Kyle Koeppen, the outgoing Superintendent for the Vinton-Shellsburg Community Schools, spoke one last time to the area Kiwanis Club. 

He arrived in Vinton in the midst of the COVID scare and remembers the packed school board meetings where everyone showed up to share their thoughts and opinions concerning mask-wearing, or not wearing, what kind of masks work, what doesn't...and all the confusion around that time. He also remembers the derecho that damaged three buildings in the district, during August, and how they needed to be repaired before school could even start. Three of the four buildings needed roof repairs completed, before school could start. Possiblt even the high school had needed repairs but it wasn't detected until this year.

As he wraps up his six years here, he shared a list of all the accomplishments that he's seen in Vinton-Shellburg. 

-The school adopted new curriculm this past year, a core knowledge for literacy was adopted and they are seeing great gains made. 

-Another bragging point was that the middle school was also nationally recognized as a Blue Ribbon School in 2022-23. It was the only middle school in Iowa that met the qualifications. He said a lot of that was due to processes that were put into place explaining that there is something called, Systems of Support which involves finding and targeting the needs of the students. 

-He talked about the former Washington High School, which is now the Washington Middle School, and how it was completely gutted to update the electrical, air conditioning and HVAC systems, all are completely new now. New flooring will be added this summer in the main areas and hallways. An epoxy coating will be added to the high-traffic areas and carpet where there is less traffic. With all of the upgrades, Koeppen said things like the locker rooms still need to be updated, but the building itself is in great shape, it just needed new guts. 

-The Tiny Vikes expansion was added to Tilford Elementary, housing the preschoolers. Now three and four-year-olds can attend preschool at both Tilford and Shellsburg Elementary locations. Also available now is an alternative kindergarten.

The school was able to get a $1.5 million grant to help build the Tiny Vikes location and add the "wraparound childcare." Before, if you went to preschool, you couldn't stay on-site past school time. Now students can be in daycare, before and after school at the same location.  

-The schools have also upgraded safety features meaning cameras, door readers, face recognition and guest software. The superintendent now has the ability to unlock doors remotely. When visitors check in now, the system does an automatic background check. 

-COVID funds allowed the schools to purchase Macbooks, Chromebook and Ipads for every student. 

-Two new principals were hired during his tenure. 

-He mentioned the social media aspect of the school also took off due to a partnership with MonkeyThis who helped create a portal where everyone could contribute to the social media platforms and website...this innovation resulted in the school being nationally recognized in this area.

-Another feature added is the alumni display found inside the high school cafeteria. Every yearbook that the school has is included. It is a searchable resource as well. 

On the list of upcoming repairs and upgrades, are the high school parking lot and the lot behind the middle school.

The district has been saving some "schoolhouse funds" aka statewide tax dollars in hopes of building a new elementary school.

This year there will be new scoreboards at each building, and at the Karr complex, there will be a video board with a scoreboard below. The high school scoreboards will remain and a video board will be added next to them. 

The auditorium is getting new stage lighting and a sound system going from analog to digital allowing the adjustment of lights from the sound booth rather than adjusting them manually via the catwalk. 

He also talked about the school foundation that has grown over the last several years through generous donations. They've started a Difference Maker endowment using the interest from that to pay for things like shoes for the kids, or drivers ed, using the money for kids in need. He mentioned the fact that the school and community gave out more than $170,000 in scholarships and grants to students.

He explained that the school is cutting back on staff this year, because money next year will be less as the money runs in arrears, meaning the budget is a year behind so they are planning for the shortfall in income the following year. 

Carolyn Hibbs asked him what he was most excited about in the new school year at his new location. He said his office will be in the high school and two of his sons will be in the same building, one a freshman and one a senior so he will get to be with his kids and see them all the time. 

He shared that he and the new superintendent, Jon Mendoza, who used to teach at Pella where Koeppen is headed, have been able to talk a lot and they share common interests so that has been fun for him in this transition.

He concluded by thanking the group for their continued support of the school and its activities.