Latest / Grow Clinton Podcast / GCP272 - A New School Year & Bright Future for Clinton Students w/Dr. Wes Golden

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GCP272 - A New School Year & Bright Future for Clinton Students w/Dr. Wes Golden · Grow Clinton Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_04: Really trying to embrace bringing the community into the school, but also take our school district out to the community.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_03: You're listening to the Grow Clinton Podcast.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_03: Grow Clinton is a 501c6 nonprofit, economic, community development, and tourism organization based in Clinton, Iowa.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_03: For more information, visit growclinton.com.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_03: Again, that's growclinton.com.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_03: Now, back to the show.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_03: What's happening, all you amazing people out there in Podcast Land?
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you so much for tuning in to another episode of the One, the Only.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_03: You love it, you know where to find it, folks.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_03: The Grow Clinton Podcast brought to you by Grow Clinton, a nonprofit organization where we focus on economic development, community development, and tourism.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_03: As always, I am your host for today's episode, Andy Sokolovich, president and CEO of Grow Clinton.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_03: Joined in the studio by Jenny Holm, our director of member and community relations.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_03: Jenny, what's happening?
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_03: Oh my gosh, what a beautiful day.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_03: Beautiful day.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_02: We've had a ribbon cutting and then we had a team lunch at a member business.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_02: It's just a gorgeous day.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_02: You know, with great things going on.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_03: And the ribbon cutting was out at the beautiful Eagle Point part.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_03: I always say better than the one in Dubuque.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_03: Because this one's free, get into.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_03: But they did a great job.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_03: So part of the capital improvement plan during the session last year, we allocated some dollars to the city of Clinton to support the construction of a walking trail.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: Oh.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_03: All through Serpentine Drive is what it's known as.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_03: And we needed it.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_03: Oh.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_03: People love walking up there, but I can tell you there's not a lot of room for a pedestrian and a car to make way there.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_03: But now you have this beautiful concrete walking path.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_03: It was busy too.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_02: We're, you know, we're dodging people who are actually using it.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_03: So they're like, get out of our way, folks.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_02: This is serious business.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_03: Speaking of busy, Jenny, we got sponsors.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_03: Mike Check, courtesy of Citizens First Bank, making your finances and our audio crystal clear.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_03: These new mics for the Grow Clinton Podcast Studio are proudly sponsored by the bank that is always in tune with our community.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_03: Find them at go cfb.bank banking as it should be with Citizens First Bank.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_03: Member F D I C.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_03: Agcraft Printware and Selly Sports.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_03: Agcraft's been in the custom apparel game since 1974.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_03: Now a cutting-edge operation, providing top-notch, customized printware to teams and companies all across the United States.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_03: And I tell you what, they make it easy with their web store.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_03: Little Colin over there sets those web stores up and hooks, and it's easy.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_03: You just go there, you order what you want.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_03: At the end of the day, they cut you a check for a portion that's your proceeds that goes back to the team or anything like that.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_03: It makes it very, very simple.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_03: You know what else is really cool, Jenny?
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_03: Sully Sports.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_03: Well, that is an actual sporting goods store that's in the same building as Adcraft off at 19th Avenue Northwest.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_03: But you can go to Sellysports.com and join the Sully Shirts Club.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_03: I think mine's ready.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_02: I'll go get it.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_03: I think it is.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_02: I'll get it today.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_03: I got notification that the charge came through.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_03: So it better be ready then.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_03: Better get my shirt.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_03: But with your Sully's shirt club membership, you get exclusive member only t-shirt every single month, plus 10% off everything in the store.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_03: Miles Communication, the original sponsor of the Grow Clinton Podcast, hooks us up with Wicked Fast High Speed Internet, ensuring that this broadcast remains crisp, clear, and consistent.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_03: If Miles is not in your neck of the woods, trust me, they are on their way.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_03: For more information, visit Milestelephone.com.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_03: Lionel Basell Clinton Complex, where they produce high density, low-density polyethylene plastic pellets used to create a variety of products, including household and industrial bottles, pressure pipes, food packaging, outdoor durable goods.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_03: You name it, if it's made of plastic, chances are pretty good those residents came from Clinton.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_03: LYB is committed to being a responsible, engaged neighbor in the communities where they operate.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_03: Lionel Bell, solutions for a better tomorrow.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_03: Awesome show and guest today, Janay.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, it's one of my favorite people.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_03: One of our favorite people, Dr.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_03: West.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_01: You say that every time.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_03: I well it's true every time.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_03: And you love it every time.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_03: Dr.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_03: West Golden, superintendent of Clinton Community School District.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_03: Dr.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_03: Golden, thank you so much for joining us on the pod.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_03: Thanks for having me.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_03: So you got a lot of things going on.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_03: But you're back to school.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_03: Here we are.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_03: And what's happening in the Clinton Community School District?
