Around Des Moines

The Democratic challenger for the Iowa House seat now held by Ralph Watts (R-Adel) was in Des Moines on May 3, 2008, to talk about the women’s suffrage movement and to raise money for her campaign. Susan Temere (D-West Des Moines) said she chose to view the documentary, Not for Ourselves Alone, because of the affinity she has with Susan B. Anthony and Carrie Chapman Catt.

Temere’s issues include a world-class education, the environment, affordable and accessible healthcare, and the economy. She currently teaches in the Adel and Waukee school districts and at the Des Moines Area Community College (DMACC). She spent 15 years at General Motors, working in management-related and union positions.

While working on a rape reform task force to strengthen the sexual assault laws in Michigan, Temere, then 22, decided she would run for office some day. “I saw the caliber of the all-male legislature [and] knew [I} could do better,” she said. Jennifer Temkin in her book Rape and the Legal Process, as excerpted on Google Book Search, notes that 2 years before the Women’s Task Force on Rape worked to help enact “radical and influential legislation in 1974,” 90 people in the entire state of Michigan were convicted of “unlawful carnal knowledge,” as rape was then defined. In contrast, “in Detroit alone, at least 3,370 alleged victims of rape were treated in hospitals and 900 rapes were reported to the police.”

It was at a public hearing on pay equity held by the Iowa Commission on the Status of Women that I first met Temere. I was giving testimony as editor of Leading Voices: Iowa and Temere was attending as part of a pay equity committee she headed for an area chapter of the National Organization for Women (NOW). I told of a woman at an old-line manufacturing business in Boston who expected the company to promote her because she earned a master’s degree, while the company continued to see her only as a secretary. Temere shared that she had similar stories from her time working in Detroit.

District 47 is essentially Dallas County with a sliver of Guthrie County to the east and a square of Boone County to the north. Portions of Dallas County, one in the southwest and one in the north central, are in Districts 73 and 48, respectively. District 47 includes the rapidly growing communities of Dallas County’s eastern half and the rural communities of the western half. The 2000 U.S. Census has a countywide population of 40,750. Perry is the largest town completely in the county with a population approaching 8,000. Approximately three-quarters of the population is in towns or cities. Linden, with a population of 226, is considered part of that statistic. According to the Iowa State University extension office in 2006, 82% of the land in Dallas County is agricultural.

Temere, who supports VOICE legislation for publicly-financed elections, said she was just getting started on her fundraising for the general election. She will not have a primary contest. She has been endorsed by the South Central Iowa Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO.

Since Temere’s list of issues includes both developing an energy independent Iowa and promoting clean air and water, I asked her how she intended to balance those two items, giving the proposed Marshalltown power plant as an example. The candidate said she did not support coal-fueled power plants. When I then asked her about bio-ethanol, she said she needs to learn more about it but leans toward it. Although, she acknowledged there is concern about food supplies when crops are grown for fuel.

M.R. Field covers local issues for AroundDesMoines.com. 

A recommendation by the Des Moines Public Schools’ calendar committee led to a discussion on professional development and student achievement at the May 6, 2008, DMPS School Board meeting.

State law requires 180 days of education each school year. In addition, there must be 5.5 hours of instruction per day or 27.5 hours within a consecutive 5-day period. When the DMPS calendar is prepared, consideration must be given to major holidays. In addition, DMPS breaks need to be coordinated with breaks at local colleges and universities to accommodate student teachers’ schedules. Hot weather is also a concern since some school buildings do not have air conditioning.

One recommendation of the calendar committee was accepted with little discussion. The early dismissals (20 minutes early) on the days before the Thanksgiving and the Winter Holiday breaks will be eliminated starting with the 2008-2009 school year. This is an amendment to the calendar adopted last summer.

The recommendation that faced opposition was a proposal to let all schools out early every Wednesday starting with the 2009-2010 school year. The purpose of the proposal is to allow teachers time for required professional development and class planning. The weekly early release would replace ad hoc schedules created at elementary, middle, and high school levels.

Superintendent Dr. Nancy Sebring described the three levels of professional development. The first occurs at the individual level, when teachers set their own development goals and discuss them with their principals. The building level is next with decisions being made on how graduation ends, No Child Left Behind, and that school’s culture are promoted by all teachers. The district is the final level and it will also set some policies on government mandates and academic programs.

