On June 5th, 2019 Storm Lake Elementary School was awarded the Computer Science is Elementary Award. Once our district received the CS is Elementary Award, communication was sent out to certified elementary and middle school teachers to see if they would be interested in receiving computer science training throughout the 2019-2020 school year. A goal was to have two representatives from each grade level from Kindergarten to 8th grade as well as other teachers that would support computer science implementation in their own capacity such as media specialists, STEM teachers, and computer teachers. The representatives from the elementary school became the Computer Science is Elementary Team. Team members received training, a stipend, and the expectation that they would begin to implement computer science in their classrooms. Before training began in the summer of 2019, a leadership team was created. At that time, the leadership team included our superintendent, technology director, instructional technology coach, and our elementary STEM teacher.

After the 2019-2020, we lost some members of our Computer Science team due to various reasons. There were no new members added to the Computer Science is Elementary or leadership team during the 2020-2021 school year due to a district stance on no professional development for that year.

During the 2021-2022 school year, more teachers were recruited to join the team to fill the spots of those who left our district or decided not to continue on the Computer Science is Elementary Team. The requirement for Iowa schools to develop a K-12 Computer Science Plan by July 2021 opened the doors for additional staff members to take part in the implementation of computer science. Our district offered teachers interested in joining our newly created K-12 Computer Science Planning Team a stipend and professional development, and a voice in the development of our K-12 computer science plan.

Our leadership team has grown along with our computer science program over the last couple of years. Members of this team lead the Computer Science is Elementary Team and K-12 Computer Science Planning Team.