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A Q&A with Superintendent John Cain

Superintendent John Cain.

What do you see as some of STC’s biggest accomplishments under your leadership?

Cain’s Top Dozen

We are transitioning our Board Policy to align with the Iowa Association of School Boards. This is tedious, time consuming work but important work.

The District has received over $300,000 in grants over the last two years. This has allowed us to further engage in social emotional learning, enhance our summer school and after school programming that we would not have been able to capitalize on. In addition, we have added to our library of learning resources for students.

We hired a curriculum director so that we can focus on the difficult work of student achievement and student services.

We are making great progress on and moving along with the middle school project, as well as being on time.

Many of our teachers have completed year I of LETRS and are engaged in year II. This is an excellent research based process to assist literacy learners.

We reduced 1.2 million dollars from our budget and did not impact reducing a single staff member.

We moved from ZERO operational sharing to the state maximum of 21 FTE. This has enhanced our productivity and saved the District several thousands of dollars.

Our South Tama School Board has qualified for our second annual state Board Achievement Award and we had not accomplished this previously. This means our board members are dedicating hours of their personal time to support the school district and support their individual learning as a board member.

We successfully transitioned our secondary students from iPads to Chromebooks to enhance learning opportunities.

We are moving forward with rigorous ESSA plans K – 12 which should lead to much needed student achievement improvements.

We have a dedicated school board working as a team and making good decisions for our students.

We reorganized our TLC (Teacher Leadership & Compensation) to provide our teachers with more opportunities to lead and impact building level student achievement.

What can the community expect going forward with a shared superintendent?

They can expect everything to pretty much be the same except that I personally have never been this busy. I will be dedicating more hours of time to meet the demands of leading two Districts but I am surrounded by great people. To be successful with this opportunity, I will lean on my immediate team in both Districts. I am fortunate to work with some rock stars in both Districts who see the big picture, care a lot about their District and want to succeed. I am blessed to have this support. Additionally, by sharing the position with another school district, a shared superintendent will save the District over $100,000 per year. I would hope the tax payers in the District appreciate this savings as sharing the position should not present any significant change in expectations, only savings.

Can you speak on the PPEL failure and what measures are in place going forward?

The PPEL failure was a good indicator of letting us know to save money when and where we can. It actually led to moving from essentially no operational incentive dollars to capitalizing to the fullest capacity of operational sharing. It also caused us to rethink our five year plan to focus on many of the essentials. We need to continue to protect the general fund to the greatest of our ability so that things like a slow but steady drop in enrollment and the potential impact the Tama Toledo Christian School may have on our attendance. Things like this will not have as great of impact because we are forecasting for this and preparing. We are watching our general fund closely. A failed PPEL indicates we need to make better efforts at engaging the community in the important work of school improvement. We need to continue our laser-like focus on student achievement and improve our efforts so that when the community reflects on the school district and considers supporting a future request, they reflect positively on the growth we have made and the excellent work that our staff is engaged in. Then, my hope is that a future request will be better received. In the meantime, we will go without and ensure that a tight budget will not impact our students negatively.

Do you have any updates on the new middle school project?

The middle school project is moving right along. This link will take you to our most recent pictures to provide you with an “inside look”. We are targeted to be completed with all work late this Spring and ready to move in as early as early June 2025. Additionally, a dedicated community member, Denise Fletcher, has been spearheading an effort to prepare the landscaping for this project. She led an effort to raise funds to cover the cost of all plants being added to the exterior areas of the building. This project will take place on October 2, 2024, weather permitting. Together a few groups of students will work with a group of volunteers and some staff members to make October 2nd a productive day of light work due to the many hands on deck.

What are some of your passions outside of work?

My wife and I enjoy periodic travels to tropical destinations. We enjoy spending time with our four, soon to be five, grandchildren. I am a pretty avid Hawkeye fan and have been consumed with the Caitlyn Clark effect. This means I now make every effort to watch the Indiana Fever and follow their success. As well as ensure my family has Fever or “22” clothing to support this “CC Effect”. I have never watched a WNBA game until May of 2024 and now I rarely miss a Fever game. Other than that, my passions are my work.

What message would you leave with district stakeholders going forward?

Please get involved. Ask questions and if you are not satisfied with the response, ask more questions. As a school district, we are here to serve and meet the needs of the community. We are about to embark on a concentrated effort to engage our students in learning opportunities that engage them with the community. We need to produce graduates that are equipped to meet the challenges of joining the workforce or continuing their education. Help us get better and let’s get better together by reengaging our kids and our community in lifelong learning.

John Cain is the superintendent for South Tama County Community School District. Recently, he was named the shared superintendent of South Tama as well as the North Tama Community School District. Mr. Cain has been in education for 33 years. He has experience as an elementary teacher, a coach, a consultant, a principal and a curriculum director. He is in his third year with South Tama County as their superintendent and is in his first year in a shared superintendent position with North Tama. John and his wife Kathy have three grown sons and will soon celebrate their fifth grandchild. The Cain’s own a home in Tama.