Ames School Board hears report on goals, new online learning options

School may have let out for the summer, but the Ames School Board met Monday to review how goals for the previous school year were met, new online learning options that will begin as soon as this fall.

Ames schools exceeds some goals, doesn’t meet others set for previous school year

For the 2024-25 school year, goals across the Ames Community School District for attendance, academic achievement, school climate and suspensions and use of restraint against students were put in place to see how the district can improve going forward.

Attendance: Goals of increasing attendance and decreasing chronic absenteeism were met, according to data presented by Jeff Hawkins, associate superintendent.

2023-24: 92% attendance rate / 31.7% chronic absenteeism
2024-25: 93.5% / 22.4%

Academic achievement: ACSD aimed to increase English and language arts and mathematics growth on the Iowa Statewide Assessment of Student Progress (ISASP), but fell short, according to data presented by Hawkins.

English and language arts assessment / mathematics

2024: 53.9% of students met the mark / 56.6%
2025: 52.2% / 59.2%

The ACSD Development of Academic Instructional Leadership Team will work on strategies on how to increase the growth rates in August.

School climate: The Conditions for Learning Survey is taken by students to assess the climate of the school. ACSD aimed to increase positive responses from students.

2024: 2,559 students (71.6% of the district) responded to the survey
2025: 568 students responded

The district correlates the decline in response rate to the survey no longer being required by the state of Iowa as of April 2025 and the need for parental permission to take the survey.

Despite the decrease in survey participation, ACSD saw increased positive results for questions such as “My teachers care about me” and “My classmates are kind to each other” in ACSD elementary schools, as well as “Students in this school respect each other’s differences” in ACSD secondary schools, and “I feel safe at school” at all schools.

Suspension and student restraint: ACSD aimed to decrease suspensions and use of student restraint in the 2024-2025 school year, but both saw increases, according to data presented by Hawkins.

2023-24: 462 suspensions
2024-25: 464 suspensions

Usage of restraint against students, such as restricting arm and leg movement, increased significantly — 41.9%.

2023-24: 462 instances
2024-25: 656 instances

ACSD to offer new online learning options in 2025-26 school year

Edmentum, an online schooling provider, will be part of the 2025-26 curriculum for ACSD after the board voted 5 to 1 to obtain 12 enrollment subscription licenses for online learning courses at a cost of $37,500, according to a file attached to the meeting agenda.

Brett Becker was the only board member opposed.

Hawkins presented the plan to integrate Edmentum online courses, which would include online courses available to students enrolled in the district with flexible timelines, and individual pace and plans for each student.

“Not all of that means it will be asynchronous,” Hawkins said. “There’s live sessions offered in every class, and live online support for those classes.”

“I think it’s great for students who need different environments,” said Angie DeWaard, school board member.

The decision to have an online learning option comes after ACSD implemented Edgenuity, another online learning service provider, in 2021. The school discontinued the use of the program shortly after due to poor results, schold board member Amy Erica Smith recalled.

“There may be students who need to do this and they don’t have a choice to be in the classroom,” she said. “I’m still concerned that we did discontinue (Edgenuity).”

“There was no time for planning or thought,” replied Sabrina Shields-Cook, vice president of the school board. “When we brought that on initially in COVID, it was just like, ‘here’s this thing because we have this need. We just have to meet this need because we want to be online for COVID.’”

The decision to bring back online learning as an option for students comes as a way to “provide the education we promise(d),” the students of ASCD, added Kelly Winfrey, school board president.

“Let’s provide what our students need in order to be successful,” she said. “This provides another opportunity, and perhaps keeps them within the district and connected to the district.”

The schools expect to have online learning options through Edmentum to be available for class registration for the 2026-27 school year.

Once the contract with Edmentum is approved and signed, how students will be placed into the program will be determined and in-need students will be identified in the 2025 fall semester. ACSD will apply for acceptance from the Iowa Department of Education and expects to be approved to serve open-enrolled students in the fall 2025 semester.

Also noteworthy

A comprehensive technology upgrade to the ACSD School Board room ($76,553) consisting of two televisions, wireless microphones and new control system under a two-year service agreement will replace technology installed in 2015. It will be installed in the fall of 2025.
13 new staff members will join the ACSD in the upcoming school year. 21 staffers resigned after the 2024-25 school year and seven retired.
$1,500 worth of books were donated to Fellows Elementary and Ames Middle School from the ISU sorority Pi Beta Phi.
Completed kindergarten enrollment for the upcoming school year is lower than previous years (275 versus 323 last year).
The agreement with First Student, the district’s new school bus transportation service, was amended to have 169 days of operation, 10 less buses and an increase from 4-hour to 6-hour rates for drivers and to separate regular education and special education routes.
ACSD’s EMC insurance premium will increase from $984,724 to $1,429,292 in renewal.
$31,958 will be allocated for playground equipment repair at Meeker Elementary from Boland Recreation.