What if we treated teachers like professional athletes?

Teachers do some of the most critical work in the world. The decisions teachers make each day have the potential to shape our future and change our world! What if teachers received the same level of respect, compensation, and public accolades as professional athletes?  In this video clip from Comedy Central, Key & Peele perform a spoof of ESPN's SportsCenter called TeachingCenter that gives us a glimpse of how the world might be different.  Be sure to watch the commercial at the end...it's part of the spoof.

Proud to Be Your New Superintendent

This blog post was submitted for publication in the Friday, July 31 edition of the Traer Star Clipper.

While most of my blog posts and Star Clipper columns will focus on educational topics and school issues, this week I want to use this space to give you a little background on your new part-time superintendent and the path that has led me to North Tama. Writing about myself isn’t my favorite thing to do, but I thought the patrons of the North Tama school district might appreciate the background information.  

Your new superintendent is no stranger to Tama County. I was born and raised on a family farm in Northern Tama County, and have lived in this area my entire life with the exception of my college years. My great-great-great grandparents settled in Geneseo Township in 1853. Generations later, we are raising our sons on the same farm, in a house built by my great-grandparents not far from the location of the first Hill family log cabin. In 2003, the Hill farm received the Iowa Farm Bureau’s Heritage Farm designation for 150 years in the same family.  

Education runs in my bloodlines. My great-grandfather, Charles Hill, was one of the founding board members of the Geneseo Consolidated school district. He served on the Geneseo school board for many years until his son, my grandpa Forrest Hill, succeeded him. My grandmother, Edythe Hill, was a long-time elementary teacher at Geneseo. She was also active in conservation education and helped to establish the 5th Grade Outdoor Classroom which is still held annually at Otter Creek. Because of the my grandparents’ influence, I knew from a young age that I wanted to be a teacher.

While I was a student at Iowa State University, I met my wife Tanya. We married shortly after I graduated from ISU. We have three sons ages 18, 16 and 12. Our oldest son is following in his parents’ footsteps and heading to Iowa State as a freshman this fall. Tanya was an at-home mom during our kids’ younger years, and she began her teaching career in 2010. She teaches Career Technology Exploratory STEM-based classes at Waterloo’s Hoover Middle School. As a family, we enjoy activities such as kayaking on Wolf Creek, bicycling, visiting museums and science centers, and supporting the ISU Cyclones.

For nine years, I was the FFA Advisor and 7th-12th grade Agricultural Education teacher at Benton Community Schools in Van Horne. Even though it has been 10 years since I left the classroom, I think that I will always be an ag teacher at heart. I still enjoy volunteering and serving as a judge for FFA activities whenever possible. Ten years ago, I became the principal at Dysart-Geneseo Elementary School, returning “home” to the school that I attended as a child. I truly love my work as a principal, and the amazing staff and students at D-G. Like most schools in Iowa, D-G’s enrollment is declining. We expect to have about 145 K-5 students at Dysart this coming fall.

North Tama’s enrollment has also declined significantly in the past several years. We’re projecting 459 students on the first day of school in August, down from 475 students on the last day of school in May, and down about 100 students from 10 years ago. Since funding comes on a per-pupil basis, this means there is less money to work with each year. Declining enrollment coupled with inadequate increases in state aid for several consecutive years has presented challenges for North Tama and many Iowa schools. In response, North Tama has reduced teaching and support staff positions and taken other cost-saving measures. Your school board felt that it was also time to consider investigating the possibility of a part-time or shared superintendent. At their regular board meeting in March, the North Tama school board voted to enter into an agreement to share my services with the Union district. While serving as North Tama’s part-time superintendent, I will continue to serve as the principal at Dysart-Geneseo Elementary.

Approximately nine miles separates the building where I am principal in Dysart and the superintendent’s office in Traer. The students, staff, and parents at BOTH North Tama and Dysart-Geneseo are very important to me, and I will work diligently to meet the needs of both schools. Other individuals in both districts will be taking on some additional responsibilities to make things manageable. While this is a change from the way things have been done in previous years, I truly believe that we can make this work! The result will be a long-term financial benefit which will enable both schools to continue to meet the needs of their students and communities in the most efficient way possible.