The 90-minute early dismissal would not all come from instruction time. It would be calculated from the time teachers are scheduled to leave. The Wednesday dismissals would replace other early dismissal days already in the schedule for professional development but would not replace full-day sessions, such as the one held on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.

District staff sent an electronic survey to teachers and queried parents via parent-teacher conferences on their support for a consistent professional development day. Those who responded were predominantly in favor of a weekly early-release day. However, there was much more support for such a schedule in the elementary grades. Sebring said if only elementary students were released early, the extra demand on buses and drivers would cost $1,000 each Wednesday. The superintendent added that another part of the reasoning for an across-the-board release time was so older siblings could babysit those students too young to be at home by themselves.

Several board members said that nearly everybody who sent them e-mails were opposed to the weekly development schedule. One teacher who spoke during public comments said that the Federal Aviation Authority insists upon a certain number of hours in the aviation program and that the proposal could jeopardize the program’s certification due to lack of instructional hours. Board President Dick Murphy said he had heard from music and art teachers concerned that their lessons would be cut out of instruction time under the plan. Sebring asked the board to request people contacting them to also copy district administration as the opposition was coming somewhat as a surprise, given the results of the teacher and parent surveys. Board members volunteered to forward messages they had already received.

Board Member Jon Narcisse said that $1,000 every Wednesday, for approximately 25 Wednesdays, would be worth the cost if it resulted in improved achievements for students. Murphy agreed with him on that point. Board Member Patty Link was concerned about comparing DMPS early dismissals to those of nearby districts, preferring to see how other urban districts handled professional development and early dismissal. There were frequent comments that teachers had told board members there already is enough professional development and class planning; what is considered more important is face time with the students.

Several board members stressed that the final decision had to be based on student achievement. The board also was insistent on having some way to measure the success of any professional development, both for individual teachers and for students. There was also concerned expressed in public comments and by some board members that not all professional development training is worthwhile. Would there be enough quality development to justify an early release every week?

The board wants to hear from the district’s professional development committee. If a weekly early out is needed, is Wednesday the best day? Board Member Connie Boesen, throwing out ideas, asked if maybe Friday would be better, which would give parents options for early weekends.

Sebring and her staff will gather more information and update the proposal before the board at the May 20th meeting.

M.R. Field reports on school board meetings for AroundDesMoines.com. 

Already behind on articles to write for AroundDesMoines.com, I chose to save time by watching the May 6, 2008, Des Moines Public Schools (DMPS) School Board meeting on public access television. Unlike the first time I watched the board meeting on Channel 12, the picture quality and sound synchronization were not problematic. Alas, the 5:45 p.m. open speaking time for members of the public was, again, omitted. Instead of showing what concerns and ideas the public had, the district’s video staff chose to run another ubiquitous self-promotional piece. This attempt to control the message was repeated at the board meeting during a discussion on the 2009-2010 school calendar.

The board meeting was civil and proceeded relatively smoothly. The superintendent’s report was a series of recognition for various competitions DMPS students won, ranging from the debate team at Roosevelt High School to culinary challenges at Central Campus. One numbers-based comment reported was that the Des Moines Area Community College (DMACC) issues 60,000 college credits annually to high school students, with 11,000 of those going to DMPS students.

The chairman’s/president’s report consisted of informing board members that Jim Hiatt, a consultant on Policy Governance, would hold a training for the board on June 17. A scheduled monitoring report under Policy Governance on Financial Condition and Activities was postponed until the May 20th meeting due to the unanticipated absence of a key staff member.

The consent agenda consisted of items requiring more money due to rising costs. These items included construction of the front entry way at the Wallace-Homestead building, before and after school care fees, as well as increases in student meal fees, and other routine cost adjustments. For instance, the Food & Nutrition programs’ estimated milk, dairy, and juice products cost was $1,493,487 in the 2007-2008 school year. The actual cost has been $100,000 higher. On the regular agenda was a public hearing for the 2008-2009 budget due to an error in the original public notice that stated the hearing was to be held on April 1st instead of April 8th. There were no comments and no discussion at the hearing and the board quickly moved on to the 2007-2008 budget. The board needed to approve a public hearing (to be held on May 20th) regarding authorization for increased spending limits. Board President Dick Murphy said this is a routine matter that happens every year after detailed information is received. The description of this item provided in the agenda was that the costs relate to maintaining compliance with statutory requirements.

