Jenny Risner named the Next Superintendent of Ames Community Schools
The Ames Community School Board is excited to announce Jenny Risner as the next Superintendent of the Ames Community School District. Jenny stood out of an applicant pool of 69 individuals from across the country after participating in two rounds of interviews with the school board and a variety of representative groups that included teachers, community leaders, former board members, parents, and District staff. Ms. Risner currently serves as the Superintendent of Ocean Beach School District in Long Beach, Washington where she has been the superintendent for the past four years. Ms. Risner has been an educator for over 20 years and has served as a director of student services, director of special education, secondary principal, assistant principal, instructional coach, and elementary and middle school teacher. She received her superintendent credentials in 2013 from Washington State University, where she also received her MA in Education Administration in 2001.
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Education in the Cloud
This story was originally published in Volume 2 of Amazing Magazine that you can download here. In December, Google visited the Ames Community School District to gather promotional materials that highlight some of the many ways in which our classrooms leverage Google Chromebooks. A group of three representatives visited classrooms in Ames Middle School and Edwards Elementary and witnessed first hand how their next generation Chromebooks were being utilized. The promotional materials that they gathered, namely photos and stories, were used in January at the British Education Training and Technology (BETT) show in London, England. During the visit, their first stop was in Robyn Reisetter’s 7th grade math class where students were completing assignments with a stylus on the Explain Everything app. They then moved over to Willie Lodermeier’s 8th grade Technology Exploratory class where students showed off their TinkerCAD skills as they created models to be made in 3D printers. After lunch, the Google team visited Amy Simonson’s kindergarten class where students were engaging with math principles on their Chromebooks thanks to software provided by an Iowa company, PearDeck. Students in Kimber Spaulding’s first grade class were coding using the Scratch app. Finally, a group of 5th graders, under the direction K-5 Technology Teacher Librarian Teresa Green, were having a blast with their “maker space” time. Some students were coding Sphero balls, others Hummingbird boards, and another group was working with LEGO EV3 Bricks.
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Legislation That Would Force District Cuts or Increased Property Taxes
Legislation That Would Force District Cuts or Increased Property Taxes Notice to the Ames community, In 2013, the Iowa Legislature reduced…
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Fresh Thyme Launches Roundup Fundraiser to Address Food Insecurity Among Ames Students
Customers’ roundup dollars from Feb. 7–28 and $2,500 Fresh Thyme donation will pay students’ negative lunch balances Fresh Thyme Farmers Market believes no student should go without a meal. That’s why the full-service specialty retailer announced today the “No Student Goes Without Lunch” fundraising campaign at its new Ames store. All customer donations from the campaign — as well as a $2,500 donation from Fresh Thyme — will go to the Ames Community School District to pay students’ negative lunch balances. As of Dec. 31, 2017, Ames students’ negative lunch account balances totaled $47,932.42. Last year, the school district grappled with how to address this issue. In June, the Ames School Board amended a policy so that today all students receive lunch regardless of their negative account balance. However, with this action, the district still must find ways to settle students’ outstanding balances.