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_04: You know, the same.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_04: We we made it through homecoming.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_04: I apologize to anybody who had toilet paper in their yard.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_03: Don't apologize.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_03: Not you're doing it.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_03: That's fun.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_03: And I thought the kids behaved themselves, you know.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, it's there was that one young man at Oscaloosa.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_04: Oh boy.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_03: They uh they ripped the ripped the door off the woman's car.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_03: So our our uh young students here, yeah, they busted the windshield on the woman's car.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_02: Clinton kids have spirit, but they don't do that.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_03: No, yeah.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_03: What's nothing wrong with a little toilet paper little T.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, come on.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, it's uh it's a long-standing tradition.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_04: I'm sure you never did any of that.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_04: I I know I never did.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, I was I did, but I got the dissolved the dissolvable or whatever it's called, the paper that you put in the RVs.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_03: That's what I got.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_02: No, I was at home reading a book and saying my prayers and you know, yeah.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_03: So with the homecoming game, how'd that go?
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_03: Wait, we won.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, you did.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_04: Oh no, they really uh really have improved.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_04: I think all of our athletic programs have really uh set forth a a progression.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_04: Um it's really pretty cool.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_04: You know, our girls' tennis team has done really well this year.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_04: You know, the football team's improving, the the girls' volleyball, swimming, you name it, cross-country, which I'm I'm kind of fond of cross-country because I coached the team for 20 years and uh ran in high school at on the team.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_04: So no, it's it's been a great path forward and and and you know, that connected, continued um, you know, forward, growing getting better.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_02: Do great because they have that great new weight room.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_02: And that's for everybody, right?
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, you use that for gym class, I mean, that's uh open for everybody, but while stating he even gave an award or their annual meeting to the gentleman.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, Mike Riswald.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_03: Mike that set that all up and kind of fundraised for it as well.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, he he did an amazing job.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_04: You know, uh he he's uh actively and deeply engaged as uh as a a river king himself and uh been teaching there for a while and you know he's passionate about it and he gets the kids motivated and inspired to to do better every day.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_03: And uh that's all we can ask.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_03: Now, Matt from our office, Matt Parps, he wanted to go over to the weight room and kind of show the students how to sling some steel.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_03: You know, is that what he wanted?
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, he wanted to just power clean and just show them what he's all about.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_02: So intimidating.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_03: I don't need him ripping through any more shirts, you know what I mean.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: That's right.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_03: So school starts, you got the transition, not only for the students, but also for the educators and the administration.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_03: And you got something pretty big coming up, uh, which is the completion of your brand spanking new high school.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, holy cow.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_04: You know, back in March of 2020, I think about that.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_04: That's crazy.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_04: You know, the the the city of Clinton overwhelmingly approved the bond render referendum to to help fund the high school, the new high school, you know, it's I think it was 74.7 percent of our our constituents said yes, let's do that.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_04: They they saw the need, and holy smokes, six plus years later, here we are.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_04: Um, it is so cool.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_03: So for those that had the opportunity really to go within the depths of the old high school and see some of the behind-the-scenes maintenance issues that were going on, you know, pipes and things like that that need a little TLC to experience that and then walk into the brand new facility.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_03: It is night and day.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_04: It's it's incredible.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_04: And if you get a chance, I mean, come on the 17th of October, it's Saturday from 10 to noon.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_04: We'll do a ribbon cutting at uh 11.30, thanks to Grow Clinton for all the support.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_04: But uh you'll get to see the wonderful space.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_04: It's I would say it's going to be 99.9% done.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_04: There's always some, you know, you know, the punch list things and painting and little things here and there, but holy cow.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_04: Um, you know, I I've been over there many, many, many times since the beginning of the school year.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_04: And you walk in there and the kids are there, and they just they you can sense the pride that they have.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_04: You can sense the feeling of, wow, we uh, you know, we feel special because the sit the you know, the community has supported this and and allowed us to, you know, be in a modern learning environment that's really pretty cool.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_02: I had a class reunion this past summer.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_02: That's nice.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_04: And uh she didn't reveal the year, by the way.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_04: No, I know the year.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_04: She didn't have 1986.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_02: Um 40 years, and your sister was in my class.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, that's right.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_02: And uh they toured the building.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_02: And one of the things I remember hearing from somebody was it's all new.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_02: You know, your gym is still there, which I'm so happy about because that's a beautiful gym, but um, it's all new, but it's still Clinton Heights, it still feels like our school.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_04: And I think that's been a key component of the the the building of this was that you know, one of the Trident ideals is tradition, and they've taken parts of almost every older part of the previous buildings and they've incorporated it somehow into the new building.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_04: Um, we still have your gym, which is an iconic um space.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_04: Um, so that was really important to our community to keep that space and uh able to integrate that in, I would say almost seamlessly.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_04: It still looks like your gym, but we have new bleachers.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_04: It's actually air conditioned.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_04: So during graduation, you're not up there sweating uh bullets.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_04: Um so you know, we just had the floor repainted and and re-redone this year.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_04: So it's just it's so cool.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_02: It really is.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_02: And you kept some of the class gifts.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, yeah, the stone out in front is what 1972?