During requests for information, Board Member Teree Caldwell-Johnson asked for a summary on 2008 bills passed by the Iowa legislature that will have an effect on the DMPS and the board’s future decisions. The district communications official, Phil Roeder, said there are three areas relative to legislative action that the school board needs to consider in the near future. One are the new laws, including a statewide sales tax for school buildings, collective bargaining, and the model core curriculum. The second need is to review priorities for the 2009 legislative session to pass along to the Iowa Association of School Boards. The third matter the board must consider is election reform legislation that changes school board elections from every year to every other year and that changes terms of board members from three years to four years. The board must decide how it will implement this change and have a report to the Iowa Secretary of State by early August.

See Part 2 of this report for discussion on future school calendars and professional development.

M.R. Field reports on school board meetings for AroundDesMoines.com. 

(Des Moines, IA, May 5, 2008) Ask your elected officials if it is okay to use a cash advance check from one of your credit cards to pay the minimum amount due on another card. Then ask that same official if it is okay to use funds from one source of government to pay for a project by another level of government. Most likely the elected official would express concern about the former and praise for the latter. Yet, in the end, the source of all those government funds is the same: the taxpayer. In theory and in practice, I favor using taxes from one source to pay for essential needs in another part of a jurisdiction. For example, I have no problem with some of my federal tax dollars earned in Iowa going to pay for food stamps in Louisiana. However, I have major objections to one level of government telling me something is free because another level of government is paying for it.

Take the new D-Line shuttle that starts today in Des Moines as an example. This shuttle will run from the Des Moines Public School’s Central Campus at about 18th and Grand to the state Capitol at approximately East 13th and East Grand. The shuttle will run the loop in approximately 10-minute intervals, from 7:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., Monday through Friday. It will be free to riders. In contrast, riders of the regular DART buses that cover that same run and a few additional blocks on their regularly-scheduled hourly runs, from approximately 6:00 a.m. to 10 p.m. weekdays and 7:00 to 6:00 on weekends, will see the fare for that zone go from $0.25 to $0.50 on June 1, 2008. DART and city officials sing the praise of this new simple-and-free shuttle. Alas, whether a regular DART route bus or a shiny new downtown shuttle, you and I are the ones paying the price and it is not free.

Similarly, I was not happy when the state legislature passed the $0.01 property tax/school construction bill this past session. If that sales tax were a permanent source of funding for operations of schools, I would have been a supporter. As it is, the construction tax bill has consequences not mentioned by its proponents. Yes, money from retail-rich parts of the state will help construct school-related buildings in less well-financed districts. However, if those districts do not vote in favor of the new school construction, they can use that money to lower property taxes that are already lower than those in many retail-oriented metropolitan areas. In other words, residents of Des Moines who shop within the city may soon be paying for property-tax reduction of corporate hog confinements across Iowa. Furthermore, another expense of the housing bubble was that governmental projects also cost more as construction workers and building materials went to residential construction, thereby raising prices for all projects. That means the General Assembly increased the cost of the Polk County courthouse reconstruction, should voters approve it at a later time. (Supporters of a new courthouse have been arguing since their defeat that the voters’ rejection of their plan increased the cost by millions of dollars due to the inevitable delay. One more thing on that school bill. Many of Des Moines’ big companies that supported Project Destiny have offices in those smaller communities whose property taxes may be reduced thanks to the state legislature.)

The April 2008 Polk County courthouse vote also suffered from the fact that it was about the prison system, something most people do not think about on a regular basis, unlike the sales taxes associated with Project Destiny. Why should county voters be taxed for something they don’t think they will use? I noticed that in the media discussions about the courthouse vote, the voices that were missing included jurors’ experiences, plus witnesses and victims who had to appear in court, a grieving survivor who had to struggle with probate, and even ex-offenders who were transported between the county jail and the courthouse. How would they improve the facilities? It is also possible that money being spent on new prisons in Iowa helped defeat the courthouse vote, at least subconsciously, but I don’t think that would have been a major factor in anybody’s decision.

