Latest / WIXN AM 1460 - Shaw Local Radio / Talk Line: Dr. Matthew DeBaene, Superintendent of Morrison Community Unit School District #6 shares the lates from Morrison schools

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Talk Line: Dr. Matthew DeBaene, Superintendent of Morrison Community Unit School District #6 shares the lates from Morrison schools · WIXN AM 1460 - Shaw Local Radio

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  Speaker 1: Welcome back, Waking crew. It's eight thirty six on your
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  Speaker 1: February fourth morning and we're continuing with more talk line today.
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  Speaker 1: I'm joined for the first time on talk line by
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  Speaker 1: Matt Debain for Morrison Schools. Matt, how are you, sir?
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  Speaker 2: Doing well? Thanks for having me. Excited to be.
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  Speaker 1: Here, absolutely happy to have you for the folks at home.
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  Speaker 1: Why don't you just kind of introduce yourself and what
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  Speaker 1: you do over for Morrison Schools.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. Absolutely. My name is doctor Matthew Debain. I am
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  Speaker 2: in my first school year here in the Morrison School District.
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  Speaker 2: I am the proud superintendent of Schools for our district.
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  Speaker 2: I got hired November of twenty twenty four and started
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  Speaker 2: in July first, twenty twenty five. I grew up in
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  Speaker 2: the Quad Cities. I've been a teacher. I've been a
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  Speaker 2: building principal for the last eleven years. I was an
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  Speaker 2: assistant superintendent in the moling Cole Valley School District and
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  Speaker 2: just recently took the plunge over to full superintendency and
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  Speaker 2: I am loving every minute of it. But I also
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  Speaker 2: work in the right district too well.
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  Speaker 1: I'm glad to hear it. Glad you're having such a
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  Speaker 1: good time in the position and they're lucky to have you.
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  Speaker 1: You want to start this morning by sharing some of
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  Speaker 1: the district's goals.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. So the school board, with input from our
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  Speaker 2: staff and we've had input from community members too, we
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  Speaker 2: started this school year off talking about like what type
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  Speaker 2: of goals do we want to end up attacking, and
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  Speaker 2: we put them into three different bucket areas. We call them.
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  Speaker 2: We are morson and the goals and the R being
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  Speaker 2: A for academics, R for relationships and resources, and E
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  Speaker 2: for environment. So for our academic goal, we ended up
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  Speaker 2: taking a real deep look at how we do English
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  Speaker 2: language arts and literacy and how we can improve that
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  Speaker 2: because that's such a fundamental piece for the development of
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  Speaker 2: students and their learning. And so we ended up having
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  Speaker 2: pilot teachers at every level look at entirely new, revamped
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  Speaker 2: English Language Arts curriculum and we saw huge successes with it,
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  Speaker 2: teacher satisfaction, student growth in their reading scores to the
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  Speaker 2: point of like twenty percent greater achievement. Also, the school
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  Speaker 2: board just ended up approving and adopting that curriculum for
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  Speaker 2: grades kindergarten through eighth grade, and they did at our
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  Speaker 2: last school board meeting, so we'll be starting that next
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  Speaker 2: school year. It's a rare it's a rare experience in
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  Speaker 2: my career where you adopt such a massive curriculum. But
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  Speaker 2: it's been so well received by our teachers. Our pilot
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  Speaker 2: teachers were so hard working with it and have really
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  Speaker 2: helped our other teachers. So I'm really excited about that.
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  Speaker 2: At our high school and Junior high we have taken
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  Speaker 2: a really hard look at career pathways. We want to
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  Speaker 2: make them more clear for parents and students and what
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  Speaker 2: options are available to them during their career as a
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  Speaker 2: student in the Morrison School District. And so we have
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  Speaker 2: revamped our course catalog at the high school to reflect that.
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  Speaker 2: We have adjusted the schedule to also support students so
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  Speaker 2: that they can maximize the options in front of them.
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  Speaker 2: And we're currently registering students at the high school for
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  Speaker 2: next year so that they can have the most amount
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  Speaker 2: of opportunities in front of them. So we've got great
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  Speaker 2: partnerships with Soalk Valley Community College and M. I. T.
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  Speaker 2: Clinton Community College, the ro OE, and we also offer
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  Speaker 2: like advanced placement courses and dual credit through like Sock
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  Speaker 2: Valley Community college. So we're really excited about what we're
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  Speaker 2: doing on the academic side.
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  Speaker 1: Now that that is great news and some great local partnerships.
