Creston teachers adapt despite budget constraints

Though budget cuts caused the removal of the Teaching Leadership and Compensation program, CCSD Mentoring Coordinator Paula Jacobson assured Creston School Board members Monday that its sister program is standing strong.

Creston’s Mentoring and Induction Program works with teachers in the first two years of their career to provide them with resources and support. The program also ensures the new teachers are able to adhere to the eight Iowa Teaching Standards.

Creston had eight educators participating in the 2024-25 mentor program, four first-year educators and four second-year educators. Each new educator is paired with another teacher with more experience who serves as the mentor.

“It was a great group; we met eight different times as a whole group and really tried to hone in on those eight Iowa teaching standards; that’s what our foundation is built on. We worked on those things,” Jacobson said. “Things that came up a lot, as it should be, classroom management and discipline. Almost every meeting, we really talked about ideas to help people with issues that come up in class time, ways to keep class time moving, ways to keep kids engaged in class.”

Though this program is often paired directly with the TLC program, which works on education for all teachers, mentoring will continue in the 2025-26 school year without TLC.

“The mentoring program may look a little bit different [next year]. With the TLC program that we’ve had in place, I’ve leaned pretty heavily on the instructional coaches as people that could be out in the middle of the day, watching, helping, modeling, those kinds of things,” Jacobson said. “We won’t have that, per say, but I am hoping that we could maybe keep leaning on the educators that we do have. We have some great people here at the school and hoping that we can just get creative on how we can still provide what we need to provide.”

Jacobson said the upcoming school year will have somewhere between eight and 10 educators in the mentor program, though exact numbers are not yet known.

Once educators and mentors are known, the school district will start making those connections.

“We try to jump in there as soon as we can to let them know that we’re not just here for school and school business, but we want them to be a part of our community and welcome them to Creston,” Jacobson said. “It’s not just about you and your mentor, it’s about your professional learning community; it’s about the teacher that works next to you; it’s about your relationship with your principal. There are lots of circles of support, so we need to lean on everybody.”

In other school board news…

The board approved the master agreements for the CEA and AFSCME, along with compensation adjustments for employees not covered by a collective bargaining agreement.

The 2025-27 CEA master agreement reflects a 3.41% total package increase and an increased cost of $289,797.62 for the 2025-26 budget. The 2025-26 AFSCME master agreement reflects a 5.48% total package increase and a total increase in new costs of $133,297 for the budget.

Salaried non-union employees were approved for a minimum of 3% increase, with a total increase in new costs of $45,988 for the budget. Non-union hourly staff shall receive a $1.00 per hour increase, resulting in an increased cost of $19,670 for the budget. Administrative contracts will receive a 3% increase to their salaries, with a total increase in new costs of $33,476 to the budget.

The board approved the May 2025 list of contracts and resignations:

Resignations: Chad Needham, head MS football coach; Cassidy Thornburg, paraprofessional; Kate Jennett, first grade teacher.

Retirements: Becky Harris, paraprofessional (end of 24-25 school year).

Voluntary transfers: Corina Hoepker, MS social studies teacher (25-26 school year); Ryan Burwell, head girls soccer coach.

Ben Walker, who was originally a part of the reduction in force this year, has been hired back to the position fifth/sixth grade math teacher following other resignations.