The final part of this commentary is the tax levies themselves. I took a look at the levy maps and tables available on the county auditor’s website and was surprised at how much variation there is even within the city of Des Moines. A quick look at the table shows a range of rates from just over 25.13, including a sanitary sewer charge, in parts of Windsor Heights in the West Des Moines school district to over 49.92 in Des Moines in the SE Polk schools district.

M.R. Field was editor of Leading Voices: Iowa.  

The main agenda item for the April 15, 2008, meeting of the Des Moines Public Schools School Board was student achievement data. Superintendent Dr. Nancy Sebring stressed that the April report was a breakdown of data from the February 19, 2008, monitoring report related to graduation ends. Several public speakers and board members asked what was meant by being proficient and what caused persistent discrepancies of achievement between subcategories.

Ultimately, the questions left unanswered were what could the school board do to affect change and what result should that change have. This was the theme when Board Member Jonathan Narcisse talked about the recently adopted 2009 budget and the lack of attention given to librarians in it. Board Member Jeanette Woods immediately challenged Narcisse by asking him what proposals he made during the budget discussions to shift funding to allow for more librarians.

Even when there are decades worth of data on particular items, such as reading and math scores as rated by the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills (ITBS), there were questions raised about the value of that data. During public comments, Alan Young, president of the Des Moines Education Association, said that the ITBS measurements from 50 years ago do not necessarily have value as guides for what will help students in the 21st century.

Sebring said that some wild fluctuations in the data for specific subcategories are due to the small number of individuals included in that subcategory. For example, there was a one-year dramatic increase in reading and math scores for the Native American population. Several board members also questioned the worth of standard tests versus teacher assessments of students’ skills when English language learners (ELL students) might have the knowledge but not the English language capacity to do well on the tests. Board President Dick Murphy offered the example of an English word that might have six meanings but an ELL student might only have learned three of them. (Note: I would be more likely to question the ELL challenge as being one of thinking in English versus another native language. This is the same challenge students with dyslexia face. The students must read the test question, interpret it, answer it, and interpret their answer back to English.)

Subcategories include gifted students as well as those coming from low-income households and different racial/ethnic groups. (Note: At a December 10, 2007, Human Rights Day event, Cyndi Chen, director of the Iowa Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders noted that the Asian community is represented by people from many different countries with many different cultures. This includeds Japan with its emphasis on education but it also includes countries in which education for girls is considered unnecessary. In the DMPS data, students from both of those cultures are lumped together) Board President Murphy wondered how well racial/ethnic minority students not included in the free or reduced price lunch program were doing compared to similarly wealthy Caucasians.

The Iowa Tests of Educational Development (ITED) for 11th grade reading and math show a decrease for both males and females from the 2001-2002 school year to the 2006-2007 year. There was an increase for participation in the ACT tests used in college admission decisions, though. A significant part of this increase came from the decision to make the test available to students who could not afford the test-taking fee and to hold the tests at the schools. Board Member Woods voiced concern that students who did not go to college could still earn a respectable and profitable leaving in the trades.

Several reasons for the discrepancies in achievement were stated by board members, district staff, and public speakers. These included the mobility of students between specific schools and school districts, family history that may or may not emphasize the importance of a scholastic education, parents who need to work long hours, and even students whose work interferes with their ability to get to school on time. District staff reported on programs that have been implemented to help counter some of these problems. These include a grant that follows last year’s 7th grade classes in certain schools through the next few years to help introduce them to opportunities, such as college, that they might not otherwise experience. There is also the 9th grade academy that works with students to keep them attending school and improving their studies.

(Note: I was disturbed by a comment Sebring made that some of the achievement data was collected and summarized for the Des Moines Register. It seems to me as though the Register should be doing its own data analysis if it is to be an independent monitor of the school district. In contrast, district staff ignores me when I make basic inquiries for clarifications for readers of AroundDesMoines.com.)

M.R. Field covers school board meetings for AroundDesMoines.com. 

