YMCA May Add Branch at East High School

By Andrew Wind, Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier, Iowa

Sep. 9–WATERLOO — The Family YMCA of Black Hawk County may establish a branch on the campus of East High School.

Waterloo Community Schools’ Board of Education is being asked Monday to form a joint exploratory task force determining the idea’s viability. The board meets at 6 p.m. in the Education Service Center, 1516 Washington St.

Last month, the YMCA board approved entering into a nonbinding agreement with the district to establish the task force. If it moves forward, the organization would provide before- and after-school plus weekend activities for families and children at East.

According to a school board memo, the district and the YMCA have been informally exploring the possibility of an East satellite location for the past year.

Prior to the meeting, the board will hold a 5 p.m. work session to discuss renovation plans for Kittrell Elementary School.

The building is next in line for improvements paid for through 1 percent local option sales tax revenues, according to a facilities plan unveiled last year. The project is scheduled to receive $10 million and get started in May 2008. Work is expected to begin at about the same time on a new $12 million McKinstry Elementary School.

In other business at its meeting, the board will hear:

— An informational report on adequate yearly progress of district schools. Under the No Child Left Behind Act, schools must meet annual state goals on student achievement in math and reading portions of standardized tests. Those that fall short are placed on a watch list the first year and the schools in need of improvement list the second year.

Officials announced last week that five schools would be listed as needing improvement by the state, down from six plus the district as a whole last year. The five include West and Expo high schools in reading and math, East High School in math and Dr. Walter Cunningham School for Excellence and McKinstry Elementary in reading

East is on the watch list for reading while Kittrell is on it for math.

Those designations are based on how each school measures up on applicable subgroups of 30 or more students. All children in a school are measured as are English language learners, low-income and special education students, and five racial or ethnic groupings.

At the building level, the district made adequate yearly progress in 143 of 156 categories, or 92 percent. The district as a whole made adequate yearly progress in 33 of 40 categories, or 82.5 percent.

— A presentation from a Job Corps representative on new initiatives in the Cedar Valley. Job Corps, the nation’s largest residential education and job training program for at-risk youth ages 16 through 24, combines classroom, practical and work-based learning experiences to prepare youth for long-term, high-paying jobs.

Contact Andrew Wind at (319) 291-1507 or andrew.wind@wcfcourier.com.

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