Journal Tribune, The (Newspaper) - October 9, 1986, Williamsburg, Iowa The Williamsburg Journal Trib n i w T I I I M i I I 111 V T a T EH T 0 R I C A L E1 E P M E k1 S P A P E R L E R A R Y E AND GRAND AVE Pi M n T fJ P i o 1 Q Champion Page Sports An MPC Newspaper 88 41 1986 Hispanic Students Learn By Doing By Man Stove Total physical Thats the way Patrick a bilingual education teacher for nine weeks in the Williamsburg community des his approach to teaching Eng lish to two Hispanic children from Lourdes a fourth and her a third who are going to school this fall at the but speak no Eng The girls are daughters of the Enrique Hernadez who are working for Holdens Foundation Shoemakers approach is for the children to learn by He asks them to pass a ball back and tell ing them to bounce or kick and to place it in certain areas around the room such as under a table or He also asks them to close their eyes and move around the room to his com teaching them the English words stop and What might seem idle exercises relate directly to what they are study he noting kicking or ing a ball prepares them for physical education and instructions given in English by an instructor who only speaks In Context There are a lot of contextual connec tions in the way he said Shoe noting the students learn not only new but also how they are used in various For they can pick up the difference between right as a and right as a correct answer through the contexts in which they are He added they dorft have to equate clock with the Spanish word forelock he can just point to it and call it a and they can learn thats what it is He added they also dont have Vie adult skills to equate a word in Spanish with an English word with the same Involving them in listening and then doing also sharpens their and the action gives a context that makes it he i 5 Asked what difficult two to Shoemaker noted physical education and mathematics are the as they already understand the it merely becomes a matter of However social studies and science are two subjects where the stu dents are continually exposed to new concepts as well as a new so these are harder subjects to In those he tutors them pri vately in he also introduces them to social studies con in the English practice For he was seen asking them in English to point to the continents of the world on a globe during one of their practice Background Shoemaker has taught bilingual edu cation in for the past three Coming to Iowa this year with his Paula who has become the coordinator of the second year Spanish program at the University of Born in Shoemaker grew up in Pasadena where he finished high He then went on to get a bachelors degree in Spanish from Dartmouth Han and was a graduate student in Spanish and Portugese at the Univer sity of before going back to Pasadena while his wife sought her doctorate at the University of I got into bilingual education in a roundabout he noting he had wanted to teach Spanish literature college but took the bilin igual teaching job so he could remain involved with He noted his desire is to continue working with Span adding there is a shortage of bilin gual education because it takes a long time for a teacher to become fluent in a second and its hard to get persons who are already bilingual to become Asked how he felt about a current move to make English the official lan now a controversial issue in Shoemaker said he proposed law is as the majority of Hispanics realize that Eng lish is the language in which everyday transactions are and is the lan guage of the media in this He doesnt see nonEnglish speaking per sons resisting learning except for perhaps the Student Reaction students have been supportive of the girls efforts in school and several have befriended Asked what he felt Williamsburg children from the experience of having Hispanic stu dents in they realize although people speak a differ ent they are basically the Lourdes and Edith point out continents on globe to show their understanding of English to Patrick a bilingual education teacher in the Williamsburg schools for nine In teaching the two who are from Shoemaker noted he tutors them in Spanish where new concepts make it difficult for them to learn in and has them practice their English in school situations where they do under stand so they can more readily follow along with their English speaking County Is Offered Rural Addressing System The Iowa county supervisors were offered an emergency rural addressing free of at their That offer was made by Kenneth state 911 tor for the states Division of Communi a part of the Department of General Hartman noted his job is to develop such emergency rural addressing sys tems and conduct cost studies for implementing enhanced 911 emer gency telephone systems in Iowa coun He explained his work is funded under a grant from the Federal Emer gency Management Administration He had been asked to meet with the supervisors by Iowa county Emergency Services director Larry he told the The purpose of an emergency rural addressing system is to make it easier for law fire and emer gency medical personnel to find rural thus cutting down their response he Such a system would be necessary for imple menting an enhanced 911 telephone system but could still be used if the telephone system werent How Done Beginning at the west edge of the Hartman he would give northsouth roads within the first mile names beginning with A give roads within the second mile names begin ning with B give roads