H-W School Board approves $7.9M resolution for new addition

This addition will be designed to connect the high school facility and the elementary facility, which would include a gymnasium, weight room, locker room, wrestling room, support and storage areas and related remodeling of the existing weight room and kitchen facilities.

Prior to the resolution being approved by the board, Roger Johnston of Cresco asked, “What is the purpose of the (addition of the fitness center to the school) when we already have a fitness center in town?”

“The fitness center that is being proposed with the addition is the current weight room there right now,” said Board President Alison Holten. “The school does have a fitness center now, but it is where the old ag shop used to be. 

“By taking the fitness equipment out of the ag shop area and making it a weight room/fitness center, then we will be able to convert the old fitness center area back into an ag shop and another teaching station. Right now, the FFA does some of their welding in the old bus barn,” Holten said.

Johnston asked if there would be a presentation of what the new fitness center would look like during the Oct. 18 board meeting.

“No, there will not be a presentation (of drawings) tonight,” said Superintendent Ted Ihns. “Tonight’s meeting is just a proposal to move forward. More schematic drawings will be available for the community (during a future meeting).”

Ryan McCarville of Cresco asked where the new gymnasium and locker rooms would be located.

“The gym would be in the middle and the locker rooms would be located off to the side of the gym,” Ihns said. “The current girls’ locker room would become a boys’ locker room. The double boys’ locker room now would have one room for the girls’ room and the other will be the boys’ room. Another girls’ locker room would become a part of the new addition.

“A wrestling room/safe room would be located on the east side. The gym and the weight room would be on the west side. A training room, a conference room and another locker room will be added to comply with Title Nine,” Ihns said.

After questions about the resolution were addressed, Ihns reported enrollment numbers.

“As of Oct. 15, enrollment is up 4.5 students from last year (2020-21) attending our schools,” the superintendent said.

Ihns added school conferences were set to be held on Nov. 8 and Nov. 11 between 3:30 and 7:30 p.m. Nov. 13 was scheduled to be a teacher in-service day.

He noted that National School Bus Safety Week was Oct. 18-22.

“I would like to thank Chad Jackson (HWCSD Transportation Director), Matt Hemesath and our district mechanic,” Ihns said. “I also want to thank the following bus drivers: Richard Burgess, Randy Ellingson, Larry Fredrickson, Dan Gardner, Brian Goodman, John Grube, Dennis Hosch, Timothy Howland, Roger Johnston, Sylvester Mrachek, Lynda Murphy, Jim Ott, Richard Parks, Gerald Reicks, Harold Rue and Laurie Schultz. I also appreciate our substitute drivers: Mark Grinhaug, Larry Iverson, Jim Obermann and Bill Enlow.”

Ihns discussed the school website.

“(During the week of Oct. 13) the administrative team, along with the tech department met with a couple of website providers to discuss updating the website,” Ihns said. “The two companies are iRoc and Apptegy. We are waiting on both of these companies to provide us with answers to some clarifying questions we had during our meeting. We plan to make a decision within the next 30 days because our current contract ends in January of 2022.”

The Crestwood Athletic Director’s report was next on the agenda. Todd Coulter was not present, so Ihns gave a brief summary of the fall sports teams including football, volleyball and cross country.

Secondary Principal Chris Rogne gave his report.

“Thanks to our partnership with NICC, during the 2020-21 academic year, 187 Crestwood students earned 1,796 college credits in 53 different concurrent enrollment classes,” Rogne noted. “During the current school year, Crestwood has 168 unduplicated students taking 1,007 total credits this semester.”

Other information Rogne discussed included:

• The Marching Band received a Division II rating at the State Contest in Waterloo recently.

• By Nov. 6, there would be 154 FFA members involved in several FFA contests and leadership workshops.

• The Industrial Tech department had taken 61 students on four separate trips to five different manufacturing businesses.

• All PE classes had the chance to climb the rock wall brought to the school by the National Guard representative.

• The fall musical, “Cinderella’s Glass Slipper” was set to be held on Nov. 12-13.

Doug Sickles gave the Elementary Administrator report. Information Sickles reported about included:

• Crestwood Elementary celebrated Character Counts Week on the week of Oct. 18-22 with students dressing up as pillars of character.

• FAST testing was completed in the areas of Math and Reading.

• Teachers hosted several after school sessions discussing how to use seesaw and seesaw updates, how to use clever ideas and they used virtual reality goggles.

• Crestwood Elementary was working on increasing its social media presence through an elementary Facebook page.

Kim Kerian and Jessica Hillers presented an instructional coaches report which compared data from Howard-Winneshiek Community School District to the state-wide data on the Iowa Statewide Assessment of Student Progress or ISASP.

Before the school board meeting was adjourned, Crestwood Secondary Principal Chris Rogne and Crestwood Elementary Principal Doug Sickles were both recognized by Supt. Ihns for their hard work during ‘October National Principals Month.’