A year in review: Education

Jan. 3—Last year, local education saw a roller coaster of changes. From personnel to funding, the system adapted and found ways to continue to be successful.

"2022 was mixed with two community-led general obligation bond attempts to upgrade and improve facilities that failed to gain community support," Creston School District Superintendent Deron Stender said. "Despite the challenges COVID had on student achievement, Creston staff kept their focus on closing the achievement gap for all students, and based on state assessments, our students achieved commendable and high-performing status."

Leadership Personnel

In April, Creston School District announced Lesa Downing to take over as Creston Middle School Principal for the 2022-23 school year following the resignation of Brad Baker.

Downing has been with the school since 1996. She has applied before when Creston administration positions were vacant, but she said her perseverance and timing are what made differences this time.

In her first year as principal, Downing has utilized the philosophy that they are better together. She said she wants to hear ideas from her staff and students.

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In May, Mayflower Heritage School named Francine Ide as co-administrator.

Ide agreed to share duties with existing administrator Karla Powers as the school changed direction after the death of Sue Maitlen earlier this year. Maitlen had been the school's administrator and was replaced by Powers who has been involved with the school since its inception 20 years ago.

Ide is a Creston native with a strong interest in agriculture. She was involved in the agriculture program at Southwestern Community College and transferred to Northwest Missouri State to acquire an animal science degree. After college, she was eventually asked to assist a Southwestern beef production class.

She taught part time at Southwestern for 10 years. At that time, Ide said she wanted to spend more time with her family farm and family. She left Southwestern in 2016 and eventually started volunteer work at Mayflower.

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In May, Creston School District named Casey Tanner elementary school principal following Julie Plant's resignation.

Tanner has been with the school district for eight years. Formally from Orient, he started in 2014 in middle school math.

He spent the last two years as the dean of students for first through eighth-grade students.

Tanner is involved in other activities at the school as well, serving as the assistant football and wrestling coach and the strength and conditioning coach.

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In June, SWCC Vice President of Economic Development Tom Lesan retired after 41 years at the college.

Lesan, a Creston High School graduate, studied at SWCC and graduated in 1978. He went on to graduate from the University of Iowa in May 1980. By January 1981, he was back home working for SWCC as their adult education coordinator.

It was in July 1983 Lesan said economic development really started with the 260E program. He managed that program from the day it began to the day he retired.

Community involvement will continue to be a part of his life with his position of treasurer at the shooting range and his being a member of the hospital board.

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In July, after 14 years representing district 7 on the SWCC Board of Trustees, Vicki Sickels made the choice to step down as her and her husband were moving to Ankeny to be closer to family.

Sickels was appointed in 2008 and said a lot has changed for the better since then. She noted the construction of the dormitory suites, updates to the technology center and most recently the agriculture center as big changes to the campus.

Though they will be moving to Ankeny, Sickels said she can't see her and her husband not getting involved, and they immediately began looking for ways to make a difference in their new community.

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In August, Southwestern Community College Board of Directors approved the appointment of Amy Mobley to the district 7 position vacancy left by Vicki Sickels after her resignation.

Mobley's position as chief nursing officer with the Ringgold County Hospital has her working closely with the college on a number of projects.

A SWCC alumnus herself, it was her history with the college and her overall desire to help improve the community that led her to apply for the position.

Mobley grew up in Grant City, Missouri, but eventually moved to rural Ringgold County where she lives on a farm with her husband of 29 years. The couple have three adult daughters together and love doing anything outdoors.

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In November, Don Gee was nominated and approved as Creston School Board President for the following year.

Board member Sharon Snodgrass nominated Gee for role, and it was seconded by Galen Zumbach. The roll call vote unanimously approved him for the position.

Following his swearing in, Amanda Mohr was approved unanimously as vice president.

The duo replaces former president and vice president Brad James and Zumbach.

Awards

In May, SWCC employees Terri Higgins and Jeff Magneson were honored by the Iowa Association of Community College Trustees.

Higgins was nominated in March by SWCC Board President Tony Cass for the Staff Member of the Year Award.

In his nomination, Cass named Higgins as an integral part of the student services division. He continued to say Higgins has stepped up to help lead the college during several key changes in leadership, including the dean of student services, the vice president of instruction and the president.

Magneson was nominated by Vice President of Instruction Lindsay Stoaks for the Outstanding Faculty Member Award.

She noted under Magneson's mentorship, Southwestern's auto collision repair/refinish program is one of two programs in Iowa to have the The National institute for Automotive Service Excellence/National Automotive Technicial Education foundation certification. It is the only program in the state to have the I-CAR PROLEVEL 1 and 2 certifications.

