Published: April 29, 2008 10:42 am            

Northeast-East Central break new ground for students

GOOSE LAKE — “It’s all about the kids.”

Caught between a rock — declining enrollment — and a hard place — state-required course offerings — Northeast High School at Goose Lake and East Central High School at Miles think they have found a solution.

Northeast, with 210 students in grades nine through 12, offers advanced science, math, industrial technology and four years of Spanish, which East Central, with 135 in nine through 12, cannot offer.

But with declining enrollment forecast for the foreseeable future across Iowa, and with funding tied to enrollment, how much longer can Northeast afford to hire teachers for fewer students?

Led by their administrators, the school boards of the two districts signed an agreement, called a 28E, last February that they hope will serve the students of both high schools well.

Starting next fall, East Central students may choose to be bused to Northeast for about half a day and will be able to enroll in any of Northeast’s classes.

East Central will pay Northeast $354 tuition per class per semester. At the same time, East Central, through a state incentive plan for sharing, will recoup part of the tuition fee.

East Central students have been coming to Northeast for several years to take the Spanish classes, so students at the two schools are acquainted with each other.

“They’re not even blinking about the new plan,” said Northeast High School Principal Joe Jarvis. “It’s just another day for them.”

Preston High School, west of East Central in Jackson County, has also been sending students to Northeast for Spanish, but has not expanded that 28E agreement to include other classes.

The full school boards of Northeast and East Central met last week in Miles to share any questions or concerns they might have.

East Central superintendent Jim House complimented the people who worked out the many details.

“I thought it would be a lot harder to really make it work,” he said. “I very much appreciate the kind of response we had from Joe (Jarvis), Gregg (Mohl) and Jim (Cox),” Northeast’s high school principal, guidance counselor and superintendent.

“In every instance we got a quick answer and a straight answer” to any question his staff had.

“If the hands-on people don’t have the spirit and desire to make it work, it’s not going to work, no matter what the superintendents think,” House said.

Cox explained to the two boards some of the details of the plan.

“I’m going to suggest that for the first few months the principals talk monthly — or as often as necessary — to discuss any unforeseen issues.”

There also will be a standing committee consisting of the chairman of each school board and a board member of his or her choosing.

On Dec. 1, at the end of the first semester, the school boards will meet again.

“In the first year it’s important to keep the communication going,” Cox said.

Jarvis responded: “I think we’ll do a better job next year. We’re still tweaking, although the scheduling worked a lot better this year than either one of us thought it would.”

He said it has been a challenge for his staff, “but a good challenge. I think our staff looks at it that way.”

With the additional enrollment for next year, the Northeast School Board later approved the addition of a certified nurses aide class to the curriculum.

The class will be taught at Northeast by a staff member from Clinton Community College. Students also will have to do 20 hours of clinical work and take a state test, according to Cox.

For that class, students will pay the college $350, including $120 for the test.

“We have a lot of students who work in nursing homes for spending money or college money,” Cox said. “We had been thinking about this class for a couple of years.”

Under the 28E agreement with East Central, Northeast students could go to Miles to take a college level English composition course taught by an East Central teacher who has a master’s degree.

Jarvis said there currently are 210 students in grades nine through 12 at Northeast. Next year it is projected that East Central will have 76 students taking 99 courses and Preston will have 50 students taking the Spanish courses.

“So essentially a third of our kids next year will be non-Northeast kids, taking 150 courses,” he said.

Northeast also has 164 open enrolled students in kindergarten through 12th grade. Of those, 47 are in the high school grades.

“I’m very excited about this,” Northeast Board President Chuck Corr told the group at the Miles meeting.

“At the secondary level the big issue is diversity of programs, and you need numbers to do that. I think this is a good way to make sure the kids have a diversity of programs.”

House observed that when his kids find the opportunities at Northeast, larger numbers of them may want to take advantage of the plan.

“We just think it’ll be a natural thing,” he said.

Would that be a problem for him?

“We need to be vigilant about the impact it has on us and look at how we can restructure and utilize the people we have here. But I’m not alarmed about it because we have a very healthy unspent balance,” he said. “Our board looks at it that we’re added 21 or 22 new classes to our curriculum offerings. My prediction is that it’s not going to go away. I think it will blossom because of the cooperation.”

What about athletics?

East Central students “need to know that our track kids want them,” Jarvis said. “Mr. Mohl will have to work out the details.”

In wrestling, however, “We don’t want to move up for one additional kid. We would need the numbers to fill every weight class.

“But we won’t know until we get there.”

        

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