While having a part-time superintendent will be a change, it is one of the ways the North Tama school board will be able to accomplish their goal of maintaining the district’s financial stability and retaining existing programs so that North Tama will remain a viable K-12 school. I’m happy to be part of the solution that will help keep our schools strong for years to come. North Tama schools have so much to be proud of...and I’m so proud to be part of North Tama!  I invite your thoughts and your feedback. You are welcome to visit my blog at http://redhawksupt.blogspot.com/ where you can read my Star Clipper columns and leave comments if you wish.

The Governor’s Veto & North Tama’s Financial Stability

This blog post was submitted for publication in the Friday, July 10 edition of the Traer Star Clipper.

I am pleased to introduce myself as the new superintendent of the North Tama County Community School District. I want to thank the school board for their confidence in me, and the staff and community for their warm welcome.  I also want to thank Mr. Bob Cue for his leadership as superintendent over the past four years as well as his ongoing support of the school and of me personally during the transition.  I know you will join me in wishing Mr. Cue all the best in his retirement!  

I’ve been brainstorming for several weeks about the topic of my first Star Clipper column. I had hoped to give you some background on myself and the path that has led toward my becoming the new part-time superintendent at North Tama while continuing as the part-time principal at Dysart-Geneseo Elementary. I intended to discuss the unique administrative sharing agreement between North Tama and Union and to reassure you that the sharing of administration is not a step towards a merger between the two districts. I wanted to share my first impressions of North Tama, and I also hoped to share my vision for education and the future of our schools. However, I soon realized that I would have so much to say on these topics that this would fill the entire paper, and that a better approach would be to divide my thoughts into smaller portions over a series of columns. I plan to share my thoughts with you in this column once or twice per month over the coming months and years.

Then, just as I was sitting down to write my first column, we received word that the Governor had used his line-item veto power to eliminate $56 million in funding for Iowa schools. I realized that I needed to scrap the original plans and prioritize my first Star Clipper column to focus on the long-term financial health of the North Tama district.  The other topics are important, but we must put first things first.  

In April, the North Tama board approved a budget for the coming school year without knowing how much money would be appropriated for their operations. The board had no other choice, as they were required by law to approve a budget by April 15. I began as the new superintendent on July 1, the first day of the new fiscal year -- still unsure about funding for the coming year. Now that the Governor has made his decision, we know that North Tama’s per pupil supplemental state aid will increase by 1.25%, which means a significant loss of total funding compared to last year due to declining enrollment.  We also know that North Tama will lose $53,931 in one-time funding due to the veto.  

Because your school board and Mr. Cue anticipated declining enrollment and predicted inadequate funding, several cost-saving measures were taken for this year’s budget. These cost savings included the elimination of a number of positions, reducing the hours of some positions, the sharing of a superintendent, and several other incidental savings measures. Because of your board’s foresight, North Tama should maintain a relatively stable financial position for the coming year while not eliminating opportunities for students. I applaud Mr. Cue and the board for their foresight. In the coming years, we will need to continue to seek additional cost saving measures while advocating for appropriate funding for our schools.  

Your school board’s number one goal is to maintain the financial stability of the district and retain existing programs so that North Tama will remain a viable K-12 school.  I strongly support this goal. While this most recent loss of funding and the district’s declining student numbers will present challenges, I believe they are challenges that we can overcome -- in both the short term as well as the long-term -- if we are intelligent and intentional with our allocation of resources and if we take the necessary steps for continued cost savings during the coming months and years.

Thanks again for your warm welcome.  I’m so excited about working with the North Tama board, staff, students, parents, and the entire school community as your superintendent.  I look forward to meeting many of you in the coming weeks as we prepare for a great 2015-2016 school year.