The West Liberty Community School District Board of Education met on Monday, May 20, during which it discussed the Aligned Impact of Muscatine (AIM).
Kim Warren and Yesenia Pesina presented information about the partnership between the WLCSD and AIM.
AIM is an organization that aligns community resources and helps reduce gaps in student achievement. The partnership with the West Liberty schools began in 2018.
“We have four main goals,” Warren said, “that every child enters kindergarten ready to learn, that students are successful academically through support in and out of school, that when students graduate high school they’re ready for college or career, and that when people are adults in the workforce, they make enough money to be able to sustain a household.”
AIM has been very active in the West Liberty schools this year. One of their activities has been assisting students in applying for college and career training.
They have also been helping students figure out how to finance their education. The next big challenge is getting students from graduation into college in the fall. That is the goal of The Summer Melt Program.
“What we heard from students was that there’s no support over the summer,” Warren said. “They don’t have a high school counselor anymore, and if they haven't made a decision, they don’t have anyone at a post-secondary institution to go to.”
AIM is always looking at new types of input and hosts annual conferences to look at the data and think outside the box. Many local organizations, educators, and counselors attend and try to help improve student outcomes.
Yesenia Pesina talked about what AIM is doing at the elementary level. Pesina helped organize enrichment activities with a focus on hands-on learning.
“I helped organize this because I know that teachers can have a lot on their plate,” Pesina said. Students got to look at live animals to learn about their life cycles.
“Students would rather look at the animal hands-on instead of watching a video about it,” Pesina said.
Students also learned about immigration and other cultures, and they were fascinated to see what money looks like in other countries.
At the high school, Pesina organized a Youth Board, a small group of students who share their concerns about the community and try to learn what they can do to make an impact.
Many of these students are on other area boards, like the Library Board, or organizations like LULAC and Dreamcatchers. One topic that students wanted to look at is the number of stray cats in the community.
“So I asked a guest speaker to come in,” Pesina said. “Which was Eddie Ortiz, and he explained that he’s the one that handles the animals, and he has a close partnership with the Muscatine Humane Society. Unfortunately, many of the animals are euthanized, which the kids found upsetting.”
“They want to do an event night to inform the community of the importance of getting animals vaccinated and having them on leashes,” Pesina said.
One of AIM’s more important functions is collecting data.
“We think it’s really important to educate community-based organizations and give them the tools to be able to make decisions for students and families and also be able to go after additional funding sources because they’re going to have the data to back up that what they’re doing is right.”
The board voted to approve the renewal of the contract with Tanager, a third-party therapy service that assists in meeting student mental health needs.
The board also approved the Memorandum of Understanding with iJAG. This is a national organization, Jobs for America’s Graduates, and the “i” is for Iowa.
They talk with students about what their areas of interest are and then find community members and businesses to talk to students about those areas of interest.
The next regular meeting of the West Liberty Community School District Board of Education will be held at 6 p.m. on Monday, June 3, in the boardroom on Elm Street.
The agenda is expected to include the Superintendent Review and the FY23 Audit Report.