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, there's there's gifts everywhere.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_02: And the the front where it says Clinton High School, that's uh much older.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, that was part of the the old what 1929 building.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_04: That was one of the things we wanted to do, and you'll find those like little cornerstones that were embedded in the older buildings everywhere within the the academic space.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_04: I love that.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_04: Um, so it was important for us to make sure that we honored our past.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_02: Do you still have the Asukiwa?
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_04: Yep.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_04: All right.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_04: There's a neon sign, it's still in our commons area.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_04: They need to explain this to me.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_02: Asuwawa, that's a battle cry, part of the Clinton High uh fight song.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, very cool.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_03: Nice.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_03: Yep.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_03: For those that are not aware, I did not go to the school here in Clinton.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_03: I went to Stuquel Valley High School in uh Leastport, Pennsylvania.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_03: But I love you know, I like Clinton because the colors are the same as my Panthers, and of course, you guys are the River Kings and Queens.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_03: Yep.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_03: What I love about the well, six years, so you mean you had uh obviously several graduating classes that many of which from their freshman year to their senior year, both of my children did not experience school without construction.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_03: However, correct me if I'm wrong, but you never had like construction trailers where they had to put the classrooms or anything like that.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_03: That's amazing.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_04: We made it work, and uh, I tell you, our kids did just amazing.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_04: Didn't skip a beat, didn't miss anything.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_04: Um the adults struggled probably more.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_03: I remember coming to visit the school and I was speaking to a class, and the c classroom was behind the theater.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and I had to go.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_03: It was kind of like a cattle guard.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_03: Like I was that's right, it was it was funneling in, bottlenecking in, and I remember like standing there waiting to go because it was transgressing between classes, and one of the educators that I knew was like, Andy, just go, man.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_03: Come on.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_03: It's like merging into traffic, you just have to go, they'll yield to you.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, that's just old zipper technique, right?
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_04: You know, come on.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so you talk about the gym and everything like that, which is great, and the weight room and all of that, but other things are amazing there too, such as the new auditorium for performance.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_04: That's cool.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_02: That is really cool.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_04: It's amazing.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_04: And uh we did uh we did an open house back when that phase um basically completed, and some of my former teachers and uh you know, Mr.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_04: Golrap, who is my band director, a legend in in the area.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_04: You know, he came in and was just I can remember vividly him just being so impressed.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_04: And you know, having a space that you can actually do a full play with a fly space and you know you've got an orchestra pit.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_01: There's no hole in the stage where you can just go boom if you're at the end.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_03: It's got a net, you know, in case somebody wasn't the old ban room, that was not air conditioned.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_04: No, no, no.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_01: Choir ban?
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_04: No, that was in the S Wing, which was literally, if you were to take a wheel and measure it, was probably a quarter mile away from the theater.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_04: Yes.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_04: So you had to drag the timpani drums and you had to drag drag the you know everything from the choir room and or walk all that way or the band room or orchestra room.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_04: You know, think about carrying a bass, you know, in the orchestra and and taking it from the S Wing, the furthest distance away, all the way to the theater.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_04: Now they can literally walk across the hallway and they're in the all the stuff stored right there.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it's right there.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_04: They can uh they can store, you know, the the the scenes and the sets.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_04: They can build the the sets in the you know the shop and literally roll it across the hallway onto the stage.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_04: You could drive a car onto the stage.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_04: Um it's just yeah, it's amazing.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_02: I doubt that you're storing the costumes down in the old hall.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I know that's gone.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_04: That's gone.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_04: No, there's actually a space up behind the theater.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_04: There's a hallway behind the theater where there's kind of a green room in case we have, you know, special guests who come and it's their space for them.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_04: But up in the um, there's a a section upstairs behind there that we store all the costumes.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_03: My daughter, my youngest, my four-year-old, she had a dance recital there.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_03: So that was the first time I was to experience going in there and seeing it.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_03: Big, big difference.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_03: Now you said the 17th of October.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_03: Yep.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_03: So not this weekend, next weekend.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_03: Yep.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_03: From 10 to noon.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_03: Yep, please come.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_03: Open house, open to anybody.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_04: Open to anyone in the community.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_04: It's it's it's built for our community.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_04: It's open to anyone.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_04: Um, honestly, it's it's such a an amazing space, and and our community supported it.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_04: So they should be uh they they I want them to come and see it.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_04: They they they're school.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, it's their school.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_04: You know, and I think on our flyer we said it's you know built for Clinton by Clinton.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_04: And uh, you know, it it's so cool.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_04: It's it's it's really neat and uh it's something to be proud of for the next several multi you know, hopefully a hundred years.