What are the educational benefits of a new elementary school?

   As the Curriculum and Special Programs Director for the Monticello Community School District (MCSD), I’d like to share some facts related to the educational benefits of building a new elementary school at the high school/middle school site.

   During my time in Monticello, I have been an elementary literacy consultant at both Shannon and Carpenter, a second-grade and third-grade teacher at Carpenter, a sixth-grade teacher and at-risk coordinator at the old middle school, and now the curriculum and special programs director for the school district. My office is in the high school but I currently work in every building in our district and I have a very good understanding of the strengths and limitations of our school facilities.

   I can tell you as a former teacher at Shannon and Carpenter that the job is not easy when you’re continually having to struggle with school facilities. School facilities should be a benefit and not a barrier to education. Struggling in the fall or spring to keep kids cool and focused on hot days, flipping breaker switches in order to get various outlets to work in your classroom, suffering through a variety of environmental allergies, strategically sitting students away from areas of the room where the ceiling isn’t stable or cracks in the walls where bees can get in, or in the winter having radiator heat making the room too hot and opening windows to cool it down. These are just a few examples of deteriorating structural and difficult environmental factors that act as barriers to learning at Shannon and Carpenter.

   When the new middle school was built, I was amazed at the transformation that increased the quality of education and health improvements for our students and staff. As a staff member, I am more focused and engaged working in a safe, climate controlled, and better air quality environment, not having to worry about the various environmental factors in the old buildings. All staff members have to focus on implementing best practices with students without dealing each day with the environmental and structural factors of the building. More importantly, students have an environment that fosters learning.

   I have seen some academic benefits in recent years for our middle school students after moving into a new building. On average, 69 percent of students in grades 5-8 were proficient in English Language Arts in 2019 on the Iowa Statewide Assessment of Student Progress (ISASP). Most recently, last spring, our students in grades 5-8 averaged 77 percent proficient. This includes over 88 percent of last year’s eighth-grade students, who have had four years of learning in a new building that fosters high quality education, being proficient in English Language Arts. In math, we have similar results. In 2019, on average 68 percent of the students in grades 5-8 were proficient on the ISASP assessment and in the spring of 2024 on average 81 percent were proficient. We have always had an excellent teaching staff who have supported students at the middle school, but when those staff members moved into the new middle school in 2020, they were able to teach students in a more effective learning environment and we have seen the benefits not only in the statewide assessment, but in what students are doing every day in their classrooms. I would love to see the same positive results academically, socially, and emotionally for our elementary age students.

   Some other important factors that you may not realize are that we have nine elementary staff members who travel between both of the elementary school buildings, every school day. It takes staff members at least 15 minutes to pack up and travel to the other building each day, that is 75 minutes per staff member each week. That equals over 2,700 minutes (45 hours) a year for each staff member. When you consider that we have nine staff members that do that every day, that is 405 hours (50.625 days) that taxpayers are paying for staff to travel, not teach, just travel between our elementary buildings each year. In addition to the time and money spent on all of these positions to travel between our elementary buildings, students are not getting the complete benefits of these positions. Included in the nine elementary staff members are our art, music, and PE teachers. Having those teachers travel every day limits the amount of time students can participate in the fine arts. Also included in elementary staff traveling every day are our licensed nurse and principal. This means when a health concern happens with a student at one of the elementary buildings, there is a 50 percent chance a licensed nurse will not be at that building. In addition, if there is a safety or disciplinary need, there is a 50 percent chance the principal will be in the building and even less chance the district-wide School Resource Officer will be on site in the event of an emergency.

   A new elementary school, where all students and staff are in one building on one campus, is a major educational benefit for the next generation of the Monticello community.

   Please feel free to reach out to me at robyn.ponder@monticello.k12.ia.us if you have any questions. Thank you all for your continued support of the MCSD.