Alva Assistant Coach Taylor resigns
School board hears update on student proficiency scores
December 7, 2022
During the Alva Board of Education meeting Monday, Superintendent Tim Argo announced the resignation effective Dec. 18 of Jennifer Taylor who has assisted at the high school in both basketball and softball. “She has been an integral part of both of those programs, and we will really miss her,” he said. “They have an opportunity as a family to move closer to home.”
As part of accreditation, the school district is required to prepare a dropout and remediation report. Argo said Alva had one dropout for the FY21-22 school year. He expressed appreciation for the work Terri Smithey has done to update those files and be aware of transfers.
The school is a year behind in the remediation report because it is obtained from the state regents, and it lags a year behind. Going into the FY20-21 school year, Alva had 29 students enrolled as full time students at state universities. No students needed to take remediation classes in English or science. Six students were required to take remediation classes in math, which means a zero level course, Argo said. These numbers do not include out-of-state students or part-time students.
Bids were scheduled to be opened Tuesday afternoon, Dec. 6, for the high school cafeteria remodeling project, Argo said. The estimated cost is $150,000 or more. Money for this will come from the child nutrition fund carryover.
He announced that Cecely Franz has been named the Alva district teacher of the year, and the rising star is Maya Stewart.
Strategic Planning
Lincoln Elementary Principal Jenny Webster provided the board with an update on the Culture and Community portion of the Strategic Plan. She said a discipline committee has been established with administrators, teachers and parents from each school site.
Webster described the ways students at the schools are recognized, rewarded and challenged for positive behavior and values.
Parents were asked to take a survey through an app that was sent out or at parent-teacher conferences. They had 178 responses with six questions reaching goal levels. Two were slightly below goals for 2024. One involved teachers assigning “homework that helps my child learn.” The other was that “students in my child’s school are well behaved.”
Next Supt. Argo gave a presentation on school finance. He explained local revenue sources and how a district receives federal aid. He also told the board there’s no such thing as a school being “off the formula.” Some are described that way when they receive no foundation and salary incentive aid from state appropriations. However, all districts receive transportation funding from the state.
In surveys, the highest priority for facilities was in roof repair and replacement. On Nov. 8, Corbin Merz Haney (architects) looked at roof repair and replacement, ADA access to the vocal room and the Lincoln School library foundation wall and floor slope.
Student Proficiency
Washington Principal and District Curriculum Coordinator Shane Feely presented FY 21-22 data on student testing. He said Covid had the biggest impact on early childhood learners which he read was a national trend. He said third graders, the first year of testing, were compared to FY18-19 scores before Covid and showed a drop in scores. From fourth grade on, students were compared to their test levels the previous year.
Most of the students showed improvement in ELA (English language arts) and math. Fourth grade math was a “bright spot” because they improved to 60 percent proficiency, reaching the strategic plan goal level, said Feely. He talked to teachers and was told this class was a very mathematically minded group. Fifth and sixth grade students showed a decrease from the previous year in both English and math. Eighth graders showed a decrease in math proficiency.
“Those are worrisome numbers, obviously,” said Feely. “We’ve been spending quite a bit of time with ICLE, the International Center for Leadership and Education, the last three years, and we’ve been working with teachers about prioritizing standards and then creating common formative assessments so we see if our tier one instruction is actually making a mark. If it’s not, then we need to go back and change something.”
He said he is concerned about the declining trend in proficiency levels as students move into the higher grade levels. He said those declining trends are predictive of where students are headed with ACT scores when they get to high school which is a predictor of college success. He believes the key is to change the instructional model that teachers are using with coaching.
He said Alva’s teachers are working hard, but he believes “it has more to do with what we culturally
believe school is supposed to be in Alva, how it’s supposed to look. We want to change that.” He said chronic student absenteeism is also a factor.
Financial
Supt. Argo reports gross production collections are $400,000 above last year’s levels. Motor vehicle tax is lower, and all other collections are above last year’s levels. The district has collected $743,000 this year to date than last year while expenses are $414,000 more than last year at this point.
In the activity fund, the board approved a fundraiser, a penny war, held last month at the middle school. Argo reported the funds from the elementary schools’ color run were distributed with Lincoln, Longfellow and Washington schools each receiving $3,714.07.
In the child nutrition fund, Argo said the number of lunches served saw a dip in October, but the levels are back up for November. However, the number of breakfasts served in November was down a little. He reported continued positive feedback from middle school and high school students about the order-ahead lunch option.
General fund purchase orders totaled $864,377.53 and payroll of $304.50 for substitutes for a year to date total of $11,387,538.92. A large encumbrance of $809,312.61 to Kyler Construction is for the HVAC project in the gym. This amount will be reimbursed with ESSER funds. Repairs to the activities coach bus cost $31,442.76 which included transmission replacement and repairs to the four-way flasher, the AC system, and exhaust pipe as well as four new tires.
A purchase order of $1,365 to Oklahoma FFA was to pay membership dues. Art supplies cost $1,058.20. Two purchase orders for $1,038.24 and $1,375 are for graduation supplies. A purchase from Metadot of $1,347.60 is for IT department software for the help desk and asset management. A software purchase of $1,782.46 for the ELL (English language learners) program will facilitate record keeping of learning plans for students.
The building fund purchase orders approved totaled $222,615.06 for a year-to-date total of $556.175.12. This included an encumbrance of $216,115.39 to Kyler Construction for the HVAC project. This is the school’s match for the project and is not reimbursable. Other expenditures were for custodial supplies and $1,000 for repairs and maintenance of the high school boiler.
The child nutrition fund expenditure of $295.50 was for cleaning kitchen hoods at all schools. Year-to-date purchase orders total $501,686.37.
Other Business
All school board members were present for the meeting. The board approved a revised extra duty salary schedule to add $2,000 for Chris Eckhardt as multi-media coordinator. Supt. Argo said this is to recognize Eckhardt’s extra time and effort on these projects. Changes were also approved to the extra duty salary assignments to add Brandon Ellis as assistant basketball coach for the sixth grade and to add Eckhardt.
With improvements both financially and economically in the district, the board members voted to approve a professional development stipend of $500 for all full time employees who attend the safety training meeting.
As they are required to do quarterly, the board approved school board policy FE related to class capacity numbers. Argo said these have not changed. Capacity limits are posted on the school website under the enrollment tab.
An out-of-state travel request from Alva FFA sponsor Randy Nation for students to attend the Kansas Beef Expo Livestock Judging Contest was approved. It will be held Dec. 9 in Hutchinson, Kansas.
The board also approved a contract with Corbin Merz Haney on the roof replacement project. The architectural firm will be paid six percent of the total construction cost which will be determined by bids. Argo said the architectural firm has worked with Chisholm, Waynoka and Pioneer schools.
A video of the entire meeting may be viewed at http://www.AlvaReviewCourier.com.
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