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_02: Well, and what tells kids more that they're they're they're cared about than having a community that says yes to something like that when they were doing the bond for the uh choir area, the S Wing that you're talking about, that was a separate one.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_04: Or was it we we did uh get donations for that it's not completely funded through through donations, but it was uh in part funded through donations.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_02: My kids uh were in band choir drama and they just waited to hear from me.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_02: They were graduated out and doing their own lives, but they just waited to hear from me to find out if that was gonna go through, and they were they were jumping up and down and cheering that that was gonna happen for those kids.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, it's so cool.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_04: I I remember both of my children were in orchestra.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_04: I was a band kid.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_04: Um but uh in orchestra, um, if you're not in tune, it's a little bit easier to know.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_04: And my youngest, uh, she was like, she played the viola, and I had gone to the band concert the week before, and I'm like, you better make sure you're in tune because that that space is so acoustically tuned.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, you can hear the individual instruments.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_04: It's that cool.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_04: Uh it looks at me like, okay.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_04: You know, I'm not kidding you, man.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_04: It's it's it's really neat.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_03: And I would assume there's probably uh academic studies that are out there that prove the quality of the classroom, the upgrade in technology, the comfort plays a huge role in your ability to retain information.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_04: For sure.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_04: And that was another key part, you know, when we went to Clinton High and uh I taught at Clinton High for 20 years in a room that had no windows.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_04: Yep.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, I couldn't even imagine.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_04: Um now every room, almost every room, there's a few, especially in that choir hallway.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_04: Um but the academic side, not the performing art side, every room has at least the potential to get some natural light into it, which for 20 years I never saw.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_04: I'd come to school at 6 30 in the morning and may not leave till 4 30 or 5 and then winter.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_04: Never see the sun.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_01: That's yeah.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_04: So now, and that's that was a key component of this is to ensure that our students were exposed to natural light because that's one of the key components.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_04: Um but yeah, there's so many cool design features, like you know, having the the shops on the on one side of the theater and the performing arts on the other side so that they're co-located so that it's more efficient.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_04: Um it's just so many cool things about it.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_03: The classrooms, I mean, they're pretty cool.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_03: Those classrooms, I really enjoy the style because I I was not the best student because I really struggled to pay attention, to be honest.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_03: I was easily distracted.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_03: But I think for me, just sitting in the rows of those old desks was just lame.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_03: I didn't feel like I could interact with anybody and then you turn around, it's like turn back around and face the front.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_03: It's like, well, I want to see my peers, I want to see my fellow students, I want to, you know, engage and have conversations, and you guys are set up well for that collaboration.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, a key component of the design was to ensure that students had the ability to collaborate and be able to, you know, uh rearrange the room so that it was best meeting the needs of that particular activity.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_04: Um, you know, they have different height desks, you know.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_04: Um, you're kidding.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_04: It's just really what we wanted to make sure that we did was uh give provide them a space that was as close to perhaps what they might see in a workforce or in a in a collaborative workspace.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_04: There are workspaces all over the building that aren't in the rooms that kids can go to and teachers can utilize to, hey, this small group, why don't you go over there and work together and then bring your product back?
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_04: You know, um there's just so many, there's cool spaces for the the faculty to work together in.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_04: Um it's just really, you know, for 2026 a really modern facility that is in hopes to help students, you know, become the best version of themselves.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_03: Now, what is uh Miss Reeves' title now?
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_03: She's the assistant superintendent.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_03: Uh who's your curriculum director?
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_03: She is.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_03: She is as well, just a change in title.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_03: What I I really enjoy her.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, she's a very progressive thinker, especially when it comes to changing the way we've looked at education over the years and making sure that the students are well prepared.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_03: And between the two of you, a number of years ago, I did portrait of graduate.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_03: And what I love is that you're preparing students for post-graduation, not necessarily post-secondary education.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_03: You want them to be ready to either enter the workforce, go off to a four-year college, get a two-year degree, get a certificate, whatever it is they choose to do, you want to make sure they're prepared.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_04: Absolutely.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_04: And that's really a key uh initiative of mine that I'm I uh whether people like it or not, you know, for decades it was are our kids' career or college and career ready.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_04: And um, you know, I was going to college.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_04: Most uh people were going to college.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_04: That's what you're supposed to do.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_01: Told to, yeah.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_04: And so many kids, it's just not for them.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_04: And you can really uh get out get a well-paying job right out of high school or with uh a little bit of training, apprenticeships, uh, tech school, trade school, and go right into the workforce.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_04: So you can go right in the workforce and and build your career from there, you know, and what an amazing opportunity for our kids.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_04: Um, so that's our vision is uh empowering all to be future ready.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_04: Instead of that college and career.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_04: I my my hope is that every student leaves our school district ready for their future, whatever that is, and whatever lays ahead of them, they're ready.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_04: I just couldn't imagine.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, if I didn't work, say I didn't work all through high school, didn't have a job, right?