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  Speaker 1: The Morrison Institute is such a fantastic school and really
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  Speaker 1: I think a hidden gym in the Morrison area that
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  Speaker 1: more people really need to know about those partnerships with
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  Speaker 1: SoC So before I was a DJ, I was a
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  Speaker 1: reporter for Shaw and got to do stories on a
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  Speaker 1: lot of these organizations you're talking about, and it's just
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  Speaker 1: a phenomenal wealth of resources available to these students. And
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  Speaker 1: what's really good about what you guys are doing is
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  Speaker 1: that I've noticed with my own kids as they got
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  Speaker 1: olders that high school time, you know they're getting close,
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  Speaker 1: especially once you're getting closer to graduating, you know, they
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  Speaker 1: kind of feel lost if they haven't already kind of
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  Speaker 1: chosen some kind of track to start exploring.
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  Speaker 2: Right, correct, You are one hundred percent correct, And I
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  Speaker 2: have to give a lot of kudos to our junior
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  Speaker 2: high for recognizing that not not only just our high
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  Speaker 2: school recognizing the fact that you just stated, but our
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  Speaker 2: junior high too. And so to avoid students being lost,
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  Speaker 2: as you had said, we want to make sure that
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  Speaker 2: they are exposed to all their options as early as
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  Speaker 2: they can, and we believe that actually happens in the
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  Speaker 2: junior high yesh that way, we can end up getting
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  Speaker 2: pathways and opportunities in front of them in high school
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  Speaker 2: and really refine that, we have a mantra that if
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  Speaker 2: a student gets to end up experiencing some pathway and
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  Speaker 2: says I hate that, don't want to be that, that's
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  Speaker 2: a win because they're not going to end up going
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  Speaker 2: down a dead end road in regards to that. So
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  Speaker 2: in that same vein one thing we're starting with the
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  Speaker 2: we have a partnership now with the Socbllity SoC Valley,
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  Speaker 2: the Chamber of Commerce. Is they've had traditionally a high
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  Speaker 2: school program where they come in with partnerships from business
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  Speaker 2: community and they do education and provide a certificate of
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  Speaker 2: employability once students have completed the program. Well, we just
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  Speaker 2: completed the planning for a partnership that we're now going
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  Speaker 2: to implement where we're going to start doing that at
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  Speaker 2: the eighth grade level, so our eighth graders will go
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  Speaker 2: through that program and already have that certificate of employability
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  Speaker 2: so that they know some soft skills and be better
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  Speaker 2: refined and better prepared for even just initially working in
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  Speaker 2: our community, which starts building those experiences.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, and you know, that's it's really important because I
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  Speaker 1: don't think these kids realize they think they're just going
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  Speaker 1: part of the program, but they're they're getting used to
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  Speaker 1: doing what they're going to be doing when they're leaving school.
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  Speaker 1: And so you know, by by having done some of
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  Speaker 1: this this work now and having these experiences, like they're
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  Speaker 1: they're already ready and they're it's just not as nerve
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  Speaker 1: wracking once you get out in the real world after
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  Speaker 1: high school.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. Right, And you know that's the whole whole piece too,
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  Speaker 2: is that if we can end up allowing them to
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  Speaker 2: so they have a safety net with us where they
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  Speaker 2: can have those experiences, we can coach them through and refine,
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  Speaker 2: you go again, those soft skills again them prepared that
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  Speaker 2: that's going to be all in their favor, and we're
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  Speaker 2: happy to do.
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  Speaker 1: That, you know, and this leads me to just kind
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  Speaker 1: of curious, are are you guys partnered at all through
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  Speaker 1: the Impact program?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah? Yeah, we are absolutely partnered through the Impact Program.
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  Speaker 2: That's been wonderful for us and our students. We've just
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  Speaker 2: seen a lot of opportunities open up, and it's amazing
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  Speaker 2: that students can end up having that opportunity regionally and
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  Speaker 2: then be able to translate that into whatever type of
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  Speaker 2: training they want to end up conducting for what's going
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  Speaker 2: to happen in their future.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, it's wonderful absolutely. Parents, if you have a
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  Speaker 1: student in the Morrison School District, even if they're not
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  Speaker 1: old enough for the Impact program yet, I highly suggest
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  Speaker 1: you check it out. This ties into everything we're talking
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  Speaker 1: about today and can really help set your child up
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  Speaker 1: ahead of time. So I'm really glad to hear that
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  Speaker 1: Morrison is part of that program. What else did you
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  Speaker 1: want to share out of Morrison today, Matt, Well.