A special meeting of the Des Moines Public Schools School Board was called for the purpose of holding a public hearing on the 2008-2009 district budget. At the request of Board President Dick Murphy during the April 1st meeting of the school board, and with the agreement of other board members, the April 8, 2008, meeting will also include a discussion regarding extension of the staff policy on inappropriate use of the district’s computer system, particularly its mail network, to members of the school board. Neither of the topics on the agenda should generate new information or reveal new perspectives.

Information on the proposed budget has been presented by district staff at several board meetings. A copy of the budget is available on the district’s website and was published, as required by law, in a newspaper of general circulation. The paper of publication is the Des Moines Register. A practical problem arises with legal reliance upon that publication because a significant part of the district’s population does not read the paper, or at least does not read the printed version. One of the people who worked on the public forums held by the school board last summer said that a survey the group conducted revealed only 53% of the population gets information about the schools from the Register. That leaves 47% who do not get information from the Register. Moreover, I did not hear any indication about the accuracy or completeness of information about the school district that the newspaper-reading 53% of the population holds. When I looked at the budget, as provided at a school board meeting, I noted a few typographical errors and some minor oddities but nothing of great significance.

The school board wanted restoration of academic-related positions that had been cut a few years ago during a time of constrained budgets. The proposed budget will provide for a principal at every school except the Walnut Street elementary school. That particular school is new and does not yet have a full set of classes from kindergarten through sixth grade.

Running a quick Internet-based search on school budgets in general, I came across an article from 2005 written by Karl Bruhn, a former director for market development of the National Association of Music Merchants. This is a basic primer on becoming involved in the budgetary process. Bruhn notes that from 1982 to 1986, “the number of students playing in [California] school orchestras [was reduced] by 50 percent….” He goes on to observe that “[t]he public outcry was weak.” Bruhn urged people who wanted music education to return to the California schools to start talking with school board members early in the budget process. By the time public hearings are held, it is too late for more than minor changes.

Based on observations of similar board discussions and on common industry practice, I expect the policy proposal for board member usage of district e-mail to be passed. There may be lots of talking before that vote, though.

M.R. Field covers the school board meetings for AroundDesMoines.com but is unable to attend this one. 

At the April 1, 2008, meetring of the Des Moines Public Schools School Board, there were a few items in the consent agenda related to Schools First building renovations and construction.  Rochon Corporation of Iowa beat out three other bidders for the general contract bid on the Wallace-Homestead project with a base bid of $1,124,000. Final payment to The Waldinger Corp. was approved for mechanical renovations at Lincoln High school. The contracted amount was $6,358,445.

Board President Dick Murphy had several comments to make during the chair’s report. The Iowa Association of School Boards held a training session on school boards and advocacy. It was attended by DMPS Board Members Ginny Strong, Connie Boesen, Jeanette Woods, and Patty Link. Murphy also commented that copies of high school newspapers are provided in board members’ packets. He noted an article in one recent paper about students who get their younger siblings off to school, attend classes themselves, then go home and prepare dinner.

Murphy noted that a petition has been circulating in the city to elect school board members geographically by using city council ward boundaries. Murphy said he was not advocating for or against the idea but he noted the diversity on the school board, in terms of gender, ethnicity, and location, and compared it to the 6 white men and 1 white woman on the city council.

There was also a request for a discussion on April 8th to expand the policy and procedure for DMPS staff on use of the district’s computer system to the school board. Board Member Teree Caldwell Johnson asked that the administrative staff prepare a policy so that the discussion centers around a specific action item rather than general argument. The impetus for this request was a mass e-mail sent to district staff by Narcisse in March. (In the consent agenda, Board Vice President Ginny Strong was appointed as board liaison to the administrative policy/procedure committee.)

Separate agenda items for the meeting moved fairly quickly. There were no public or board comments regarding a locker room for Grandview College’s football team at East High School and the item was approved by the board 7-0. There were a few points of discussion on the proposed 2009 budget, but the only change requested was to move childcare/Metro Kids to reflect that it goes through sixth grade and students are helped with their homework. Bob Mickle was the sole member of the public offering comment on the budget. He repeated previously-stated concerns about the slowing economy and potential impacts upon the budget.