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_03: And then you go off to post-secondary and you choose to pursue a four-year degree, or maybe it's a master's.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_03: And now you are at, you know, what age is that you're 22, 23, right, entering the workforce for the very first time.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_03: And people that have chosen, and there's nothing wrong with pursuing that level of education.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_03: However, many of our companies offer apprenticeships, but many of our companies also offer to pay portion of your degree should you choose to pursue a bachelor's or a master's.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, 100%.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_04: And that's been key.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_04: And with the the the help and and support of Grow Clinton, for example, but all of our other area school districts is really trying to embrace bringing the community into the school, but also taking the community or our school district out to the community.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_04: Um, our students, when they have the ability to see what's available out there and get them into uh, you know, a business or an industry in town, you don't realize, holy cow, I didn't realize Adcraft had an accountant or shipping.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_04: I didn't realize that uh, you know, Lionel has HR.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_04: You know, while we of course they do, you just don't think about that stuff.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_04: Um, so I think this is to me, being a Clinton kid and passionate about this place, it's a win-win for all of us.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_04: The more we can bring our community in and our kids out to the community.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_04: Holy cow, maybe they'll find something here and they'll stay.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_03: And even though next week, Stacey Borgeson, our director of workforce development talent attraction, she's taking some of Ms.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_03: Harris's students over to Custom Packs so they can see because you drive past a blow molding manufacturing facility, you're thinking to yourself, what does that even mean?
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_03: And then you see all the products that are manufactured there.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_03: And the plastic resins, while their resins don't necessarily come from Lionel here in Clinton, they come from a Lionel.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_03: And it's just it's cool to see how everything is connected.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_03: Not only that, but you start to think from a logistics side.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_03: All of our rail served industries and the trucking business and how that all works.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_03: So you're you're absolutely right, Wes.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_03: There's so many different opportunities from a career standpoint available within the walls of a manufacturing plant that most people do not even know about.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm pretty good at evidence of the fact that when I was in school, that wasn't the model, you know.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, yeah, for sure.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_02: I had no idea.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_02: Even when I was in it wasn't the model.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_03: I graduated in 2000 and I was I mean, I met with the counselor all the time and it was like, what college are you gonna go to?
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_03: Where are you gonna apply it?
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, right.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I I got this job, you know, in 2020, and I was 50 years old at the time.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_02: Some of these buildings, I had no idea what was going on in them.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_02: You know, and that's because I didn't have that exposure.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that's great because that keeps kids, like you said, in town.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_02: Right?
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, and for me, it's as much of the more we can expose them to those options and opportunities, it's as much to find out what you don't want to do with your life as it is as much as you what you can find out about what you want to do with your life.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_04: Yes.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_04: Because so many of us, I'm included in that.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_04: You realize, oh, this is my vision for my future.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_04: Then you get into that and you're like, that's not what I wanted to do.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_04: And now you've just gone to college for a couple of years, you've got debt.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_04: Well, let's figure this out beforehand.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_04: And so many kids wait until they're 22 and they they're in debt for 30, 50, 100,000.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_04: And wait, that's not, man, that's not my thing.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_02: So but I'm too in debt to I gotta do something.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_02: So the rest of my life I'm gonna be miserable, you know, and that's not great.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, absolutely.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you can get out of your mortgage by claiming bankruptcy or filing bankruptcy, can't get out of student loan debt.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_03: No, no, you know, it's just it's one of those things.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_03: And I keep telling, like, my daughter's 17, she's a junior this year, but there's nothing wrong, too, with going to Clinton Community College and optimized those prereqs because man, uh just the amount that you're gonna pay for classes you can get in your own backyard.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, I don't know what the cost per credit hour is at a traditional four-year university, but it's gotta be way more than Clinton Community College.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_04: I have uh my oldest has graduated college and my youngest is a sophomore, and it's holy cow.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_04: It is holy smokes.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_04: I have I I tried talking my children into going to CCC for a couple of years.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_04: Uh, they I need to go experience life.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_04: Okay.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_04: That's not life.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_02: You are gonna experience debt.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_04: No, but uh, I I if I had to do it all over again, I would absolutely have gone to CCC for two years.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_04: Take those basic classes and then transfer to 40U university if that's what I found messing up.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_04: Well, plus you never know.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_03: You take the two years, somebody approaches you, they recognize talent, they recognize your work ethic, they recognize recognize your professionalism at a young age, they want to bring you into the company and help groom you for leadership positions.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_03: You could be on a career path without even knowing it.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_03: Yep.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_03: Because even look at me, I moved here in 2012, 2013, and I had no direction.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_03: I just left a career as an air traffic controller in the United States Air Force.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, I did not have any need for air traffic control in Clinton, Iowa.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_03: Crop dusters are pretty self-sufficient, right?
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_03: So I'm thinking to myself, what am I gonna do?
