Civil Municipal Magazine - Nov 2023

193 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 4, ISSUE 11 the appropriate use of social media, which Dr. Murillo believes is a crucial part of maintaining a safe and respectful school environment. Vital Collaboration and Partnerships to Meet Community Needs from Internet Access to Early Education Collaboration is key for the district, and the Iowa West Foundation is one of the district’s major supporters, contributing significant funding to preschool and the Diploma Plus One program. Google is another partner that not only provides grants but helped establish the city-wide BLink network, ensuring that students have access to free Wi-Fi for learning, even outside of school. The city of Council Bluffs has also been instrumental in this effort. At the state level, a Childcare and Early Learning Exploratory Project Innovation Grant was provided for the district’s new Anne E. Nelson Early Learning Center to serve as a model in providing early learning for infants, toddlers and preschoolers, and expands the accessibility of affordable, high- quality preschool for our community. Murillo relays, “The generous investments in the $18 million, 38,000 sq. ft. center came from a combination of individual, foundation and corporate donors, leaving no outstanding debt for district taxpayers while building capacity for the area’s workforce.” Nurturing Success: Teacher Support and Professional Development Melissa Chalupnik, Director of Professional Learning, talks about the innovative Council Bluffs mentoring program, which she says plays a pivotal role in retaining new teachers. The program involves bringing mentors into the classrooms of teachers new to the profession or new to the district. The mentoring support is embedded in the teachers’ daily work, guiding them through various aspects of teaching, such as instructional decisions, management, assessment, and grading. Chalupnik elaborates, “On average, we retain 80% of our first-year teachers. Even after the second year, we’re still at 70% retention. We want them to want to stay with us, because we know the COUNCI L BLUFFS COMMUNI T Y SCHOOL DISTRICT