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Superintendent Search: 30 Qualities Survey
Dear parents, teachers, and the Ames community, On January 17, as a school board, we chose Ray & Associates as the search firm to help us with identifying candidates for the next Superintendent of the Ames Community School District. As a part of this process, we are seeking feedback on the preferred criteria to consider in our candidates. Below is a link to a survey we invite you to complete. Based on their experience, Ray & Associates has identified 30 criteria of effective school leaders. Please select up to 10 criteria most important to you. There is also an open-ended question for you to identify those things candidates should know about our district and community. The survey will close at 8:00 a.m. on February 9. Additionally, our search firm consultants will be hosting listening sessions with various identified focus groups (teachers and staff, students, parents, building administrators, and community leaders). The public is invited to participate in a focus group with our consultants on February 5, 5-6 pm in the District Board Room. As we move through this process, we will strive to keep you informed as much as possible. A timeline detailing the process will be posted to our website in the upcoming days. Thank you for your support during this important process! Sincerely, Alisa Frandsen Ames School Board President
Read moreDepartment of Education officials talk Iowa Core in Ames
Representatives from the Iowa Department of Education stopped in Ames Tuesday night to deliver a presentation and answer questions regarding the Iowa Core, the state’s…
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Iowa School Report Card 2017
The Iowa Department of Education released the annual Iowa School Report Card, the state’s web-based school ratings system, on December 13, 2017. The Iowa School Report Card, which was launched in 2015 as part of a state legislative requirement, rates individual public schools on measures of student achievement, as well as other factors. They include student proficiency rates in math and reading combined, student academic growth, narrowing achievement gaps among students, college and career readiness, student attendance, graduation rates, parent involvement, and staff retention. Based on each school’s performance over a two-year period, the report card assigns one of six ratings: Exceptional, High-Performing, Commendable, Acceptable, Needs Improvement, and Priority. Celebrations: The Iowa School Report Card bases the majority of its measures on the Iowa Assessment results. As a result, it showed an overall decline in proficiency rates across the state. In Ames, however, all 7 schools (high school, middle school, 5 elementary schools) show student proficiency rates above the state average. The overall rankings for 6 schools in Ames are within the “Commendable,” while Fellows Elementary garnered a “High-Performing” ranking. A point of pride for Ames High School is the College and Career Readiness mark of 70.2%. The state average in that category is 39.5%, clearly showing Ames High students preparedness toward the next step in their lives.
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Enrollment in Ames Up Big for the 2017-2018 School Year
Certified enrollment across the state was finalized in November, and the Ames Community School District is +112 students from a year ago.
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The Future of Ames High: An Overview of Whether to Build New, Renovate, or Do Nothing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86Xt9ShPZT8 Next spring, the Ames community has a big decision to make regarding what to do with the high school. Do we build a new one? Renovate? “Do Nothing?” It’s a complex issue with a lot of things to consider, but we hope to explain many of the questions we’ve been hearing to keep you informed. Why do we need a new high school? Where will we build it? We’ll do a quick study on school finances, looking at how much each option will cost and how that decision will impact taxpayers. Finally, how will this decision benefit students? Because after all, schools are for kids. Current State Initially built in 1960, our current building as it stands today has 15 additions and 13 elevation changes. The first addition was put on in 1962, offices were added in 1963, the pool in 1965, and then a gymnasium was added on in 1966. When Haila Architecture did their Phase 1 study, they found that with the exception of the pool and a few other areas, the overall exterior structure is actually okay. It’s the interior that’s becoming more of a functional challenge. Some of the major concerns cited in the Phase 1 study include the circulation of students within the building, accessibility, along with security features. Hallways within the high school are tight and with the many additions, it is not laid out efficiently. Although the building is ADA compliant as far as accessibility, if you’ve ever been in the high school, you know it can be difficult to get around, especially in the fine arts wing. Additionally, the building has far too many exterior doors and lacks some of the security features that our new building have.
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ESL Bookland Night at Ames Public Library
ESL Bookland Night took place at the Ames Public Library on October 13, 2017, and was organized in collaboration with the Ames Community School District (ACSD), the Ames Public Library, and the Future Teachers - Future Leaders Learning Community at Iowa State University. The event was a great social function for students and families who have English as their second language and an opportunity to distribute books to families to support literacy. The after-hours event saw 141 attendees (ESL students and family members) and approximately 40 ISU students who assisted with the activities. In total, approximately 200 individuals including Ames Public Library, ISU, and ACSD staff were in attendance. Shaeley Santiago, K-12 ESL TOSA / Instructional Coach for the ACSD, said “It wouldn't have been possible without each of our ESL teachers handing out invitations and encouraging students to attend, and volunteers arranging their Friday evening so they could be there, too.”
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