Sioux City Community School District board members on July 21 framed student academic achievement — especially English language arts (ELA) and mathematics — as the district’s primary priority and directed staff to return Aug. 25 with updated goals, measurable action steps and clarified financial limits.

The board’s discussion centered on whether to recast the district’s existing 2024–26 strategic priorities so that one clear “North Star” academic goal would guide other pillars such as special education, English-language-learner (ELL) programming, staff recruitment and retention, and financial sustainability. President George opened the work session and later closed by scheduling staff to present revised goals and accountabilities at an August 25 work session.

Why it matters: Board members said a single primary academic focus could concentrate resources and public messaging, while separate staffing and finance priorities would make the district’s commitments and constraints more visible. Board members and staff repeatedly flagged the potential loss of federal grant funding and recommended formal budget language to limit unsustainable general-fund spending.

Discussion highlights

Director Ansterhausen urged concentrating the district’s strategic energy on language arts and mathematics, saying the district should have "one goal. We're a school. We're not a day care center," and argued that stronger ELA performance would help raise math performance as well. He described examples from other Iowa districts that had targeted a single academic priority and reported large gains.

Director Emke and others recommended keeping special education and ELL as major supporting pillars to that primary academic goal. Director Greenwell and Director Mikkelsen cautioned against treating dual-language programming as an unqualified model for districtwide expansion without clearer evidence, while still supporting the program’s continued development.

Dr. Juan Cordova, the district’s new superintendent, urged keeping the academic focus visible and said staffing achievements this spring were notable: "Teachers are very, very difficult to come by," he said, praising the district’s recent hiring.

Staffing and retention

Board members discussed staff recruitment and retention strategies presented by district staff. The presentation reported recent retention figures for instructional staff and teachers: teacher retention rose to 94.1% for the most recent year cited; instructional staff retention was reported near 82%.

Staff described onboarding and mentoring steps implemented this year — including assigning district-level teacher leaders to check in weekly with first-year teachers and arranging additional onboarding sessions for noncertified staff — and said the measures helped raise retention.

Finance and sustainability

Directors emphasized the need for an explicit financial priority tied to sustainable budgeting. Staff member Patty (finance) urged that the general fund expenditure budget be developed using no more than "3.5% of the spending authority reserve balance," language she presented to the board as a specific guardrail.

Board members and staff discussed recent budget projections and the likelihood of declining federal grant dollars in coming years. Board Treasurer/Staff member Dan (finance) recommended treating the financial priority as separate from the academic priority so that financial planning, staffing levels and program offerings can be evaluated against what the district can sustain.

Direction to staff and next steps

President George closed the session by asking the administration to refresh the strategic-priority narrative, align action steps to measurable outcomes and verify the proposed financial language. "We will reconvene another work session on August 25 where Dr. Juan and your team will come and present the ... priorities with the goals and your strategies," President George said.

The board did not take any formal votes during the work session. The board requested that staff return Aug. 25 with updated goals, action steps tied to measurable outcomes, an accountability template used for monthly progress checks, and a clarified description of budget assumptions (including any grant funding that could be paused or reduced).

Ending

Board members signaled broad agreement on priorities while differing on structure: some members favored naming a single academic "North Star" supported by pillars for ELL, special education and staffing; others wanted finance treated distinctly to preserve fiscal sustainability. Staff said they would bring updated language, action steps and budget guardrails to the Aug. 25 work session for board review and further direction.