The November Session was held in the Learning Resource Center of the West Des Moines School District which was a fitting venue as the topic focused on education. Superintendent Dr. Tom Narak along with Associate Superintendent Dr. Donna Wilkin and Director of Human Resources Dr. Lori Diebel led a presentation on Cultural Proficiency for School Leaders. Class members were surprised to learn that there are nearly 400 English Language Learners (ELL) among the District's 8,880 students. These students live in homes where the language spoken is not English. There are nearly 30 different languages represented by these 400 ELL students.
An overview of West Des Moines Schools was provided by Kay Rosene, Director of School/Community Relations. More than 18 percent of the student population is minority. Students receiving free and reduced lunches represent 19 percent of the total student population. Eighty-five percent of Valley High School graduates go on to post secondary schools. Since the year 2000, the District has had 98 National Merit Scholarship Finalists.
The District has more than 1,200 employees. Of these, 630 are teachers, counselors, and nurses and 39 are administrators. The average teacher salary is $51,698.
Kurt Subra, Chief Financial Officer, provided a concise financial overview of the District. The current overall budget is $108 million with the operating budget at $79 million. The school tax rate in West Des Moines has been stable over the past ten years.
Perhaps the highlight of the session was a “fishbowl” activity featuring several high school students who represented various minorities and cultures. The activity was led by Aiddy Phomvisay, Valley High School Assistant Principal. The students shared their experiences about what it was like to come to Valley from other parts of the U.S. or other parts of the world. Class members left the meeting with new and very personal insights about what it is like to adapt to a new environment.
Every community has those in need, and West Des Moines is no exception. Learning about charities making a difference in our community and learning how everyone can contribute to making a difference through volunteerism or fundraising was the focus of the December program which was held the West Des Moines Public Library.
The session began with a lecture by Paul Kirpes, CEO of TPG Companies and a nationally-known expert on philanthropy and fundraising, who taught the dynamics of philanthropic giving among organizations, businesses and individuals. Kirpes revealed many surprising facts about philanthropy and gave Academy members a plan for successful fundraising.
The second half of the Academy session was a series of roundtable discussions moderated by Libby Jacobs (Director of Community Relations at Principal Financial Group, former Iowa legislator and West Des Moines' 2008 Citizen of the Year). Academy members met with representative from five charitable and philanthropic organizations:
The final segment of the session was a discussion of the class project. All 30 members of this inaugural class, leaders in their own right, shared and discussed many ideas and options. The group had dinner at Café Su.
The January 8th program was held at the Holiday Inn on Mills Civic Parkway and featured Mitch Matthews’ presentation on "The Coach Mindset™."
Coaching and leadership are closely related and Matthews demonstrated that real coaching is about guidance and helping a team realize a shared goal or vision. This often requires leading the team to discover and formulate their own plans, facilitating questions and discussion, and leading the group in less tangible ways. It's easy to press the team to do things "the right way" and deliver the end product without leveraging the team's unique talents and skills, but according to Matthews true coaching follows a different path. Ultimately the best coaches always trust their team's capabilities and let them "run with the ball," rather than force them to do things a specific way because the leader simply knows best.
Matthews' program concluded with a coaching application that helped Academy members develop a plan for applying The Coach Mindset™ and coaching others. For some this meant coaching subordinates in the workplace or volunteers in an organization; for others, coaching became a more personal thing to share with family.
Dinner was served in a private room at the hotel, catered by Johnny’s Steakhouse.
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Designed by Jeremy Schultz.
