Caledonia Argus

School board to discuss assessment at special meeting

Posted: 11/4/03

By David Heiller
Argus News Editor

The Caledonia School Board will hold a day-long retreat on November 19 to discuss assessment and other issues.

Board member Charlie Wray suggested the idea at the boardís October 28 meeting at the middle/high school media center.

It came after the board reviewed the rough draft of the annual report on curriculum, instruction, and student performance. All District 299 homeowners receive the report every year.

Wray said the board doesnít have broad agreement on what constitutes successful assessment. He said a special session with administrators, the board, and key staff and community members would be helpful.

Wray has a lead on a good moderator for it, so other board members gave him the nod to set that up.

A follow up retreat will probably be needed in December.

Assessment took up quite a bit of the 3-1/2-hour meeting, which was recessed for 45 minutes so board members could be part of a welcome back program for the volleyball team.

High school principal Cory Klabunde passed out several graphs that broke down how the districtsí students had done in basic standards tests, and how they compared with other school districts. Other test scores were also graphed out, like ACT, MAP, and RIT.

Klabunde also graphed out honor roll numbers, attendance, and students who are taking free and reduced meals. The information will help teachers find weaknesses in curriculum and tailor lessons to individual students when possible.

Elementary principal Connie Hesse said the graphs show positive results, and that Caledonia is scoring higher than national levels across the board. ìOur teachers are doing great things,î she said.

Board member Chuck Schulte said the school is not ranked where he would like to see it ranked in ACT scores.

Suzanne Roesler noted that the seventh grade class has poor test numbers, and that was the case when they were tested in grades three and five too.

Hesse said the students could be referred to after school programs or summer school.

Some things canít be controlled, Klabunde added. But he felt there would be improvements now that the district has a good curriculum plan in place, is out of statutory operating debt, and doesnít have other big issues like a building project.

Schulte said he was pleased with the new assessments. It will help him look at curriculum and see if improvements can be made.

Extra-curriculars discussed

In other action, the board voted to reinstate the salary for the schoolís Future Problem Solver program. It had apparently been eliminated at the June meeting, although Superintendent Jim Tool said there was confusion about what action the board had taken at that time.

The vote came at the end of a discussion about several other defunct after-school activities: drama, cheerleading, flag corp, and a proposed dance line.

The board had discussed them at an October 8 meeting in Freeburg, and had asked Tool to bring back cost proposals and projected participation for each activity. That didnít happen as last weekís meeting, prompting Barb Hurley to express her disappointment. Tool said he will bring the information to the next meeting, which is set for Monday, November 17 at 7 p.m. at the Eitzen Community Center..

Several board members said they would like to see drama in the school. The school spent a lot of money on the auditorium and he felt it was not being used well. ìTo me thatís just a crying shame.î

Naomi Fruechte said the schoolís marching band is revitalized, and a flag corp would go well with that.

Teacher Carol Sweeney, a former flag corp supervisor, said uniforms and flags are costly,

Former cheerleading supervisor Julie Stafslien said it was too late to bring back cheerleading for this year, because participants would need to go to rules meetings and get safety certification.

More cameras requested

Klabunde and middle school principal Brian Doty want to add more cameras to the school to improve security and decrease vandalism. The new school has about six cameras now that view the parking lot and key areas inside the middle/high school and elementary school. An additional 11 cameras could be added for the cost of about $23,000, Klabunde said. Money is available for it from a safe school levy.

The cameras come with a computer program that allows the operator to play images back to see what took place. For example, if a student wrote on a locker, Klabunde could review the data that the camera by the locker had recorded and find out who did it.

The board passed a motion to have the board research this more and get an accurate cost.

Activity bus

The board also discussed the costs of running an activity bus to take students to their homes or cities after practices and games. The cost would be about $1,000 per month. There are only about 4-6 students that would use it now at the middle school, Doty said, but if a ride were provided, more would probably use it. A bus did this three nights a week last year, but the district could only do it two nights a week this year because of state budget cuts.

Schulte said he would like to know how many would ride the bus. Hesse said she could survey some parents to find that out.

Top of Page