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_03: And just by happenstance, I fell into a job in economic development.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_03: Here I am 11 years later and working for Girl Clinton, and it's just it's cool.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_03: It's cool the way life works, but you got to take chances and you gotta try new things.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_02: Well, it's so nice to have the support of, you know, the all of the adults around you.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I know my mom, and it's nothing against the people back then.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_02: They just didn't have the the tools that they needed.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_02: But I remember that she was in a situation where both of her parents were invalids, she was taking care of them in a small apartment, walking from wherever the courthouse is in heels and a skirt because that was the dress code, to Clinton High, coming home at noon, taking care of them, then walking back and then walking to work on Comanche Avenue.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_02: And she couldn't take much more, so she went and talked to a counselor at school, and he's the counselor told her, When I'm done planning homecoming, I can help you.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_02: And she just, you know, I I'm drowning, and it just wasn't there.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_02: The help wasn't there.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_02: And can you imagine now, you know, with the support that you get at Clinton High and in the schools around us, you know, it's amazing.
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_02: It's amazing.
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_02: They have to feel supported, they have to feel like I want to bring my family back here.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_04: That's the hope.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_04: You know, the hope is that they see their future and they find, you know, something that they want to do, not have to do.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and stay.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_04: That's that's that's the goal.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_04: You know, first is their desire to find their their passion, uh, but two is hang out here.
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_04: So many opportunities that are out there.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_03: And again, I graduated in 2000, but I remember going to the counselor's office and they made you take a little test, and it was kind of like to see what you yeah what your personality would align with.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_03: And mine was like, you know, plumber, bus driver, and then it was like lawyer, and I'm like, well, that's a big thing a little different.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_03: And I I never took that stuff seriously, and I knew my path was going to be the military because I had no desire to put my cheeks in a seat in a classroom.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_03: Um, little did I know it had to go to a year's worth of air traffic control school.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, but it was just so cool to be able to reflect back on that time and see where they're at today and be able to tell my kids like, you have so many opportunities and so many chances to be successful.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_03: The world has definitely changed.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_03: And the stigma associated with manufacturing has gone by the wayside.
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, yeah.
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_03: You know, nobody's looking at the 1980s movies anymore with the sparks flying everywhere.
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, you go to Nestle Purie and a pet care, and they have a dog that goes around and smells for leeks.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, robotic dog.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_04: Well, everything's so technically driven now.
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_04: It's not like exactly like you said, it's not the 1970s and 80s that we probably remember.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_04: But it's uh, you know, it's more tech driven.
• 27:43
  SPEAKER_04: And uh, you know, you have to you have to have some knowledge and and and and understanding.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_03: I was watching a show the other night, it was like it wasn't 60 minutes, but something like that.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_03: And they were talking to a gentleman who was uh an AI expert, younger guy, right?
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_03: Talking about how it's going to impact jobs.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_03: And the interviewer kept saying, well, you know, it's gonna take away all these jobs from hardworking men and women that he's like, is it or is it gonna change the way we view jobs?
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_03: And it's gonna change the style of jobs, and it's going to change the skill sets necessary to get these jobs and be embedded in these careers.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_03: We've seen just from you know the industrial revolution of present day, which is crazy when you think about the time in between.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_03: Like it's not a lot of time on the grand scheme thing or a large scale.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_03: But when you see what it's done, I mean, there was a time where people were just sitting there punching widgets over and over and over and over and over again, and then we introduced robotics.
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_03: Right, right.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and then they introduced robotics.
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_03: So now you have people that have to be very uh skilled in mathematics and science and uh understand technology and electronics, and they're punching their tickets if they had that skill set.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, think about robotics alone, the maintenance, the build, the programming, you know, there's there's a lot of things that go into that.
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_04: There will be similarly with AI.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_04: Um, I understand as an educator, I tell folks all the time, we have to embrace it.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_04: Um this is our our students' futures, our AI.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_04: So how do we prepare them to manage it, but also utilize it in an ethical, moral way that also keeps them employed.
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_04: So um it's gonna look different for sure.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_04: It's gonna look different.
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_02: Well, you've got to remember when we were in high school.
• 29:27
  SPEAKER_02: Well, you're younger than me, but when we were in high school and the computers first came and they had keyboarding classes, I could remember some of the adults saying, Do we really need that?
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, this is kind of the same.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_03: Stick around.
• 29:41
  SPEAKER_03: All you're doing is playing frogger.
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_04: What do you get possible to do the Oregon Trail on the green screen of two-ear?
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_02: So you've also got some other things going on throughout the school district.
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_02: Like tomorrow, um, talk about that.
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, it's been really cool.
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_04: Uh partnered with and and they've done this across the community.
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_04: First, the Gateway Credit Union is providing shoes to every elementary school student, um, not just in the Clinton schools, but uh, I think in the surrounding, I think it's been Command's Prince of Peace.
• 30:13
  SPEAKER_04: All of them.
• 30:13
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, what an amazing donation.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_04: And the amount of energy that they have is incredible.
• 30:19
  SPEAKER_04: Yes.
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_04: Um, so tomorrow at Bluff Elementary, they're providing the Bluff students with shoes.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_04: And these aren't these are they go to partner with shoe sensation.
