Frequently Asked Questions

Ballard CSD is accepting applications that meet the proper deadline or qualification for late filing.

Open enrollment information, applications, and instructions are available on the Ballard CSD website or the Iowa Department of Education website. If a parent or guardian wishes to open enroll their child(ren), they must:

• Complete an application
• Submit an applicaiton for each child in their family, and
• Send the application to both the resident and receiving school districts on or before the established deadlines

Senate File (HF) 2435 reinstated the March 1 deadline for open enrollment. Applications must be received for students grade 1-12 prior to March 1st in the year prior to the student’s requested start date. Incoming Kindergarten student applications must be received prior to September 1st.

Ballard CSD is not permitted to bring a bus into any surrounding school district to pick up students who open enroll to Ballard. For current pickup times or information about other possible pickup locations, please contact the district Transportation Director at 515-597-2979

Approximately 9% of the students attending Ballard CSD are open enrolled from other school districts.

Ballard averages approximately 150 students per grade level. The district adheres to the following class size ranges:

Medication shall be administered when the student’s parent or guardian (hereafter “parent”) provides a signed and dated written statement requesting medication administration and the medication is in the original, labeled container, either as dispensed or in the manufacturer’s container.  The parent provides for the safe delivery of the medication to and from school. The parent will be notified when more medication is needed and when to pick up unused or expired medication.

A small amount of analgesic over-the-counter medications are available in the school health office including acetaminophen, ibuprofen, antacids, and cough drops for minor ailments.  Permission allowing the school nurse or designated qualified staff member to provide these medications for the student will be completed yearly by the student’s parent during the registration process.

Graduation requirements are approved by the Ballard school board and can be found in Board Policy 505.5.

The Ballard High School course guide can be found on the district website.

A full review is available on the Ballard Standards Based Grading website.

A variety of information sources are used to determine how forecasted weather may impact the Ballard district.

This includes reports, briefings, and webinars from the National Weather Service Forecast Office.  Real time information about district road conditions is critical to inform decisions. In all cases, the safety of students and staff is always the top priority.

Changes to the schedule are communicated through the Infinite Campus Emergency Messenger, district website, and external media outlets including WOI, KCCI, and WHO. 

In 2024, the district enlisted the help of a community and employee committee to develop the Portrait of a Graduate. The committee studied state and national employment data, and conducted a gap analysis on future readiness of Ballard graduates. The committee identified six key characteristics: emotionally intelligent people, people of strong character, resilient learners, flexible thinkers, global citizens, and effective communicators.

Currently, teams are compiling indicators for success for each section of the Portrait of a Graduate. This is a work in progress that will continue throughout this school year.

All current calendars are available on our Calendar page of the district website.

• Board-Approved Academic Calendar
• Activity Calendar
• Facility Use Calendar
• Lunch Menu

For a regular school day, we start at 8:00 and dismiss at 3:15. Buses leave at 3:30.

For a 1:30 dismissal day, we start at 8:00 and dismiss at 1:30. Buses leave at 1:45.

All district doors are locked when school is in session. All visitors are granted access to the building using a camera/intercom system connected to the building offices.

The Ballard district uses an online reservation system. Those wishing to make a request can find the form on the Facilities page of the Activities website.

The school board, when gathered together as a governing body, is responsible for making policy for its own governance, for employees, for students, and for school district facilities. It is the responsibility of the board to select its chief executive officer, the superintendent, to operate the school district on the board’s behalf. This includes carrying out board policy, formulating and carrying out rules and regulations, and to handle the administrative details that support and are consistent with board policy. Individual board members are expected to follow a board-approved Code of Ethics policy, 204.

School board members are elected to four-year terms.

Individuals interested in board service are encouraged to begin by attending board meetings and asking questions of current board members and the superintendent. Additional resources are available from the Iowa School Board Association website.

The Ballard school board meets every month on the second Monday of each month and as needed for Special Board Meetings or Work Sessions.

Closed sessions of the board are rare. The public is allowed to attend all board meetings unless the agenda specifically states the session is closed, and may only be for the following reasons:

• To discuss information contained in records in the custody of the governmental body that are confidential
• Discuss or review of records authorized by state law to remain confidential
• Discuss strategy with legal counsel for matters in litigation
• Discuss contents of a licensing examination or whether to initiate licensee disciplinary investigations
• Conduct a hearing to suspend or expel a student
• Discuss a decision rendered in a contested case
• Avoid the disclosure of specific law enforcement matters
• To evaluate the professional competency of an individual
• To discuss the sale or purchase of real estate

Board meetings are meetings of the board in the presence of the public. Public participation happens only during Public Hearings or as designation on the board agenda.

Board action items can vary, but fall within the parameters of the board’s role. The board does not serve as an administrative body, but rather functions at a policy level.

All board agendas are published on the Board of Education page of the district website the Friday prior to a Regular Board Meeting or at least 24 hours prior to a Special Board Meeting or Work Session.

Concerns are best addressed at the most direct level.

Board members are expected to conduct themselves professionally and in a manner fitting to their position. A full list of expectations are included in the board approved Code of Ethics included in board policy 204

The board annually evaluates the superintendent. All other personnel evaluations are conducted by the employee’s direct supervisor.

There are many organizations and activities available to Ballard students. While typically these are not run by the school, oftentimes communication may come from the school regarding them.

Parents can expect to see grades, lunch accounts balances, student fees and attendance.

The secondary school produced an informational video on how to use the view progress reports in the parent portal – Infinite Campus Progress Report – Grades. In this video, you can see what the progress report will look like for graded material and practice work in the formative assessment area. Parents will be able to see the calculated grades and how their students did in each graded area. Parents will also see how many times and how they did on practice work through formative assessments.

Fees can be paid through Infinite Campus or in person at the school.

Ballard is a one-to-one Cromebook district, but it looks different for different grade levels. Kindergarten through 5th grade have enough devices to be one-to-one, but they are organized on classroom carts. Students are not assigned a specific device. Sixth through 12th graders are assigned their own Chromebook and are responsible for taking care of and keeping the device with them. Devices in grade 8 and 12 are turned into the technology department at the end of the year. Devices in grades 6, 7, and 9-11 go home with the student during the summer. The technology department sends care and storage instructions directly to each student at the end of the year.

Ballard uses software that alerts us of suspicious activity, inappropriate searches/websites, harmful searches/websites and strictly stays in line with the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA). This information can be located at https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/childrens-internet-protection-act.

The district cell phone policy can be found in the Ballard Student Handbook.