Last January, Northeast Hamilton Elementary and Webster City schools were six months away from the formal July 1, 2019, reorganization with administrators wrestling with questions on how to keep the Blairsburg campus viable and open.

Fast forward to January 2020 — reorganization is now in the rear view mirror and the two schools have merged into one cohesive district with a growing student enrollment that relies on Northeast Hamilton as an important part of its future.

Webster City School Superintendent Mandy Ross admits that while retiring Webster City Superintendent Mike Sherwood and Northeast Hamilton’s Principal Mike Kruger had so many pieces of the reorganization puzzle in place, there was a steep learning curve. She credits the efforts of teachers and staff who kept the lines of communication open and worked to achieve a transition that the students probably never noticed.

The end result has been a common learning experience for the students in both Webster City and Blairsburg, said Ross.

-Messenger photo by Brandon Hoffman
Tatum Goings, Elijah Killian, teacher Mark Fisher, and Claire Goebel, from left, work on a car designed to protect an egg during a collision in their Webster City High School senior physics class on Jan. 13.

“It has turned out to be a smooth transition and things are going very well,” she said. “I give a ton of credit to our teachers and staff for the ways they made this happen.”

The merger has meant the dissolution of the Northeast Hamilton district, while the newly formed district maintains the Webster City Community School name.

With things rapidly changing in the district, reorganization seems like 100 years ago, said Ross.

“To be honest, at this point I don’t think of it as reorganization any longer,” she said. “We have a wonderful new building in our district and we are all together now as one big happy family.”

One of the current challenges facing the district is the growing enrollment.

-Messenger photo by Brandon Hoffman
Garrett Whitmore, Dylan Schwering, Casey Kolbeck, and Parker Rossing, from left, work on a project in their Webster City High School senior physics class on Jan. 13.

“That’s a good thing to have,” said Ross.

The district has seen the addition of 54 students to its certified enrollment of 1,781 for the 2019-2020 school year.

And those numbers have continued to climb.

In planning for the future, administrators look at the bookend years of kindergarten and 12th grade, Ross said.

Webster City currently has 123 seniors scheduled to graduate in 2020. The enrollment for kindergarten is now at 185 with five sections held at Pleasant View and two at Northeast Hamilton.

In order to accommodate that growth, the district has added more support personnel and also has the option of adding more grade sections at NEH which has five vacant classrooms. Looking to next year when the kindergarten students move up, the district has already added another first-grade section at Pleasant View Elementary.

Another benefit of the reorganization is that the NEH campus offers additional classroom space if the district needs to add more grade sections, she said.

“We have had several of our Webster City-based families placed over at NEH,” said Ross. “It gives our families more options.”

Looking to the future, Ross highlighted some projects that have been completed and some that will be tackled in the months ahead. One of those accomplishments has been establishing safe and secure buildings throughout the district.

“I am really pleased with some of the things we’ve accomplished in our buildings, mainly establishing secure entrances with a key card entry at each door to our buildings,” said Ross. “From a security standpoint, we want all our parents to feel welcome, but we also want our students and staff to be safe in this day in age.”

Another project includes updating buildings.

With the passage of the physical plant and equipment levy last year, the district will be installing air conditioning in the two Webster City elementary schools and in the high school in the future, said Ross.

In regards to curriculum, efforts are underway to meet the state mandate of teaching financial literacy.

“This is something that every school in the state is working on,” said Ross, who notes changes in curriculum will have to be studied. “Anytime you add instruction, you have to step back and look at the ripple effects and what you can take away.”

The other aspect of teaching is also keeping educators current on their own professional development, said Ross.

“I think Webster City Schools is a vibrant school district, and we are working hard to be on the cutting edge to meet the needs of each and every student and that includes planning for a great team to make that happen,” said Ross. “That’s the key right there — we continue to look at how we can be better to meet the needs of our students .”

In order to achieve those goals, Webster City has added staff to address the needs of an increasingly diverse and expanding student body. The Webster City school board recently hired an additional Title I instructor and an ESL teacher who will work district-wide to help students and teachers with learning strategies in the classroom, she explained.

Another curriculum initiative is the multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS) that will be introduced into Webster City schools next fall, said Ross.

MTSS represents a shift in instructional philosophy, said Ross. It gives teachers the opportunity to re-teach priority standards so that students can master the concept. It also allows different instructional styles to attain that mastery. The program will require additional classroom time and the district hopes to implement it in the fall of 2020.

This spring, Webster City students will be taking their second year of the online Iowa Statewide Assessment of Student Progress tests, said Ross. Last year’s testing has served as a baseline and subsequent testing can then be measured against those results.

While the district works to improve and thrive, it also takes time out to enjoy what makes it unique. Webster City custodial staff worked to bring the old competitive gymnasium back to life and a scheduled event showed off the venue in all its glory.

Ross regaled the anticipated community event when the Lynx boys and girls basketball games were held at the restored Jeff Gym in December.

“That was so fun and it was a great celebration. The atmosphere was electric and the energy was palpable. It was loud and it was hot but people were so excited to be back in Jeff Gym,” said Ross. “It was just a fun opportunity for the community.”