Watching the meeting on Channel 12 allowed a better view of facial expressions and other body language than I could see in the board room. The verbal barbs came through just as clearly. The novelist in me was excited by the juicy words and drama. The journalist in me consolidated all the action and dialogue into background information. Despite the quantity of comments, there was nothing of new value to report.

M.R. Field covers school board meetings for AroundDesMoines.com. 

With unexpected time pressures this week, I decided to cover the Des Moines Public Schools School Board meeting for April 1, 2008, from the perspective of the DMPS cable access channel. As I watched the clock tick past the 5:45 p.m. start of the general comment period for members of the public without any coverage from the board room, I quickly regretted my decision. I do not know if Channel 12 simply did not cover the comments or if there were none.

There were some interesting observations made possible by the home-viewing angle, though. Board Member Jon Narcisse, who has been a strong and vocal dissenter on the school board since his election in September 2007, attended the meeting via a telephone link. Right before the video of the board room appeared on television screens, Narcisse was head asking, “Can you hear me?” That has been the rhetorical question of Narcisse’s seven months on the board.

The quality of the broadcast was not what I expected. Movement was jerky, as though watching a webcam and the audio was not synchronized with the visual portion of the transmission. The sound was lost during part of comments made by the public on consent agenda items. The color was lost too, but there was a very entertaining pattern of flashing designs on men’s ties and the board room carpet.

Several comments were made on items in the consent agenda. Most questions by board members sought simple clarifications.

Bob Mickle picked up on the theme of Merrill Middle School being selected as one of 22 schools nationwide to participate in a renewable education project. Bonneville Environmental Foundation, with funding from Merrill’s business partner, Wells Fargo, will install a solar panel at the school. Mickle reported that the Sherman Hills neighborhood has been working on a 10-year comprehensive plan, given its proximity to development in the Western Gateway on the edge of downtown. The neighbors are about ready to present a conceptual plan for a wind energy park in the triangle of land between MLK and 19th Street. Mickle thought it would be good for the schools to use the park for additional education in renewable energy.

Another item in the consent agenda, and a feature of the superintendent’s report, was a planning grant from Siemens Corporation for energy and sustainability education at the Central Academy. The $15,000 grant will help develop a curriculum, develop partnerships, and prepare grant requests to fund operations of the educational program. During the superintendent’s report, a representative of Siemens said the company has over 600 employees in Iowa.

Alan Young, president of the DMEA union, expressed concern about the lack of advance knowledge of the Special Education Delivery System Work Group. This group was created in response to a state administrative rule change. In the past the state defined special education service delivery models and school districts adapted to those models. Now the state is requiring school districts to create their own delivery methods for eligible students 3 to 21 years old. Young said, “We can only be supportive if we know what’s going on in [meeting groups] and not learn about them after the fact.” After some brief comments by board members, Superintendent Dr. Nancy Sebring said DMEA’s and AFSCME’s omission from the work group was “just a slip-up.”

(This report is continued in the next post.)

Des Moines Mayor Frank Cownie attended the March 11, 2008, Des Moines Public Schools School Board meeting to promote the Super Block. This is the stretch of land on the southern edge of the city that runs from SE 14th Street to SW 9th Street and from Army Post Road southward to County Line Road. There are two schools sitting in this giant block and the city wants to acquire some of the school district’s land.

The proposal before the school board was to approve the Super Block and to authorize district staff to negotiate further with the City of Des Moines. The city wants to acquire approximately 47 acres of the school property next to Studebaker Elementary and McCombs Middle Schools. No member of the public spoke on this portion of the meeting agenda. In addition to the mayor, Terry Rich, chief executive officer of the Blank Park Zoo, and a representative of the Polk County Conservation Board attended the meeting to lend support to the plan. The board’s vote was 6-0.

Members of the school board made sure to clarify that the city would be purchasing the property for fair market value. Board Member Patty Link said she heard over and over that there is growth on the south side. She and other board members wanted to make sure that if the land were sold there would still be room for the district to expand facilities. Link also inquired about horticultural opportunities for students at the A.H. Blank Golf Course. DMPS’ Chief Operating Officer Bill Good said the golf course is “enthusiastic” about working with students and that he believes there will still be “good growth potential” for school programs. Board Member Connie Boesen said she spoke from experience as a person who has sat on the zoo’s board. She believes the plan utilizes space well and that there are horticultural opportunities at the zoo, too. There was also a board member suggestion that students might be able to learn golf.

