Community Engagement is an area Newton Superintendent Tom Messenger believes has improved greatly since he arrived five years ago from the Red Oak Superintendent’s job in southwest Iowa. Messenger says he’s proud of the different pieces of community engagement that have been done in Newton. And he believes it definitely helped as the community dealt with establishing the current transition from four to two elementary schools. 

“While sometimes those types of things can be quite divisive in a district, here it seemed to do the opposite. It brought people together from different walks of life and different areas of town. In the end they were able to come together with some of the things they thought were most important for the district to keep in mind moving forward”

Messenger believes that tremendous community support helped district leaders make some of the changes and move forward as needed. Hear more from Newton School Superintendent Tom Messenger on today’s Let’s Talk Newton.