DBOE hears school score reports

During the Daleville Board of Education meeting on Wednesday, Jan. 16, Daleville City Schools principals provided reports on Alabama State Report Card scores announced earlier this year.

Windham Elementary School Principal Chris Mitten stated the school’s report card grade does not paint a true picture of life at WES. On the latest report card, the school received an “F.”

“The first thing I did want to say is, as the (Alabama) State Department of Education says, this is but one part of what a school is,” he said. “Initially as we looked at scores, the majority of the students did show growth, the vast majority. What we found after we were able to look at the growth matrixes and all the other levels that though the student grew 115 points, the cut may have been 120, and we didn’t receive credit for it.”

Mitten stated the teaching format, test fatigue and technological issues have been identified to be leading factors in the school’s grade. He stated that the school has made changes to the teaching format at the school, the testing schedule and the class schedule to help the school raise its grade for the next state report card.

“I take full responsibility,” he said. “I own that score, and we are already – we have been all year– now redoubled our efforts, our next steps to make whatever changes are necessary to paint a true picture of what Windham Elementary School is when this report comes out next year.”

He said the school is looking at the data for “every single student” to see where each student needs to grow to reach the state benchmarks set for the next state test.

Mitten also announced that pre-registration is open for the 2019-20 Pre-K program. The drawing for the class will be held in March before Spring Break.

Daleville High School Principal Josh Robertson also addressed the high school’s grade. On the latest report card, the school received a “C.”

Robertson said the school is looking at the test data daily to find ways to improve the high school’s score.

“Everybody’s aware of where the holes are, where the good things are and where the bad things are,” he said. “The main thing right now is making sure that what we’re doing in the classroom is providing the rigor that we need to achieve the academic level that we’re supposed to.

“Our score has (several) parts: the Scantron in seventh and eighth grade, one part the alternate assessment in 10th grade and in 11th grade, the ACT.”

He said the school is working to prepare the students ready for the ACT, which also affects the college and career readiness indicators.

Robertson also said the school continues to put emphasis on career tech classes.

“That’s one that we really believe in and talked about last year, getting it as close to 100 percent as possible” he said. “With it being two years in the rear, we knew that was 2017 data, those kids aren’t in front of us to fix that stuff, so we’re making sure the kids on campus are getting those credentials so that score does continue to go up.”

He also discussed how graduation rates can vary, depending on how many students graduate each year, and attendance has been a topic of numerous discussion at the high school.

“We’re excited about what we’re working towards,” he said. “We’re trying to move forward and continuing to grow.”

Superintendent Dr. Diane Flournoy echoed that the system is making changes to ensure progress for the schools and the students.

“We have made some significant changes, as the administration has shared,” she said. “We made some gains; however, we still have much work to do, and we are aggressively working at making the needed progress for our students.”

In addition to the principal reports, Special Services Director Katheryne Horace announced the system received a $35,000 grant to help with costs for special education.

“There are approximately 90,000 public school children in the State of Alabama who are identified as special needs students,” she said. “Of those 90,000 students, LEAs are faced with providing education for students… who have high, costly mutli-needs. Sometimes, that money is taken out of local (funds) and is taken from other areas.”

She said the state created two grants to “assist local schools” with special education program needs. She said one grant is called the Alabama High Cost Fund, and the other is the Catastrophic Trust Fund.

Horace said system received the $35,000 grant to “assist the system with offsetting the cost of educating” some of the special education students.

In other business, the board approved a field trip request for the DHS FFA to travel to Auburn University in February to attend career development events.

The board also approved the following personnel changes:

Resignation:

Lauren Latta, effective Jan. 10, fifth-grade teacher at WES;

Leave of absence:

James Lints, effective Jan. 7, bus driver; and,

Homebound services:

Tracey Odom, elementary non-special needs homebound services.

Before the meeting, Flournoy recognized board member Ricky McLin for completing Level 2 of the School Board Member Academy. He received a certificate of achievement from the Alabama Association of School Boards.

Flournoy also recognized each member of the school board with a certificate of appreciation for outstanding service in honor of School Board Member Recognition Month.

The next board meeting will be held on Wednesday, Feb. 20, at 4:30 p.m. at the central office.