Three board members up for School Board election

It was announced at the Nov. 14 school board meeting that three board members’ seats will be filled in the election next April.

They are currently held by Darrell Eason, Terry Shepard and Mark Burley.

Filing will open Dec. 17 and close Feb. 21.

All lboard members were present: Chad Whitesell, Benny Brower, Mark Burley, Terry Shepard, Josh Floyd, Nathan Murry and Darrell Eason – presiding.

The board honored the cross country athletes who could attend the meeting.

Assistant Superintendent Dr. Theresa Christian reported on the Annual Performance Review:

DESA released the Annual Performance Review at couple of weeks ago… Since the release of the APR, Mr. Koca and I have met with Building Principals and CSIP Committee to discuss the report and work towards improvement. After reviewing the report, the District remains strong in Graduation Rate, has improved some in Attendance, and made some gain in English Language Arts MAP scores. The District needs to improve in the areas of Math, College Career Readiness and graduate Follow Up. As you can see the APR looks much different than in the past. DESE is n attempting to measure district or school improvement as a whole as well as individual student growth from year to year.

For the 4th year, the District is using the eValuate online assessment program, which is a product of Catapult Learning, for formative assessment. eValuate asseses reading and math in grades K-11. We use the data to measure the individual student learning during the school year as well as trends in curriculum and assessment in the  program, which is useful in instruction and curriculum planning.

Kindergarten and 1st grade take the assessment 3 and 4 times per year respectively. All other grade levels take the assessment monthly.

Supt. Koca reviewed a statement of values with the board for property insurance.

The board approved a request for proposals for a sewer infrastructure project to get pricing. Supt. Koca said that every time there is a big rain, the Ag Building floods.

Supt. Koca gave an update on the Comprehensive School Improvement Plan progress.