Enrollment Increase
While the official enrollment count in Iowa is still about a month away, it looks as if we will have about a 4% increase in K-8 enrollment this year compared to last year. Three year old preschool will also be up dramatically (45%). Four/five year old preschool will probably be in the low 50s, about the same as last year, and ECLC is currently down about three students.
Federal Funding/Services at JFK
Since spring 2020 through June 2022, OLV/JFK is on track to receive as much as $1.3 million or more in federal funding or services, most of it related to COVID relief. Some of the benefits include the following:
- Payroll was supported during the shutdowns of the school and parish during the spring/summer 2020
- School lunches were/are free to all families for two years
- JFK finished becoming 1 to 1 with Chromebooks in grades 3-8 and iPads in K-2
- Reading interventionist services and instructional aide time were retained/increased
- School-based therapist services are free for students for the next two years
- Leaps & Bounds summer programming should be free next summer
- Other purchases were made, including the following:
- Webcams, microphones, and document cameras
- Zoom and other software licensing
- Science supplies/equipment
- PE and recess equipment
- Coordinated clocks and a bell system
- Additional two way radios for use by staff
- Portable air purifiers and fans
- Cleaning supplies and equipment such as more than $11,000 in Chlorox-wipes types of products, $6,000 in hand sanitizer, and electrostatic sprayers
Communications
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. A hard copy Principal’s Post also gets sent home via 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. You will also receive numerous email communications from teachers. Email is probably the number one form of communication in schools.
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. If you’d like to be a member of the JFK Moms & Dads group, please let Angie Hillebrand, in the school office know via a Facebook request or even via email. Social media is not the best venue for voicing a concern, and posts that appear to do so will be removed while we try to reach out to address the concern through a better means. Social media, including our Facebook pages, are great ways to share your photos and connect with other JFK families. Photos from an event are often posted to these pages by families before we can even get photos taken by staff posted. Make sure you “like” us on both Facebook pages!
Occasionally, we will also “blast” a text message to families. A good example of a mass text message would be a last minute school closing due to weather. If you are not registered to receive text messages from JFK (primarily families new to JFK and/or preschool), type “Y” or “Yes” to 67587. You will not receive text messages from JFK if you do not take action yourself. There is no action required to receive email or phone messages.
Accounting Transitions with Regionalization
Parking Lot Drop-Off/Pick-Up
Here’s a few tips from what we’ve seen with the new parking lot pattern:
- Use the driving lanes rather than cutting through parking spaces. No one is expecting cars to be driving through parking spots.
- Kindergarten parents, in particular, should park, get out of their cars, and greet the kindergarten teachers as the students are released to those picking up the students. Without yet knowing all of our parents, grandparents, daycare providers, etc. that are picking up the kindergarteners, in particular, dismissal time is a little harrowing.
- Pull all the way forward in the green-coned area before loading or unloading. We should be able to load/unload about 3-4 cars at the same time.
- Stop before and proceed cautiously across the crosswalks.
- Parking and waiting in pick up areas inhibits a smooth flow of traffic. If you must park and wait, please do so in a parking space.
Please observe the parking lot traffic pattern on the north side of the parking lot. By shifting the car line for dropping off/picking up to go past the church and along the divider and concrete barriers, the line will not back up onto 42nd or Division streets. A low quality photo is below. For a better view, use the following link: Parking lot traffic patterns, 2021
- Red arrows are the drop off/pick up zones. Note that the main one is at the north, but there is also one that can be used at the south.
- Blue arrows are the one-way pick-up lanes.
- Orange arrows are one-way lanes.
- Green arrows indicate where traffic goes in both directions.
- Note that in some areas there are two lanes going in the same direction: one lane is just driving through (orange arrows) and the other lane is the pick up lane leading to the drop off/pick up zone (blue and red arrows).
As always, be careful in the parking lot. Even though our younger students must be accompanied to/from the barriers by parents when parents are parked in the lot, there are a lot of people and cars moving at the same time. Drive slowly, pay attention, and keep the cell phones put away. Parents who are waiting for their little ones should stand on the school side of the barriers this year.
COVID Guidance for 2021-22
Click on the JFK COVID FAQ, 2021-22 to have your questions answered. Please note that the information is, however, subject to change. The latest changes are highlighted in yellow.
COVID Data and Comments
Below is a link to a .pdf file that shows several graphs for Scott County and JFK. Below are also some comments related to the pandemic.
- Although cases continue to increase in Scott County, the good news this past week was that the growth was linear, not exponential.
- With things moving back more to “normal” this year, almost every positive student case has close contacts at school. Although no longer required to do contact tracing, we are still trying to do it at JFK so we can inform parents, and parents can then make decisions about testing and/or quarantining their children. Positive cases are required to be out of school, but students, in Iowa, who are close contacts are not.
- Guests may attend school Masses this year, but seating is limited due to the spacing we are utilizing for students and staff. There may be some seats available near the St. Joseph statue/piano side of the church or in folding chairs along the perimeter. We are not livestreaming school Masses this year, except on special occasions like a holy day.
- I have been asked a couple of times about how many students and staff are wearing face coverings and staff vaccination rates. We do not have any formal counts. Based upon walking through the building, I would estimate that there’s probably about 2-4 students (10%-20%) in each homeroom that are wearing face masks when in the classroom and more when moving through the halls and when within 4 feet of one another inside the building. There’s probably about a similar percentage of staff wearing face masks when around other people. An estimate of the staff vaccination rate would be purely speculative.
Immunization Audit
Our immunization audit by the health department has already begun. While there were no changes in immunization requirements, the state has moved up the audits by about three to six weeks. Unless students’ immunization records show up-to-date vaccinations, or there are valid exemptions, students may have to be excluded from school.
Substitutes Needed
JFK is in need of substitutes for both long-term assignments (like maternity leaves) and short-term assignments (like when a teacher needs to stay home with his/her own sick child). You do not need a teaching degree to work as a substitute. A minimum of an associate’s degree may be enough to qualify. The process to become a substitute teacher includes completion of a 15-20 hour workshop, multiple background checks, and applications with the Iowa Board of Education Examiners and JFK. Workshops are being held almost every week throughout the state, and many of them are virtual so geography does not need to be a limiting factor.
Recognizing the need for substitute teachers, JFK’s board has authorized a $450 bonus at the pay period following the fifth day of substituting at JFK to the first five people to take advantage of this offer. The bonus will essentially cover the workshop fee, license application fee, background check fee, and pay an amount for the workshop time.
If you are interested in being a substitute, please contact me and/or the Mississippi Bend Area Education Agency at 563-359-1371.
Highlighted Events
Both a summary and detailed school calendars for JFK are available on our website. Highlighted events are below:
- Sept 7: FAST screening in reading and math and for SEB needs begins for K-8. FAST reading results are shared with all families and used to determine additional targeted supports.
- Sept 9: Confirmation parent meetings (6:00 for 7th graders, 7:00 for 8th graders)
- Sept 10: Double D Diner Restaurant Night. Picture retakes.
- Sept 11: Double D Diner Restaurant Night.
- Sept 13: Music Boosters
- Sept 14: Step It Up fundraiser begins. The success of this fundraiser should allow H & S to reduce other fundraisers and provide support for students and staff. The culminating event to this fundraiser is a “Day of Awesomeness” for students with inflatables, obstacle courses, games, etc. in the spring.
Handbook Sign-Off
Please read the parent and student handbook, available HERE, and on our website: https://www.olvjfk.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Parent-Handbook-2021-22.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.
Chad
