MCSA, the place where I work, is awash today in donated Easter Baskets filled with candy and other snacks. All of it was donated by the Catholic community in Muscatine.
Their generosity is incredible. After all, there are 44 of the baskets for MCSA residents.
Unfortunately — and I say that because it’s 4:30 in the afternoon, witching hour for this snack addict — there were plenty of leftovers that have been tempting me. So far, I’ve settled for an apple.
Bill Decker
In an email this morning to staff members, Muscatine Community School District Superintendent Bill Decker said he will leave to become chief administrator at the Mississippi Bend Area Education Agency in Bettendorf on July 1. The Muscatine school board tonight is expected to release Decker from his contract.
Decker has been superintendent in Muscatine since 2009. During his time here, the district launched a number of new educational programs including Global Generation, or G2. The hands-on learning program for Muscatine middle and high school students calls for students to work in teams to solve problems and create class projects. The Muscatine program has been studied by some state officials who would like to introduce it statewide.
The following is a copy of the letter Decker sent to school staff members:
Dear Muscatine Community School District Staff Members:
This note is to inform you that I have been offered the position of Chief Administrator at the Mississippi Bend Area Education Agency in Bettendorf, Iowa beginning July 1, 2013. Pending release by the Muscatine School Board this evening, I plan to accept that offer. While I am looking forward to new challenges and have been given an awesome opportunity at the AEA, I will deeply miss our continuous progress. I will miss working directly with all of you, as you are an incredible staff.
The hard work of the staff to make the district a better, more effective place for students has been appreciated. I have been fortunate to work with each of you, and the effort of all of us working together as a team is the key to many substantial improvements becoming reality in the last four years. Each of you plays an important role in making the MCSD an exceptional place for students!
One of the most appealing aspects of my appointment to the AEA position is the fact that my family and I can remain living here in Muscatine. I am passionate about our community and also for continuing the work in the district of making substantial improvements in results for students. I have assured the board that I will do everything I can to enable a successful transition, and will also continue to serve in any productive way possible into the future.
I have been honored and privileged to serve as Superintendent here in Muscatine. Community support, efforts of many great people, and incredible care and passion for students are on display in our district every day. It is truly amazing and inspiring. The administrative team and directors are some of the most dedicated, professional and kid-centered groups I have ever been associated with. Please continue working together and continuously improving for the good of our students and community.
In my heart, I will always be a Muskie!
Sincerely,
Bill Decker
The annual subscription was coming due soon for the bromehill.com domain name, so I made the payment this past week.
Bromehill.com will live on for at least another year.
It’s difficult to believe this blog recently passed its first birthday, but the occasion seems like a good opportunity to answer the question I am often asked: What is Brome Hill?
I’ve written about this before. Brome Hill was a place on the farm where I grew up. It was named after the type of grass that grew well on that old hill. And it symbolized how stubborn my dad could be when he thought he was right. It also showed how willing he was to try new things such as no-till farming, which he first did on Brome Hill years before it became common everywhere.
But today, I’m sharing another story about grass. And this grass is anything but new.
When I really started writing this blog, I was out of work and had lots of spare time to hang out at Harper’s Cycling & Fitness. Since going to work last fall at Muscatine Center for Social Action, I don’t spend as much time at the bike shop. But I got done at work early Friday — a day that, unfortunately, was still too cold to go biking.
And in my book, if you get done working a little early on a Friday afternoon in the spring and it’s too cold to go biking, hanging out at the bike shop is the next-best thing. Because it was getting to be late enough in the afternoon by the time I got there, the first thing owner Charlie Harper handed me when I stepped back behind the work benches was a Busch Light. Then, he handed me an old Ball jar filled with seeds that looked kind of like old, black BBs.
“That’s older than you are,” Charlie said of the jar, which he had kept somewhere in the shop. And this came as no surprise because the back corners of the shop are filled with stuff Charlie has been collecting for years … old bikes, chainsaw parts and the like.
The jar, he said, was filled with Crown Vetch seed. He has had it since he studied agriculture at Muscatine High School in the early 1950s. So the 60-year-old seed is older than I am.
But the Crown Vetch released more farm-boy memories. My folks built a number of terraces, sloughs, ponds and other erosion control features. I don’t remember exactly how it worked, but I’m sure they got government money to help pay for some of the work. And Crown Vetch is what I remember helping seed in the terraces to help prevent soil erosion.
It’s just a good thing Charlie didn’t show me that jar of seed at this time last year. Personally, I think Brome Hill is a better name for the blog than Crown Vetch would have been.
Pork. The Other White Meat was on the menu Saturday night.
After an afternoon of judging at the National Forensic League’s Eastern Iowa District Congress tournament at West Middle School in Muscatine, I was in the mood to fix dinner at home. More on the tournament in a bit.
I headed to the newly remodeled Hy-Vee, where I bought some asparagus, potatoes and two pork chops rolled and stuffed with apples and raisin. I brought it all home, baked the chops and the potatoes, steamed the asparagus and sauteed some onion, a red pepper and a green apple. If I say so myself, it was pretty good. Thanks to the staff at the Hy-Vee meat counter for recommending the pork chops, which were on sale for $2 each.
The other NFL …
Let me just say, there are some smart high school students in southeast Iowa.
Back in the day, my high school did not have a forensics team. Or, at least if it did, I didn’t participate. So I didn’t really know what I was getting into when Anna Payne, a math teacher and the head forensics coach at Muscatine High School, asked earlier in the week if I would help judge.
But from 1:15 to 4:15 p.m., there I sat, listening to a dozen or so students debate bills they had written on subjects ranging from a proposed tax on heavily caffeinated beverages to increased aid to Nigeria to help the African nation improve its water supply.
I judged alongside the forensics coach from Columbus Junction High School, and the coach from Burlington High School, who oversaw the whole exercise. My old reporter skills have really slipped, because I didn’t write down either of their names and now I don’t remember them. But I’d like to thank them for their patience while I figured out what the heck I was doing.
It’s safe to say I may have learned more today than many of the students did. They were an impressive bunch.
