Classes started for most Iowa school districts Friday. Iowa law states August 23rd is the earliest date schools can begin a new academic year.
Bryan Boysen is in his first year as the shared superintendent of the North Butler and Clarksville school districts. Boysen previously served as superintendent and elementary principal in the Kenyon-Wanamingo School District in Minnesota and tells RadioOnTheGo News he is looking forward to his new position at the two Butler County school districts.
“Everyone has been so welcoming and so nice. I was echoing that in both of my speeches in both districts this week, that the onboarding and the inclusion of me here has been phenomenal. Both districts are blessed with great staff. The students have a meeting. The excitement is there. Everybody’s really excited. I know I’m excited to get kids in the building because that’s why we do what we do. And we are all educators. It takes everyone. We are a united front. We share a common vision and a common mission, and that is to have a child-centered focus on learning. It’s been happening here before I got here, and it’s going to continue to happen while I’m here.”
Boysen says early enrollment numbers indicate an increase in the Clarksville School District but a slight decrease at North Butler.
“Each pupil, funding follows them, so to speak. And if you can gain a student that provides more state aid revenue for your district. In Clarksville, we’re looking at a positive gain, a net gain of three students. So that, that’s a good thing. It looks like a year ago, we’re at 272. This year we’re at 275 coming in K-12 enrollment. So that’s awesome to hear. North Butler, I think we’re looking at a little bit of a loss there. Looking at the data, you know, with those options, we have some students that are open enrolled to other districts. We have more students that open enroll than coming in. Not a huge margin, but it does exist. We also have some students that are choosing to do on an online platform. So public schools are always in competition.”
Boysen says both districts are fully staffed with the start of the new academic year.