In her nomination, Stoaks said he is always on the cutting-edge of identifying new technology to train and prepare students for the workforce.

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In June, St. Malachy Principal Jennifer Simmons was honored as rural administrator of the year from the Diocese of Des Moines.

Nicole Evans, director of marketing for the Diocese of Des Moines, said she received many nominations from her faculty, families and the parish.

The awards are broken up into rural and metro schools. Honorees were selected based on their demonstrated impact on the Diocese of Des Moines Catholic Schools and their commitment to faith, academic excellence and fostering a vibrant school community.

She just finished her seventh year as principal at St. Malachy, but she's been teaching since 1999. She said the previous Catholic schools she's taught at were each special in their own way, but there's something different about being an educator in a small community.

Struggles

In March, all school facilities in Creston Community School District — including Southwestern Community College — went on lockdown after a "mechanical error" falsely alerted staff and students of an active shooter on site at the Early Childhood Center.

According to a Creston Police press release, Union County Law Enforcement Center received an emergency call in which it the caller reported an "active shooter and hearing gun shots" at the ECC

That call was made as the district was on lockdown. Stender described a hectic situation — an overhead "active shooter" alert, strobing lights, and staff corralling young students — during which a staff member thought they heard gun shots.

It was confirmed shots were not fired, Stender said he is unsure what the teacher heard, but with all the activity going on, it could have been anything.

In May, the school board approved a new security system from Blumm Technologies for the Verkada security solution that included video surveillance, door access, vape detection and cloud hosting/monitoring services.

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In March, Union County voters said no to a $24.9 million, 20-year general obligation school bond. In November, they said no again.

The group could try again for a general obligation bond, but only after a six month window is passed. The next election window is less than six months from now, meaning the earliest another bond could be placed on the ballot would be September 2023.

The facility updates were to include the addition of a new Early Childhood Center (ECC), updates and remodel to the performing arts spaces, media center, science labs and a new activities complex — among others.

The two major obstacles the Support Our Panthers community group have faced in their rally to pass the bond have been concerns about a tax increase as well as concerns that athletics are being prioritized over academics.

Accomplishments

In September, Mayflower celebrated its 20th anniversary.

In December 2000, Karla Powers, Tom and Cindy Young, Terry and Susan Amann and Tracy and Cindy Edwards all shared their ideas and vision of having a Christian school in Creston.

Mayflower Heritage opened its doors in fall 2002 with 11 students from kindergarten through sixth grade. Powers' oldest, Michelle, was in kindergarten and had three younger siblings. Tammy Dillinger and Julia Ibbotson were the two teachers that first year.

Dillinger is a Creston High graduate who had taught in Idaho and Maryland Christian schools.

In 2003, the seventh grade was added. Today, classes extend through eighth grade. Enrollment has fluctuated since year one. Powers said enrollment has ranged from 11 to 45 and as many as 70.

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In September, Creston High School hosted their first marching band exhibition as a part of Southwest Iowa Hot Air Balloon Days.

The exhibition provided the opportunity for bands to come perform and get scored by judges so they know what they need to improve on before they perform in competition.

Creston High School band director Michael Peters began reaching out to other high school bands. While there were only three marching bands planned for this year — Creston, Harlan and Lenox — Activities Director Scott Driskell said they just needed to get it going to build momentum.

While the plan was for the three bands to perform on the football field for judges to evaluate and coach, mother nature had other plans.

Lenox pulled out of the exhibition due to weather, but Creston and Harlan went to plan B — performing at a smaller capacity in the high school gymnasium.

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In November, Creston School Board members took a minute to recognize students and staff after reviewing improved test scores.

Elementary and the early childhood center were high performing and the middle school and high school were commendable. ECC Principal Callie Anderson said they're all very high marks and they are very excited about those ratings.

Both Superintendent Deron Stender and Creston Elementary Principal Casey Tanner attributed the improvement to professional development the staff has been implementing over the past few years.

In early childhood and elementary scoring, growth and conditions for learning make up 54% of the total score. Growth was a major factor for the scores' improvement.

The state average for math and English language arts growth were 50%. Creston scored 71% and 62.5%, respectively.

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In December, SWCC was one of four colleges to receive a $1 million grant to increase access to career academy programs in high-demand fields through new regional centers.

SWCC will establish a new regional center in Mount Ayr to serve students from five school districts in southwest Iowa.

At the new locations, students will have access to CTE programs and state-of-the-art equipment in high-demand fields, including advanced manufacturing, agriculture equipment technology, automotive repair, construction, electrical maintenance and automation, engineering design, health care, information technology, teacher preparation and welding.