Pekin CSD Update

This is our first full week and I hope you had a great time with our students. It normally takes a couple of weeks to get back into a routine, but it is sure nice to have students and staff back in the building. I have my update to the teachers this afternoon at 2:15. I will cover most of it in this update, but if you have a question please let me know.

This weekend is Labor Day, so enjoy the three day weekend. Make sure you take time for yourself and spend quality time with your family. We will see you on Tuesday.

Thank you for all that you do and I am fortunate to be part of this team.

Dave

Associates - The following dates are built into your contract to work on Fridays till 3:30.

Sept. 25, Oct 2, Nov 13, Dec 11, Jan 15, Feb 12, Mar 5, Apr 9 and May 7. These days we will have professional development activities and this stemmed from requests from associates for more opportunities for training. Your hours for Monday - Thursday are 7:45 - 3:30, EO Fridays is 7:45-1:30 and PD Fridays is 7:45-3:30.

CPI Training for associates - We have a few associates we have enrolled into CPI training this first round. Julie Thomas will be here on September 25th and October 2nd for the hands on training. Emails have been sent out to the staff attending the training. If you did not receive an email, but would like to be considered for the training in the future, please let your building administer know.

Associate Vacancy - We are still looking for another associate at the elementary level. So if you know of anyone please let them know.

Daycare Vacancy - We are continuing to look for someone for this position. I met with a majority of the daycare full time staff this week to brainstorm some ideas on the position and how we can make our daycare even better. We will have an update in the near future for our families.

OPAA - Something new does not always start without some adjustments. Thank you all who have remained positive and we will get the bumps figured out.

Grounds - If you see Inky or Kellee please tell them nice job. I know we are working on some areas right now, butt I have not seen the grass look this good in a long time. They are continuing to strive to make sure Pekin makes a great first impression with our visitors and staff.

We would love to come talk about the bond issue with any group that is willing to give us a few minutes to explain what we are doing. If you know of a group, please let us know.

I have attached the flyer that outlines the areas we are wanting to address and the cost. As I mentioned before we are looking at a $0.40 increase to our current levy to cover the cost of the remodel. I would encourage you to check our website at Pekincsd.org and click on the Bond Referendum link. There is a wealth of information there to explain the project to the tax impact.

Open Houses - We will hold open houses for our community on September 21st, October 5th and October 26th in the elementary lunchroom. These meeting will be to answer any questions about the bond and to tour the buildings. We will hold Community Forum on September 30th and October 21st to explain the tax impact on our property tax in the media center. We have an advisor from Piper Sandler here to answer any questions. All of these meetings will start at 6 PM.

Direct Mailers - Postcards should be arriving this week to our community members updating this on the bond issue.

I have attached the District PD plan for your reference.

There are three funds that school school district really focus on during the school year.

General Fund is the fund you hear about when district are in financial trouble and the Statue of Iowa steps in to help. Salaries and benefits take up about 80% of the GF normally.

PPEL - This is the fund that is generated from our property tax. We are limited what we can spend these funds on. It must go towards buses, technology or building projects. We cannot spend it on salaries or benefits.

Sales Tax - These funds are generated from the State Sales Tax program. We can only spend these funds on Buses, Technology and building projects. We also can use these funds to pay down and Bond issue we have in place. We have done this with our current bond and have paid down 6 years on the current bond. This will result in a savings for our our tax payers.

Daycare - We are reviewing our process and procedures at the daycare so we can ensure we have adequate staffing on hand for our community. We are very unique since we allow drop ins and we do not have families sign up for specific times. This is very flexible for our families, but very difficult to staff and stay within the DHS requirements. We are also looking at our rates since they are some of the lowest in SE Iowa. Somethings we are looking at are:

Volunteer Grandparents - If there are retired individuals out there that would like to volunteer during our high need times please have them contact the center. This would help out tremendously.

Advertise for dedicated closers - One area we struggle to cover is from 4 PM to 6 PM each night. We are looking for someone(s) to cover this time.

Associates and Teachers - If you are interested in earning some extra cash, please reach out to myself or Child-center Director.

My weekly schedule is

Monday - Labor Day

Tuesday - Keota

Wednesday - Pekin

Thursday - Keota

Friday - Pekin

If you need to get hold of me my cell is 641-919-2202. I ask you to use the chain of command first if it is a school issue. Thank you

I have attached the school calendar below and the link for our activities.