Build on an impressive school year

Congratulations to all our recent Iowa City Community School District graduates. They once again demonstrated our high schools are the best in the state and among the best in the nation.

Academic performance was again very high this year, however, what I find most impressive about our high school students is their leadership in our community and their willingness to give back.

Many of our students commit to a day of service, but their leadership truly extends to a yearlong commitment. Our district is now a leader in battling childhood cancer via our significant contribution to mini-Dance Marathons. Our students also participate in other great causes like Habitat for Humanity and in food drives to support local food banks. The world is simply a better place with our graduates in it!

I would like to thank all our staff for another great year. I would specifically like to say thank you, thank you, thank you to our Silver Salute Retirees. Thank you for delivering on the promise of providing a great education and for delivering a district that excels in academic performance. Thank you for developing a strong school culture that expects excellence and leadership. Thank you for your personal contributions and for the students' lives you have forever changed for the better. Good luck and have fun in retirement. You deserve it.

This is a great time of year to recognize our graduates, our people and our successes. It is also a great time to look ahead. For a great district to remain great, we need to maintain high expectations. We need to strive for continuous improvement. We need to create the positive conditions for productive change.

While we live in a great district, we simply need to do better. We need to focus on closing achievement gaps and increasing our proficiency in reading and math.

Solid foundations in reading and math provide the foundation for a lifetime of learning. To this end, the school board recently adopted three district goals to improve reading, math and overall educational experiences for our students. This is a critical step in moving forward with our district strategic plan.

You would probably be surprised to know that our annual elementary instructional time is right near the state minimum.

To improve reading and math, this is unacceptable. We recently made a change to increase elementary instruction time by more than 50 hours per year. This change required a change to our collective bargaining agreement and to our bell schedule. Both of these are big changes, but they are required to drive academic improvement.

We also recently aligned to a resource allocation model which will deploy resources based on need vs. taking a standard approach across the district. And yes, we made changes in attendance zones which we also expect will support academic achievement.

These are all tough decisions. Some decisions you may agree with. Some you may disagree with.

Either way, I hope in the end, we will all agree that we need to move forward with the best interests of our students in mind. Our future graduates depend on it.

' Chris Lynch is a member of the Iowa City Community School Board. This column represents his opinions and not necessarily those of the board. Comments: Chris.Lynch@iowacityschools.org