Plans

Whenever I ask my father, Charley, what his plans are for this summer or anytime in the future, he always answers with the same response, “Heck, I have no plans. I don’t even buy green bananas.” Please keep in mind a couple of things, first of all, if any of you know Charley, you know he didn’t say “Heck” and secondly, on June 2 he will be turning 87 years old. I suppose when you are that old, still play 18 holes of golf daily and you really enjoy life, you can get by with using a different word than “Heck.” So, where is this all headed?

Everybody makes plans, whether long term or short term. I would like to share with you some of the plans the Okoboji Community Schools are making for the future of your children. The high school has placed the order for the new laptops for next year’s students. Chris Koenck, our Director of Technology, has done an outstanding job of getting the best price and the biggest bang for our buck. We will be using Lenovo Think Pads for student computers and these are the best machines for our use. Our new wireless infrastructure is in place district-wide and operational. The entire tech team needs to be mentioned for the time and effort they have put into making our first year of 1:1 so successful. Chris Williams, Evan Prunty and Chris Witt all have very specific jobs they perform along with Chris Koenck and our tech department is one of our shining stars. I can hardly wait to hear about the successes our students are having next year and all of the imaginative things they will create. It’ going to be a great year.

One other plan you can count on is that Okoboji will continue to put highly qualified teachers in each and every classroom. We have been very fortunate to have hired outstanding teachers in the past and our plan is to continue that practice. Of course, hiring new staff means that existing staff are leaving. While we enjoy new people coming and joining our group, we always have strong feelings for those who are leaving. The following teachers will not be returning next school year and they all will be sorely missed: Kevin Poeckes, Melissa Nelson, Makayla Payne, Jeremy Payne, and Dave DeWild. These five people have made plans of their own and we can only thank them for the years of service they have given to this district. We certainly wish them well with their plans. All are leaders amongst leaders and we are blessed to have served along side of them.

Last week, the administrative team met with representatives from a book company. Now, that, in and of itself, is not so unusual. What is unusual are the plans this company has for the future of textbooks. As Okoboji has always been on the cutting edge with technology and classroom integration of technology, this is a very intriguing idea for our building principals. If things progress like we hope, Okoboji will be selected to beta test some of these “new” technologies. In fact, the company doesn’t even call them textbooks any more; they call this a content management system. This was very impressive and all schools will be heading in this direction, at least those schools that are 1:1. I believe we will see many dramatic changes in the years to come with the materials that we use to teach our students. Textbooks are the obvious choice for a quick change but there will be many more exciting elements to education coming soon.

Many of you know, I will not be returning to Okoboji next school year either. So, what are my plans? I want to grow up and be just like my dad. Take care.