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_04: Pick them out.
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_04: They're nice.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_04: These are nice shoes.
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, they're not gonna fall apart on the other quality footwear.
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, so uh, I'm gonna try tomorrow because I've I've seen I've seen the videos of it, uh, but I've never been present with one.
• 30:41
  SPEAKER_04: But uh I know it's uh a quite an energetic uh endeavor.
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_04: So it is.
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_04: It's always fun.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_03: Uh Drennan has a confetti cannon, uh Home Line Yarns, and they have a big speaker they bring out, and they have a videographer that comes and captures it all.
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_03: And even the folks that have retired from the credit union, like dead blight, she still shows up and helps volunteer.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, the kids will either be jacked up or or like want to take a nap.
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_04: So it'll be fun after that's all it'll be so much fun.
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_03: They have them stand up and cheer, and it's just so cool, and it's again, no cost.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_02: And another example of how your community cares about you.
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_03: 100%.
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_03: Right?
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_03: Absolutely.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_03: That's what I do like about Clinton is you don't see that everywhere.
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_02: No, you don't.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_03: No.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_03: And it it just No matter what, even if there is you don't agree on something, or you know, there's divisiveness or something like that, when it comes to taking care of our own, that's where everybody agrees and everybody's on the same page.
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_04: So I mean, if just look at our facilities, that's all been supported through community efforts, you know, from every elementary to our middle school to our high school to our athletic facilities to our weight rooms to, you know, our our our performing arts or visual arts, it's incredible.
• 31:55
  SPEAKER_04: And I'm always so grateful.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_04: We have a wonderful school board who is is so much uh engaged and and caring, you know, because there are other communities where you know the community and the the elected officials kind of like you know, poo-poo on on the educational system that's in their their space, and that's not here.
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_03: And uh you still got that Andrew Ferguson on your board?
• 32:16
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, absolutely.
• 32:17
  SPEAKER_03: He's our vice president.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, we're not allowed to sit together or rotary because there's too many Andes that tend to gather.
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_02: Well, we we gotta talk about Wes here a little bit because we're our community is so lucky that you came back here.
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_02: Wes is an accomplished person.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I've every confidence in you and your position, of course, thank you if that means anything to you.
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_04: It means a lot to me.
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_04: Absolutely.
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_02: But he was a great physics teacher as well.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_02: My kids had him for physics.
• 32:43
  SPEAKER_04: Absolutely.
• 32:43
  SPEAKER_04: I took physics twice.
• 32:46
  SPEAKER_04: Spanish school for seven and a half.
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_04: I took Spanish one twice.
• 32:49
  SPEAKER_03: Well, that's a cost, you know.
• 32:51
  SPEAKER_03: Last night I was watching one at night football, and the guy, the quarterback for the Saints, uh, he had a seven-year career in college playing.
• 32:59
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm like, that's insane.
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_03: Like, I don't care how well you throw a football.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_03: At some point, somebody's got to go, hey dude, like I can't collect ARP benefits and still be going to college.
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_02: So well, congratulations, Wes, on everything from the grade school all the way up.
• 33:13
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I appreciate it.
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_02: All the programs and everything.
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_02: It just seems like there, and I know it is like that, that everybody cares about the kids so much, and they really are wanting them not to just get through and pass tests and get scores.
• 33:27
  SPEAKER_02: They want them to have a really nice life.
• 33:29
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, it's uh I I even felt when I was in high school in the 1980s, you know, I always felt my teachers cared for me.
• 33:36
  SPEAKER_04: And I really think that, you know, my children went through the Clinton schools and they had even a more amazing experience than probably I had.
• 33:43
  SPEAKER_04: And I would say that even a more rigorous up and more opportunities than I had probably when I was in high school.
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_04: So and that's due to a lot of people caring and putting a lot of time and effort into this so that our students do have the those options.
• 33:57
  SPEAKER_03: Well, thank you, Dr.
• 33:58
  SPEAKER_03: Golden, superintendent of Clinton Community School District.
• 34:02
  SPEAKER_03: Again, coming up, not this weekend, the following weekend on the 17th, from 10 a.m.
• 34:07
  SPEAKER_03: to noon.
• 34:08
  SPEAKER_03: You can walk through the new high school.
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, there'll be students there to guide folks and answer questions, and we'll have some refreshments and a ribbon cutting at 11:30.
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_03: Very cool.
• 34:17
  SPEAKER_03: Well, thank you to you, sir, the entire staff at Clinton Community School District, and also the all the River Kings and Queens are doing some amazing things.
• 34:27
  SPEAKER_03: Go.
• 34:28
  SPEAKER_03: Football's been great.
• 34:29
  SPEAKER_03: I I live close to the high school, so I can hear all the play-by-play.
• 34:33
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, literally, like I'm sitting in this in the stadium.
• 34:36
  SPEAKER_03: But it's been cool to watch that team because I remember when I first moved here, they were kind of on the struggle bus a little bit.
