School board hires group for consulting on SAMs

After the Newton Community School District board of education had new members and its officers sworn in at last week’s regular meeting, it was time to move on to some financial issues.

One of the board’s first acts at the meeting was to extend, for 2015-16, an operating agreement with the School Administrators of Iowa, whom NCSD will pay nearly $16,000 for school-administrator consulting services. The district used SAI’s services last year, and Superintendent Bob Callaghan said Newton personnel speak very highly of the impact from the training provided during the 2014-15 school year.

SAI is an organization of more than 2,000 Iowa educational administrators whose stated mission is to “support, encourage and develop Iowa’s educational leaders and learners.”

The organization provides training for school administration managers and others in leadership positions, who are learning about nuances of school management.

“With the district’s direction toward SAMs, and the school principals feeling this is of great benefit, this will be a continuation into the second year of the project,” Callaghan said. “We feel it’s been extremely valuable.”

“One of our building principals (Lisa Sharp of Berg Middle School) would like to expand that, and she has added a Level II SAM to the project, and that is identified in this agreement,” Callaghan said.

Stephanie Langstradt was hired this summer to come from the Prairie City-Monroe district to Newton to become an assistant principal at the middle school. Board member Robyn Friedman asked which BMS staff member would be preparing to take on more SAM responsibilities, with Callaghan replied that it would be Betty Buckley.

Principals and assistant principals are nearly always former teachers, and must have state credentialing to take on those jobs. However, a SAM is a newer, hybrid type of role, more geared toward staff and student management throughout a school day than with helping implement class curricula.

Callaghan explained that the SAM role is somewhat custom-tailored to the qualifications of the leadership at each building — especially as it pertains to training provided by SAI.

While Buckley is not a teacher — she is a longtime veteran school office staff member — Callaghan said Sharp feels strongly about utilizing her in the SAM role. Sharp was not present for last week’s discussion.

Callaghan explained SAMs of varying levels of experience and post-graduate education are being used in different ways on various Newton campus administration teams. For example, Thomas Jefferson Elementary School has a first-year SAM in Trisca Mick, who is new to the district, while Mike Moran, who was a SAM at Berg Elementary School last year, is continuing on that campus as a “level two” SAM this year.

“Ms. Buckley’s case is a little different, because she isn’t an administrator,” Callaghan explained. “I’ll be honest with you — it’s an experiment. We jumped off on it last year and found great results. We’re taking a little bit of a leap of faith that this will also provide the same benefits.”

Friedman asked if the board could receive an update and more detailed explanation at an upcoming meeting, and Callaghan said “absolutely.” Friedman said there is a shadowing element to the program, and she likes the flexibility of it.

The board is next set to meet Sept. 28.

The board approved the agreement unanimously, with new board members Ann Leonard and Josh Cantu being among those voting in favor of it. Friedman encouraged Leonard and Cantu to sit down with Sharp to discuss the intricacies of the program.

Callaghan said the funds will come out of the general fund, and the district administrative team has budgeted for the expense. There are provisions in the agreement for mileage and out-of-town and overnight travel, but Callaghan said those are not major components of the SAI training.

“Most of the training comes to us,” he said.

More can be learned about SAI on its website, www.sai-iowa.org.

Contact Jason W. Brooks at 641-792-3121 ext. 6532 or jbrooks@newtondailynews.com