MAP Test Scores (APR Results!), Future-focused, 4-Day School Week & Construction Updates!10/22/2019 Our regular meeting in October was held yesterday! There are lots of moving parts. As always, you can find all of the documents for the October 2019 board meeting here.
I want to highlight a few items, first being a few tidbits:
In a nutshell, while our district goal is to get all students to proficient or higher -- if you look at the individual grade level tests, the percentage of students performing "below basic" is much lower than the state average. That means that our teachers and staff are working hard to move students up the continuum from "below basic" to "basic" and then beyond. Kudos to our entire staff on this work. During our Instructional Effectiveness report conversation, we discussed that in the coming months the board will begin the early stages of discussing additional needs within the district. In 2017, when our district passed the tax levy increase, we promised a no-tax-increase bond initiative (underway!) but said that we'd likely be back to voters in the 2021 timeframe for additional needs to remain competitive as a district. We will be discussing what that could look like in the coming months. This also may mean discussing the need for an assistant superintendent. While grumblings will likely take place of the administrative bloat, this is a best practice as well as beginning to think ahead for succession planning for our district in the years to come so that we don't have a leadership void. The board also heard some next steps in the discussion of the school calendar for next year, related to exploring a 4-day school week specifically. You can find that report here and you can find a ton of resources at Dr. Turner's (professor at Missouri State) website here. Next steps? A focus group has been formed that includes community members, faculty, staff, parents, child care providers, and board members. They will begin to meet a few times to discuss, explore, ask questions about what this could mean for us--if we moved in that way for our community. Lastly, there's some exciting things going to happen in the next few weeks in the Primary School construction project! Check out the full report here. The steel structures/frames will be arriving in the coming several weeks with a potential "topping out" or last beam in place on Nov. 19th with a celebration possibly happening with the community at that time. Keep that on your radar as you'll see a crane and hopefully see the first of this taking place on November 4th. The board also spent some time discussing the other facilities projects. Utilizing some of the services we have underway that could save potential duplication of funds---the administrative team will begin exploring more firm costs on items such as keyless entries, ensuring our football field becomes ADA compliant, roofing issues at the high school, and possibly other projects. Assuming we remain on budget (as we currently are) we will have approximately $200,000 remaining plus significant funds in our capital projects account to utilize to fill other minor projects across the campuses. I think that's all for now. It's a pleasure to serve on the board and I'm grateful for the trust you place in myself and the rest of the board. Let me know if you have any questions or concerns. Until next time, Craig
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AuthorHallsville resident. Foster Parent. School board member. Politico. Jesus Follower. Cardinals Fan #MizzouMade Archives
June 2020
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