Forensic science is one of a handful of new classes being offered that are rooted in the interests of teachers and students alike, according to Brian Johnson, the district’s superintendent.

“We’re always working to improve our curriculum resources to move forward with helping our kids,” he said.

The new classes debuted during the 2022-2023 academic year and are continuing into the current one. In addition to forensic science, they include advanced biology, an English class that Johnson said enables students to “zone in” on types of literature not usually studied in high school, and a math class that integrates algebra and geometry.

For most of those classes there are some prerequisite courses students have to complete before signing up for the new ones.

-Photo courtesy of Mark Campbell
Southeast Valley Middle School students received a tour of the North Central Iowa Regional Solid Waste Agency Recycling Center after giving the Webster County Board of Supervisors a presentation on littering on May 23, 2023.

“From the staff’s point of view, it was exciting,” Johnson said. “It is good any time we put more options in front of students.”

A welding apprenticeship program was started in the last school year in conjunction with John Deere. Johnson said two students worked at the farm equipment manufacturer’s plant in Paton alongside professional welders, He said the students worked part-time while taking classes.

The district wants to expand the apprenticeship program.

“This is a way to move forward with more career and technical education,” Johnson said.

Welders, he said, are in demand and can earn good wages. The apprenticeship program, he said, is a way of growing the local welding workforce.

-Photo courtesy of Mark Campbell
Southeast Valley Middle School students received a tour of the North Central Iowa Regional Solid Waste Agency landfill after giving the Webster County Board of Supervisors a presentation on littering on May 23, 2023.

“It’s just a way of growing our own,” Johnson said.

In the current school year, Southeast Valley began an agriculture program for middle school students. It also established a middle school section of Central Plains FFA.

Toward the end of the 2022-2023 school year, some Southeast Valley Middle School students did something a lot of their adult neighbors may have never done: they made a public presentation to the Webster County Board of Supervisors about an issue that concerns them. The issue was littering. To highlight their presentation, the students brought along a black garbage bag full of litter they picked up. Following the board meeting, the students were given a tour of the North Central Iowa Regional Solid Waste Agency facilities.

During 2023, a significant building project was completed at the middle school in Burnside. A new roof and a new gymnasium floor were installed. Johnson said the work was done, in part, to repair storm damage.

There are no major building projects planned for 2024. Johnson said there are a lot of small projects planned, all of which are intended to improve security in the school buildings.

In the fall of 2023, voters in the school district renewed its physical plant and equipment levy for another 10 years. That is a property tax of $1 per $1,000 of taxable value. It generates about $945,000 a year for building projects and equipment purchases.