School year kicks off with focus on STEM; Commitment to launch Ag/FFA program in 2019

The school year kicks off this week in Clear Lake with renewed commitment to expanding learning opportunities within the district.

Last week Superintendent Doug Gee accepted an $11,500 check from the Teamquest Foundation in support of STEM  (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) programming.

Last year the foundation launched a five-year commitment to supporting STEM in Clear Lake schools with a $15,000 donation.  The funding went to Project Lead the Way, which teaches coding and robotics to students from preschool to fifth grade.

Gee said success in the younger grades has given way to expanding STEM work in the middle and high school.  To that end, Robert Stough has been hired as a new computer science teacher.

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Stough comes to Clear Lake from Missouri, where he taught business two years at St. Joe before teaching at Kearney last year.  At the encouragement of his former high school football coach Troy Tysdahl, who now teaches at CLHS, Stough applied for the new computer science job at Clear Lake.  In addition to teaching, he also joins Tysdahl as an assistant football coach in the CLHS program.

In addition to teaching and coaching, Stough is enrolled in a two-year computer programming certification program at the University of Northern Iowa.  The partially state-funded course demonstrates Iowa’s commitment to STEM.

“Computer science is a growing and aggressive industry and I hope to show kids how they can enjoy a successful career doing things they love,” said Stough.

TeamQuest marketing manager Stacy Doughan added, “We love giving to the school district because they’re bringing up the next generation of leaders, and all of the funds from the TeamQuest Foundation then are going toward the next generation.  As a software company that’s something TeamQuest is passionate about.”

  “We have companies in town like TeamQuest and Kingland Systems who are looking for computer science majors to hire and we’re hoping to support that,” added Gee.  “This is the way kids are growing up— using technology in a variety of ways every day.  We need to provide opportunities for them.  We want them engaged and excited to come to school.”

In addition to STEM, the Clear Lake School District is also excited to be readying an agricultural education program for the 2019-2020 school year.

The district has been actively raising funds to support the new measure and last week accepted a check for $15,000 from Farm Credit Services for the future Clear Lake AG/FFA program.

Gee explained the district hopes to raise $100,000 to $125,000 a year for the first three years of the program.  The funds will go to the teacher salary and benefits, CASE certification, supplies and materials, student travel to statewide and national conventions and competitions.

He said an instructor has not yet been identified, but advertising will likely begin in October with hiring expected by December.

“We feel that it is important to have an AG/FFA program at Clear Lake,” said Gee.  “One out of five students that graduate from our high school will go into an agriculture related field, so we need to provide them some background in those fields.  There is also a tremendous amount of skills that students can learn by being involved in FFA (Future Farmers of America) — skills like leadership, public speaking, interview skills, working with others, presentation skills, money management, starting a business and how to conduct a meeting.

Gee said the district has received almost $60,000 worth of commitments for the first year.  That includes a $10,000 annual commitment from Farm Bureau for the next three years.

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