Board Member Jeanette Woods compared all the activities planned for the Super Block to the isolation of the Botanical Center. “I really like the idea it’s connected,” she said. She also thinks the entire plan is a good idea but she is concerned that Lincoln High School is overcrowded. In a response to Woods’ inquiry about the status of a demographic study, Good said a draft has been prepared and it should be ready in about a month. (The demographic study was authorized at an earlier board meeting and will look at projected growth in the district, with particular attention paid to the south side.)

The Super Block issue will appear before the school board again when terms of the land sale are finished. The Super Block vision is to stimulate economic and social growth on the south side, as well as to develop a signature a so-called green sustainable project.

Personal Note: As I have written on AroundDesMoines.com in regard to other development projects, residents throughout the city should be concerned about and involved in projects regardless of where in the city they are being proposed. This Super Block is just one of many plans the city has for the south side. In addition to the Super Block, the city is planning reconstruction of Indianola Avenue and development of the Highway 5/North River area that currently is outside of the city’s limits. All of these projects and the public meetings that have been held for some of them, merit far more comprehensive media coverage than they have received.

M.R. Field covers school board meetings for AroundDesMoines.com. 

The Des Moines Public Schools School Board voted 4-2 at its March 11, 2008, meeting to in favor of a resolution to create a district-wide foundation. This foundation would be a not-for-profit entity that could receive grants and tax-exempt donations for which the district, as a governmental body, does not qualify. The nay votes were cast by Board Vice President Ginny Strong and Board Member Connie Boesen. They wanted the foundation’s scope to be limited to pre-Kindergarten through Grade 8. The majority favored including Grades 9 to 12, while placing an emphasis on pre-Kindergarten through Grade 8. All of the high schools either have or are developing their own individual foundations.

Superintendent Dr. Nancy Sebring worked with a foundation when she was at a Colorado school district. The feasibility of creating a foundation in the DMPS district was studied by a committee authorized by the board in February 2007. Members of that committee were appointed by each board member and by the superintendent. Support was provided by the National School Foundation Association (NSFA), which is based in Des Moines.

NSFA is a product of the 21st century. With funding from the U.S. Department of Education, secured by the efforts of Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), a website was developed under the oversight of Dr. David Else of the University of Northern Iowa’s College of Education. The purpose of NSFA, the organizations from which it was formed, and the website is to provide information that aids in the start-up and sustainability of K-12 school foundations. The organization is partnered with the Iowa Association of School Boards. Both groups have offices at 6000 Grand Avenue.

The benefits of being able to pursue grants that can be given only to organizations to which the IRS has given 501(c)3 status was the basic reason the study committee recommended a foundation. There were general ideas that such grants and donations that a foundation might receive could help provide classroom supplies, make school facilities more appealing, and contain rising property taxes. However, the specific mission and purpose of the foundation will need to be set by a new committee.

There was opposition to the foundation on the feasibility committee. At the school board meeting and in the main text of the written minority report made by dissenting committee members, the emphasis was placed on how a district-wide foundation could compete with donations to individual high school foundations. This concern was expressed in terms of individual donors, corporate foundations, and local business partnerships. A list of concerns in the written report goes much farther, though. It questions the cost of creating “an all-encompassing foundation,” “oversight of the entity” and that “[t]he governing board will not adequately reflect the needs and desires of all of the schools in the district.” The dissenting members of the committee believe there needs to be “[a] wider, more transparent discussion in Des Moines at large….”

A new committee is being formed to decide how to implement the foundation. Its work should take place between March and August with the first meeting of the new foundation in August or September 2008. Decisions to be made include the name of the foundation, as well as its vision, mission, and purpose statements. A list of issues for the formation committee to address includes developing by-laws and filing articles of incorporation with the state, identifying “potential permanent board members,” establishing a budget, and seeking community support. The foundation will have a memorandum of understanding with the school board and a member of the board will be an ex-officio member of the foundation’s board.

M.R. Field covers the school board meetings for AroundDesMoines.com.