“It’s just one of my fun things to do.”
That’s how West Liberty High School Principal Brenda Arthur-Miller best describes her work with her own high school’s FFA and Ag Department – earning her a pair of state awards the past few months and qualifying her for a national honor.
From helping establish new educational programs, to helping train students in Ag Issues Leadership programs, Arthur-Miller says she’s proud of her accomplishments in supporting an annually state ranked and sometimes nationally ranked FFA chapter directed by ag instructor Zach Morris, who nominated Arthur-Miller for the honors.
She received the Iowa Association of Tech Education Career’s Educator of the Year Award in July, qualifying her for an Iowa State Career Tech Education honor in September in Des Moines.
Morris said it was simply the support she gave to the program that earned the long-time principal the nomination. He said the application not only included praises from his department, but letters of support from the community and other educators.
Morris called West Liberty an “extremely unique” community because of its Hispanic population at over 56 percent. He pointed out Arthur-Miller is the director of the nationally accredited Dual Language program (K-12) and ESL program (K-12). “Her passion for diversity and inclusion has sparked growth within CTE (Career Tech Education) programs,” he said in the application.
With the work done by Arthur-Miller and counseling staff, the district received national recognition with the Power of Hope Award in 2023, honored through the National Postsecondary Strategy Institute to recognize school districts that engage school counselors in leadership roles to improve college and career readiness.
Morris continued to say in the application that West Liberty is a small rural district that “implements a collaborative college advising system to improve postsecondary outcomes and includes a college and career counselor,” a program advocated by Arthur-Miller with a dual role as a high school counselor and community college advisor. “This position forms a seamless process to support students transitioning from high school into postsecondary,” he said.
This work has connected with all CTE students participating in dual-credit course and career academies. “In coordination with these efforts we initiated an IJAG program that works closely with CTE to find work-based learning experiences, provide successful interventions for at-risk students, and engage stakeholders in the community,” Morris said, pointing out 90 percent of CTE students participated in college credit courses at the high school or attending a career academy. “Within the next three years, there will be an expansion to the agriculture facility and promotion of a food science laboratory,” he said.
Morris pointed out that the principal has made it an expectation for educators to actively seek professional development opportunities.
“She cares about all students and good administrators never typically get the recognition they deserve,” he said. “The students value her.”
Morris said her support of the CTE program, has provided proven success since 2018. He said non-traditional student participation (females in mechanics) has increased by 40 percent, Hispanic CTSO participation has increased by 28 percent, CTSO membership has increased 314 percent, program completer average is 60 percent of high school enrollment and work-based learning program participation up 28 percent.
Her contributions have been great as well, volunteering over 250 hours to the FFA program including chaperoning to the National FFA Convention, driving students to events, assisted with reviewing over 65 Iowa FFA degrees applications, revising three national finalist proficiency awards (work-based learning assessments), and helping train two national qualifying Ag Issues Leadership Development teams.
Morris said she has overseen several accomplishments for the agriculture program as well which includes; 3-Star National Chapter (2011-Present), Models of Excellence Finalist (Top 25 chapter in the US – 2015), 24 State Champion Individuals/Teams for leadership contests, American Star Placement Finalist (top four work-based learning of 800,000 students), and three National Proficiency Finalists.
To improve access to quality CTE programs, over the course of the past five years, many improvements have been made in West Liberty with Arthur-Miller’s oversight. CTE has raised over $250,000 for equipment and curriculum upgrades to provide students access to the latest industry skills and technology.
CASE Curriculum has been implemented for seven courses in the agriculture CTE program along with implementing five college credit courses across all departments. Through Physical Plant and Equipment Levy funds and local donations, $30,000 in greenhouse upgrades were made to a $500,000 agriculture complex. The past two years, computer and software upgrades were made to the school’s business department along with $20,000 in improvements to FCS equipment.
Morris also said the principal provides unique approaches to problem solving which is her most unique attribute as an administrator. “During the COVID 19 Pandemic when schools were shutdown, Brenda worked with local businesses and law enforcement to local establish our high school greenhouse as an essential workplace,” he said, where faculty was able to manage ithe facility until sale time.
“To mitigate risk, she helped establish an online plant sale system with the Ag instructors which raised a record $20,000 and became Iowa’s model for online fundraising to over 50 agriculture programs.
Morris has served as the Iowa Association of Agricultural Educators state president this past year and served as a board vice-president for four years.