within the third mile names beginning with and so starting from the southern edge of the county and going north Hartman noted he would number eastwest beginning with 100 in the first 110 in the second and so going through 360 on the northern county Hartman asked supervisor Bob Buelow to describe where he and after he gave a detailed description of where to go and which ways to turn to reach his farm northeast of Hartman pointed out with a rural addressing system it would be easier to say that he lived at the intersection of street and Plymouth as he lived in the mile from the south edge of the and in the mile from the west edge of the in which roads would be given names beginning with He added individual houses would be numbered as they are in Thats just a starting point docu said noting other names could be incorporated into the such as common names for certain even if they didnt fit within the labeling Hartman noted without installing a 911 telephone the supervisors could still make the addressing system useful to everyone by installing street signs at county road He commented that Marshall county had done going through the road but having Job Corps per perform the thus keeping the cost down to around He estimated it would have cost around to if the secondary roads personnel had performed the labor Even if they didnt sign the he said they could still train law enforce fire and emergency medical per to know the They would then be better able to direct other emergency personnel to a he Im funded by the federal govern so your cost is he said of his setting up the addressing 911 System In addition to developing the rural addressing Hartman noted he would also conduct a cost study installing an enhanced 911 system in the and include an implemen tation These are services funded by the FEMA he With an enhanced 911 emergency telephone he noted when a call was received by the central the callers address would be imme called up on a computer screen in front of the thus making it easier and faster to direct emergency personnel to that It eliminates bomb threats he noting in 85 percent of the times a bomb threat has been called into an enhanced 911 law enforcement personnel have captured the caller before he could leave the He added it also helped nate other threatening He added some 911 systems being marketed allowed comments to be added to the thus denoting that a handicapped person lived or that hazardous chemicals were stored to let emergency per know with what theyd be Enhanced 911 saves said noting he could document cases where persons would have died if it had not been for the enhanced 911 phone I think its critically important that the state have an enhanced 911 he The state legislature has set up a commis sion to study implementing a statewide 911 system and how to fund he saying he believed the commis sion would recommend funneling money back to the counties for such In making his cost Hartman noted he would not make dations about which system to but he would only tell the advantages and disadvantages of and give a recommendation about which operated better if asked for such a He would not dis cuss rough figures about what such a system would saying he would only discuss costs after making his There are so many 911 systems on the costs are nose he Hartman noted he is making similar studies for 29 other and said five enhanced 911 systems would be operational by the first of the the closest being in Cedar Rapids and Mar To prepare his report for Iowa county would take 90 to 120 he The supervisors took no action on his but they took it for further consideration at thei r Board Of Review Rescinds Previous Ag Land Reduction Fox Contracting Wins Amana Street Project The Iowa county board of review met last and rescinded its action taken in May to reduce agri cultural property valuations by per That action came about because of an order by the Iowa Department of Revenue and Finance which rescinded the local boards and called on the board to reconvene and recon sider its The Revenue department called for agricultural property values to be only reduced by according to its productivity The board of review decided last May that information for Iowa county used in the states productivity formula for Belting the 1985 agricultural value was inconsistent with surrounding coun specifically the pricing of grain and listing of acres which were contested in a hearing before the Department of Revenue in the fall of said a letter signed by board of review chairman Everett Willi sent the Revenue depart ment following the boards May Their decision to land values by percent was contrary to advice given them at the time by county asses sor Don the Iowa county Farm Bureau and Adams county assessor Richard all of whom had recommended at the time reduc ing land values by about 5 based on their calculations of the states productivity The Department of Revenue and Finance subsequently requested 12 that the county board of review pro vide specific data to support its deter of the change in agricultural values for They the local board of review were asked to prove their case in agreed what the county supplied the state department on 25 didnt constitute specific factual information supporting its determination of the the states order By the Department of Revenue reached their determination that ag land values should be reduced only by In addition to being asked to recon sider their decision to reduce ral land the board of review was