and graduate level work so she can finish with a law degree in six years rather than the normal seven.

The end of summer hit Lynn and me the other weekend at Mass.  Lynn and I were there without any of our children and without upcoming plans for any of them to be around for any more special summer activities.  It was kind of depressing.  We better start planning some fall activities, or at least start working on Thanksgiving plans!

Chad

Whirlwind of Activity

There has been a whirlwind of activity at JFK over the summer and, rather than slowing down as the start day approaches, I think we’re getting even busier!

Bell Times:

People are still contacting us to confirm it — JFK will have new bell times this year:  7:25 a.m. – 2:40 p.m.  Wednesdays’ early dismissals are at 1:40.  There will be bus transportation.

While we were creating a new bell time schedule, we were able to adjust our schedule enough to give late morning break to 6th-8th graders.  This recess break will make up for the loss of a 6th – 8th grade lunch time recess that was necessary when we decided to follow the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics recommendation that there be 60 minutes of math instruction each day in grades kindergarten through 12th grade.  By adjusting morning homeroom times and tweaking some transition time around the 6th-8th grade lunches, we should be able to add a late morning recess break while retaining the 60 minutes of math each day and not negatively impacting other instructional time.

All school Masses will begin at 7:40 a.m.  Holy day all school Masses will still be at 8:15 a.m.  Our first all school Mass is Friday.

See below for the new bell times.

K-8

• MTThF:     7:25 – 2:40
• W:             7:25 – 1:40

3 yr old PS:

• 7:25 – 9:55

4/5 yr old morning PS:

• MTThF:     7:25 – 10:25
• W:              7:25 – 9:55

4/5 yr old afternoon PS:

• MTThF:     11:40 – 2:40
• W:              11:10 – 1:40

After school care:  2:40 (or the end of the school day) – 5:30

ECLC:  7:00 – 5:30

Morning Drop Off and Breakfast:

As in the past, regular supervision on the blacktop will begin 15 minutes before school begins:  7:10 a.m.  If the weather is inclement, students will be let into the building and wait in designated areas until classes begin.

Students who ride the bus will be allowed to enter the building and wait in the cafeteria until 7:10, when they will join their other arriving classmates either on the blacktop or in other supervised locations.

New this year is a light breakfast program.  Students arriving between 7:00 and 7:10 may purchase a light breakfast of a fruit, milk, and cereal, bagel, muffin, or the like in the cafeteria.  Cost of breakfast is $1.50 and will be deducted from the funds in a student’s lunch account.  Although the time for purchasing breakfast is only ten minutes, students can remain in the cafeteria and finish eating until classes begin.  This new breakfast program is intended to be a service for those early morning bus riders who may be dropped off before 7:10 and those who may have used our previously paid for before school care program.  Other students may also take advantage of the program by arriving before 7:10.  There may be some adjustments to the breakfast program as we see how it progresses.

Reduced Rate for After School Care Program:

With after school care beginning 20 minutes earlier, the board decided to change the rates it had just passed in the winter to try and make our program more affordable for families.  Rather than $1.65 for a quarter hour for the first child in a family, and $1.35 for the second child, etc., the rate has been changed to $1.50 for a quarter hour per student.  After school care operates from the end of the school day until 5:30.

Campus Safety

Work on campus safety projects continues as we move into the school year.

When JFK was built in 1963 and opened its doors in 1964, campus safety was not as close to the forefront of people’s minds as it is today.  Back then, the school offices were behind a brick wall that prevented anyone from seeing the entry doors, which were unlocked as well!  Beginning in 2001, explicit steps were taken to improve campus security.  By 2011, new offices were built at the front of the building, and, after tragedy in Sandy Hook in December 2012, another $80,000 or more was spent to increase building security and protocols.  The focus in these earlier stages tended to be on how to keep students safe within the building and keep a potentially unwanted person out of the school.  In the fall of 2017, we began another major safety review.  Meeting with our alderman, city staff, and multiple police officers to discuss the neighborhood and safety protocols, it was determined that there did NOT seem to be a higher probability of danger to our students now than at any other time, and our safety protocols are still strong.  We also conducted a survey of staff and parents to determine what people’s concerns were today.  While the survey was intended to elicit today’s concerns, there were some who responded that they did not have any concerns:

• “I am currently not worried about the safety of my children while they are at JFK.”
• “I do feel that JFK does a great job at keeping the school safe as well as keeping us well informed. Obviously it’s a little harder to keep the same amount of security when the kids are on the playground, but their outdoor time is important, and I feel JFK has a vigilant staff. There are just some things that are out of our control, but I feel my child is safe.”
• “We are very pleased with the safe guards are that already in place, such as the doorbell for ECLC/Preschool, traffic directing cones, sign-in/out process, etc.”
• “I really do not have any specific concerns regarding safety since the building entrances have been locked and free access to the school from multiple points of entry have been eliminated.”
• “The plan for dropping off and picking up is very good if the drivers would pay attention.”