• 34:41
  SPEAKER_03: Rebuilding.
• 34:42
  SPEAKER_03: Now they're and they have some studs.
• 34:44
  SPEAKER_03: Uh with the running backs, young man, what's his name?
• 34:47
  SPEAKER_03: Oh gosh, now you're putting me on the spot.
• 34:49
  SPEAKER_04: Um uh uh brain cross.
• 34:51
  SPEAKER_04: I I know I know exactly what you're talking about.
• 34:53
  SPEAKER_04: So does everybody out there.
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_03: Good guy.
• 34:55
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, they've been doing well, and I love seeing you know, KWQC, WQAD, when you watch the local news stations and they do the coverage of the sports, uh, be able in the highlight the River Kings and Queens for all the amazing things they're doing.
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_03: It's just a sense of pride to be able to sit back and go, yeah, that's what I'm talking about.
• 35:09
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah.
• 35:10
  SPEAKER_04: What's what what scares me is that many of those kids who are participating in athletics and sports now are the children of people I had in class.
• 35:18
  SPEAKER_04: So like feel like grandpa here, you know.
• 35:21
  SPEAKER_04: It's so weird.
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_04: What's old man golden doing?
• 35:24
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, he's still there.
• 35:26
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, when I I had when we moved back to town and my kids had conferences, you'd go and it was the same teachers you had, and you're like, but you know, it's just it's kind of weird.
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_03: Some of my dad's siblings were not the best students.
• 35:40
  SPEAKER_03: So when they would hear my name and they'd be like, uh, who's are you?
• 35:44
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and I'd be like, Oh, it's my my dad's Lenny, and they'd be like, Oh, okay.
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_03: All right.
• 35:49
  SPEAKER_03: Because my gym teacher was my dad's football coach, Pete Starr.
• 35:53
  SPEAKER_03: You just sit there and go, pancorn, can corn.
• 35:55
  SPEAKER_03: He throw his baseballs at you and stuff, and he had the knee-high gym socks and the stripes on it.
• 36:01
  SPEAKER_03: And for some reason the socks were incredibly long, but the shorts, not so much.
• 36:04
  SPEAKER_03: Shorts.
• 36:05
  SPEAKER_03: I don't know why they had to do that, but Pete Star was a line.
• 36:07
  SPEAKER_03: I remember all of my coach Hannafin at Lion.
• 36:10
  SPEAKER_04: Remember he was that guy, you know.
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_04: Yes.
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_02: He'd always call you by your dad's uh job.
• 36:15
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 36:16
  SPEAKER_04: Or your address or what did he call you?
• 36:18
  SPEAKER_04: Well, he I had multiple names because uh at when I was in middle school, I moved out to on 16th Street Northwest, so that's where the drive-in was.
• 36:25
  SPEAKER_04: So there's like all the guys and gals who lived on my street were all called drive-in.
• 36:30
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 36:30
  SPEAKER_04: So we'd be walking down the hallway, hey drive in, and we'd all turn around, like, yeah, but then he's like, hey, 906, 6th Avenue South.
• 36:36
  SPEAKER_04: I'm like, how do you know that?
• 36:38
  SPEAKER_04: And not my name.
• 36:38
  SPEAKER_02: You know what he used to call me?
• 36:40
  SPEAKER_02: Prudential.
• 36:40
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I well.
• 36:42
  SPEAKER_03: I'm surprised he didn't call me that night.
• 36:44
  SPEAKER_03: I know that's funny.
• 36:45
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 36:45
  SPEAKER_03: They don't make them like that.
• 36:47
  SPEAKER_03: No, the old crusty gym teachers back in the day.
• 36:52
  SPEAKER_03: All right, everybody.
• 36:53
  SPEAKER_03: Well, thank you so much for tuning in to this 272nd episode of the Grow Clinton Podcast.
• 36:59
  SPEAKER_03: As always, if you want to subscribe, please do so.
• 37:01
  SPEAKER_03: The app will get launched soon.
• 37:04
  SPEAKER_03: I messed up and uh a couple episodes ago, I said download the app, but I didn't realize it takes like a week to two weeks for it to show up on the iTunes or Apple store and the Google Play Store.
• 37:14
  SPEAKER_03: So that's coming soon.
• 37:15
  SPEAKER_03: But right now you can find us wherever you get your podcast.
• 37:17
  SPEAKER_03: Just search Grow Clinton Podcast.
• 37:19
  SPEAKER_03: And as always, we appreciate this uh continued support.
• 37:22
  SPEAKER_03: Until we speak again, folks.
• 37:23
  SPEAKER_03: Stay classy.
• 37:24
  SPEAKER_03: See ya.
• 37:25
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you for listening to the Grow Clinton Podcast.
• 37:28
  SPEAKER_03: Be sure to subscribe and follow us on all your socials.
• 37:31
  SPEAKER_03: Until next time.
• 37:33
  SPEAKER_03: See ya.