also asked to reconsider the individual appeals that were approved at the boards May The board let stand the individual adjustments made at that Langlas noted that was not a point of conflict with the Department of Revenue and Langlas added agricultural land values dropped by percent from 1985 to because the states pro formula now considers data for the five years 1980 to rather than from 1979 to And hope fully as we drop off the better years and add the poorer it should con he Fox Contracting was awarded the contract for paving First Street south in the street behind the Ox Yoke Inn and Ronneburg when the Iowa county supervisors opened bids at their meet ing The Fox bid was for the square yards of class C seven inch paving and earth shoulder con just below the next low which bid Allied Construction com Charles bid on the County engineer Don Torney at first expressed reservations about Fox com the work yet this as Fox was behind schedule in completing the repaving of highway 149 through Willi he noted Fox was on the states list of approved Fox Contracting owner James Fox appeared at the supervisors meeting shortly and answered super visors concerns that he understood the stipulations involved requiring that the work be done within 20 working and that included curing He said if he was awarded the bid he planned to start moving dirt by and would pave the street He admitted hed gotten behind schedule on the Williamsburg but he said tnat was because of change orders which involved nearly all hand I see no reason not to go ahead if he said In other business the supervisors Scheduled a meeting with the Rural Iowa Property Taxpayers of Iowa county for Friday at president Loyel rural Nor noted the purpose of the meeting was for them to learn more about the operation of county and for them to have input into the budget process for the 198788 fiscal Teachers Ask Base Raise A or percent base pay a change in language regarding how teachers are to be evaluated and a per student increase in supplemental pay for driver education instructors were the requests made by Williams burg teachers in the first round of nego on the 19861987 master contract which wece held last Thurs The total package increase including the base raise from to plus benefits and supplemental salary schedule for extracurricular was esti mated by the teachers to cost an percent increase over the that this years package was projected to The change in language describing how teachers are to be evaluated was proposed to clarify existing put it into a logical sequence and to include an evaluation form in the mas ter said teachers chief nego Beverly She said they werent unhappy with the present eva New language called for the evalua tion procedure to provide assistance and resources for improvement of course and for teachers to be evaluated in consideration of his or her education and training in relation to the courses being taught his or her knowl edge of the subject as compared with others teaching the same subject or and how effectively he or she was conveying information the The teachers asked that no evalua tion take place during the final week of the school and that evaluation observations be scheduled so as to show the variety of courses taught by each They also asked the administration to establish an evaluation instrument review committee to review the form used for evaluations and make changes where The teachers asked that the committee consist of the building administrators and faculty from each of four areas lower upper junior These would be the same persons that now compose an The raise in pay requested for driver education instructors would make the amount paid per up from now Letter In a letter submitted with their the Williamsburg Education Association in order to have a quality we must have upto date materials and supplies but most important we must attract the most capa ble people to the teaching profession and we must retain those in the The letter stated that the national average starting teachers salary was for while the Iowa average was percent below the national The letter added the national average teachers salary was as compared with for which was also lower than the average salary in surrounding Their letter noted the average teachers salary was in Minne in Wisconsin and in Six of the states that border Iowa either held their own or improved in national rankings last the letter Iowa was in last place with only a percent increase in average teachers percent below the average percent of neighboring It added for the first time even Mis souri teachers received higher average salaries than Iowa although did not say what Missouris average teachers salary We realize that money supply is an important the letter In the past seven years the state of Iowa cut local funding six times for a total of and these cuts have devastated school programs and precipitated the firing of teachers and support personnel in the 1982 school year It seems that the state has been trying to bal ance its budget by cutting school The letter concluded by calling on school board administrators and community members to join them in their efforts to provide excellence in Our youth are our most val the letter Without their full we cannot hope to keep our nation The two parties agreed to set the second negotiation where the administration will present its counter for at Index Upcoming Family Church Public For The Football Contest The Weekly Pages Plus One Supplement