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  Speaker 2: You know, we also have been working a whole lot
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  Speaker 2: on our communication and our facilities, so we have introduced
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  Speaker 2: to our parents around the first of this year. We
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  Speaker 2: end up streamlining how we do communication to make sure
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  Speaker 2: that parents know that this is how the district's communicating
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  Speaker 2: with the classroom and the school. We live in a
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  Speaker 2: great time in many ways with technology and ways to communicate,
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  Speaker 2: but sometimes that means like there's multiple apps and multiple
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  Speaker 2: passwords that you might need to know. So we sat
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  Speaker 2: down in as administrative team in schools and just said,
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  Speaker 2: let's make this simple for our parents. So we try
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  Speaker 2: to end up making it that parents just have to
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  Speaker 2: know that there's a few different modalities that we utilize
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  Speaker 2: for communication so that it's clear and then you're not
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  Speaker 2: downloading a bunch of apps or a budget different passwords
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  Speaker 2: or looking at a million different directions for communication. It's
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  Speaker 2: been well received and we're happy to do that. The
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  Speaker 2: other big thing that we're doing is a lot of
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  Speaker 2: facility work, and we have a lot of times school
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  Speaker 2: facility work happens over the summer, but we have taken
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  Speaker 2: upon ourselves that anytime that we can to start improving
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  Speaker 2: some of our facilities, we've been doing that now. So
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  Speaker 2: we had replaced old skylights and soffits at the Junior
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  Speaker 2: high We've reserved just playground spaces. We've done roof repair,
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  Speaker 2: we've done electrical repair, we've done upgrades to fire and
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  Speaker 2: safety prevention items, lighting, and then this summer we're taking
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  Speaker 2: an eye to a large scope of what we can
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  Speaker 2: do to improve the infrastructure for our building and grounds
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  Speaker 2: and make it such that we have a really good
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  Speaker 2: backbone so that all of our facilities really are strong
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  Speaker 2: and future proof.
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  Speaker 1: Yep, and always important. That's always something that that seems
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  Speaker 1: to be on school's mind is making sure you're you're
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  Speaker 1: ahead of the game when it comes to those facilities,
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  Speaker 1: rather than being reactive to it, right right, Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: Because it's a it's a huge investment.
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  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, absolutely. Sometimes I think folks kind of forget
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  Speaker 1: just how how costly some of those things can be
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  Speaker 1: and why you know, they have to be planned for
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  Speaker 1: and can all happen, you know, all at once. So
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  Speaker 1: that's one of great Oh, we've we've got a couple
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  Speaker 1: of minutes. Was there anything else you wanted to share?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I wanted to share one last thing, and I
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  Speaker 2: think it I think it ties in with the Impact
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  Speaker 2: program and just thinking about future opportunities for students. We
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  Speaker 2: we created a program here this year called investing in
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  Speaker 2: our Own And the notion as it strikes me as
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  Speaker 2: working in schools for so many years, is that any
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  Speaker 2: school district is always a large employer in any area,
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  Speaker 2: and we employ not just teachers and administration, but a
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  Speaker 2: ministry of assistance, custodial maintenance, social workers, therapists, all sorts,
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  Speaker 2: and so our notion as administration sat down with with
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  Speaker 2: people from our union groups was that how can we
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  Speaker 2: improve the applicants that we have in the district and
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  Speaker 2: at the same time grow grow our population locally of
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  Speaker 2: who we hire. So we ended up coming up with
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  Speaker 2: a notion that we can verify anyone who's a Morrison
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  Speaker 2: graduate as being high quality, and so we launched where
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  Speaker 2: for our upperclassmen, if you're interested in any field that
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  Speaker 2: Morrison School District employees, we want to end up connecting
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  Speaker 2: with you. So they do a very brief application process
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  Speaker 2: where they just let us know how we can reach
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  Speaker 2: them outside of school when they graduate, what they're interested
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  Speaker 2: in that we employ, and then if they ever want
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  Speaker 2: to end up having mentoring along the way shadowing be
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  Speaker 2: able to connect with one of our staff members just
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  Speaker 2: to ask questions about their chosen career path, we will
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  Speaker 2: set someone up with them. And then once they complete
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  Speaker 2: certification training and a position has opened in our district,
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  Speaker 2: if they've indicated that they want end up coming back,
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  Speaker 2: we will give that graduate an automatic interview. And we
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  Speaker 2: just launched that and we already have eight applicants wanting
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  Speaker 2: to come back to be teachers for.
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  Speaker 1: A district's fantastic Yes.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, and our in meeting with our union yesterday they
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  Speaker 2: stepped up and said, you know, we have a scholarship
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  Speaker 2: that we like to do for upcoming teachers, and we'd
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  Speaker 2: like to tie that in with investing in our own
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  Speaker 2: for these students who want to come back for us.
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  Speaker 2: And I'm really proud of that. And this is a
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  Speaker 2: collaboration with our union group and administration. To be able
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  Speaker 2: to focus on students first is really powerful. So I'm
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  Speaker 2: really proud of the district I'm working in, and there's
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  Speaker 2: great things happening and even better things to come.
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  Speaker 1: Well, I can't wait to have you back on the
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  Speaker 1: show to give us more updates about all the fantastic
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  Speaker 1: work that you folks are doing over there at the school.
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  Speaker 1: So Matthew, thank you so much for all that you
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  Speaker 1: do and for coming on the show and sharing all
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  Speaker 1: this great information.
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  Speaker 2: Sir, thank you, and thanks for having me. Can't wait
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  Speaker 2: for another time, My pleasure