The most common theme in the survey for today’s concerns was related to keeping students safe when outside the building but on campus property.  Three key recommendations were made by a safety committee:

• Separate students from the parking lot. Students should be away from the apartment buildings and from moving cars and parking areas, particularly during recess times.
• Use something other than cones for making the “safety” area at drop off/pick up times. Cones will not protect students from a car.
• Add security cameras to both the external and internal school campus, with external cameras being the first priority. Security cameras can help staff monitor the entire campus.  They can serve as a deterrent, provide an early warning to potential suspicious or dangerous situations, be used by first responders should an event be in progress, and help with after the fact investigations.  We received a Scott County Regional Authority grant for this project, and this work finally began last week.  We will soon have approximately 22 cameras covering the outside of the school, the main church entry, and several large common areas/hallways within the school.

When looking at the parking lot, multiple options were discussed, three parish/school listening sessions were conducted, and multiple detailed plans were reviewed and critiqued by the board of education, finance council, and parish council.  The final plan was also submitted to the diocese.

Factors considered included the following, and trying to strike a balance of many interests was challenging:

• Recess location and student safety
• Student safety at drop-off/pick-up times
• Protection of students and the building itself from cars
• Traffic flow
• Where students should line up and enter the building
• Green space
• Size of a hard surface play area and how often students have to use it for recesses
• Cost
• Permanent loss (or gain) of parking spaces
• Loss of parking spaces on week days
• Student access to building entrances should there be an emergency for which they need to enter the building quickly
• Aesthetics
• Visitor and handicapped parking for the school
• Access to parking lot entrances
• Access to the parish center entrance
• Flexibility of parking in the lot for funerals
• Snow removal

The final parking lot plan has three phases, and phases I and II have begun.  Phase I provides a permanent, safe barrier on the northeast side of the parking lot behind which students can stand at drop off and pick up times.  (See the red lines on the picture below).  Shortly, there will be yellow bollards installed at each end (yellow dots below) that will allow pedestrians through but be placed too close for vehicles to pass.  Until the bollards are installed, we will be using traffic cones.  Traffic cones will also be placed where they have been in the past (green dots) as we still do not want traffic moving north/south along where student are standing.  School day traffic patterns on the north side of the divider will not change.  The northwest entrance off of 42nd Street is still “enter” only, and the northeast is still exit only.

Phase II moves recesses on the blacktop (when the grass is too wet or covered in snow to be out back) to the south end of the parking lot and utilizes fences, gates, and portable barriers to keep students safe while also allowing for the flexibility needed for funerals and parish center usage.  After morning drop off, the south part of the parking lot will be made inaccessible by closing gates at the Sturdevant Street entrance and near the cooling tower by the rectory drive  (See yellow lines below.)  Access to/from the rectory will still be possible from Division.  In addition to these gates, cables will be drawn across the north/south pass through by the divider, and, thus, seal the south parking lot from vehicular traffic during school hours on most days.  Prior to the end of the school day, the two gates and cable will be opened, allowing for access to both sides of the parking lot again.  To clear the south side of the parking lot from cars during the day, staff will be parking on the north side of the lot.  Handicapped spots and visitor spots remain close to the school.  When there are funerals on school days, we will be using a combination of large portable barriers and special cones to create a safe play area on the south side of the lot while still allowing for the gates to be open.

Other elements of Phase II include putting a series of fences between the trees along the divider (east/west yellow lines below) to keep kids and balls from going from the play area into a parking and traffic area and a fence near the dumpster to keep balls from going too far off the parking lot to the south.  Finally, two new basketball hoops will be installed by the ECLC/PS play area (red dots below), and the old one in the divider will likely be removed.

Phase III, which has not yet been funded, would create a new visitor and handicapped parking area off of 42nd Street level with the office entrances.

While it will likely take us a little bit of time to adjust to the changes, these changes are indicative of the seriousness that OLV and JFK community members take student safety.

Below is a photo showing these campus enhancements:

Other Construction

Parking lot safety is not the only work being done this summer.  This week a new drainage system is being installed along the east/west wing and parish center.  (See photo below.)  The older system, which only collected water from two downspouts, has failed.  The new system will be able to handle the water off the roof from all five downspouts as well as surface level run off from the playground and field.  The red below represents what will be underground, and the green dots represent surface level collectors.  This work begins on August 20th and should be done by the 25th.  During this time, the Sturdevant Street entrance will likely be closed.  Once the outside work is done, repairs and renovations will be made to the parish center kitchen, table room, and restrooms.

• Added as examples of Level II misbehaviors:  Targeting others on social media or electronic devices, which then affects the school environment; taking a photograph or video/audio recording without permission; unauthorized use of a cell phone
• Specifically stated that smart watches are in the same category as “cell phones and other electronic devices” and prohibited from use between 7:00 a.m. and until students leave the building.  Because staff members are not able to tell which Smart Watches and FitBits are connected to data plans or phones in one’s locker, all such devices will be prohibited.
• Emphasized that there are only two approved vendors for uniform jumpers/skirts:  Religious Supply on Jersey Ridge and Denis Uniform Supply (online)
• Applied the 2″ logo guideline to nearly all apparel and limited logos/words to one per item  (Shirts with logos/words on the front and back, front and sleeve, or front and shoulder, etc. are not allowed under the policy, but socks can now have a 2″ maximum size logo)
• Changed the belt requirement to grades 4-8 only
• Defined more specific consequences for issues with hair, particularly for unnatural coloring.  It’s time to get students’ hair back to what is acceptable according to our dress code. 
• Changed when athletic eligibility is checked
• Added language regarding student records and video