R-II board approves summer program
SKYE POURNAZARI/DAILY FORUM
School board members and staff wait for the meeting to begin in the Lee and Nina Schneider Performing Arts Center. Around 100 freshmen Northwest Missouri State University education students in a new course, The Ecology of Teaching, attended the meeting.
The Maryville R-II Board of Education approved Wednesday, a 3-year contract with Newton Alliance/Catapult Learning for the 24-day summer school program the district used this summer.
Superintendent Becky Albrecht said the program had 434 students on last day and those students gained something more than just a fun summer.
The district gave the students a pretest and a post-test during the program in order to see gains the students made.
The post-test showed a marked increase in correct answers for the reading and language arts curriculum. It was 45 percent.
The post-test for math showed an even larger number of correct answers with 61 percent.
“That tells us kids did learn,” Albrecht said.
She continued to inform the board of other positive outcomes for the summer program including 19 teachers were employed, 9 under Go Program and that total payroll was just over $135,000.
“That’s money that went into the pocket for our staff,” Albrecht said.
The hours for student attendance in the summer program count toward the state payment for the year, “That money stays on your attendance,” she said. So financially it was pretty successful as well.”
In previous summer school sessions held the district received funds for 13, 14 or 15 students. This year, Albrecht said the number is closer to 67 students. She attributed the gain to changing the program from half days to full days and the duration from 2 weeks to 24 days.
“That will help with the annual revenue,” Albrecht said.
The district also surveyed staff and parents to find that over all the program was well liked and parents would send their children to the program again and also tell others about it.
Attendance, being key to summer school program success, also offered a monetary gain for some attendees.
Of students attending summer school, 343 earned attendance incentives and of those, 234 students had perfect attendance. The company that provided the summer school programing gave each student with perfect attendance $100 gift cards.
“So over $30,000 went into the pockets of kids for coming to school and attending,” Albrecht said. “When you look at all those things combined, the program was very successful,” Albrecht said.
Kim Walker, assistant principal at Eugene Field Elementary, who was chief in the planning of program implementation, thanked the board, teachers and staff for the support for the program.
“I think it was nice to see that not only were we providing two meals a day for our kids, and safe place for to spend their day and ease of parents ‘where’s my kid going to be?’ It was just a win win.”
Board Member Josh McKim said “It looks like it was a great benefit to our students.”
Albrecht told the board that the administration negotiated a 3-year contract with Catapult for “Our fee to them that we pay is $525, that fluctuates from year to year.” This contract would lock in that price unless something changed at the state level. Newton Alliance would change those prices accordingly.
The fee the district pays to the company includes all the curriculum and transportation.
“All we pay for is payroll,” Albrecht said. She recommended the board approve the contract and “lock that in, and plan for that program for the next three years.”
As an additional bonus, each year of the contract, Newton Alliance/Catapult Learning would donate $2,500 to the Education Foundation.
Reports
In reports, District ACT results showed the percentage of R-II students scoring ready for college level course work was higher than the state average in all subjects.
Comparison scores are as follows: (district/state) English composition 60 percent/59 percent; college algebra 55 percent/34 percent; college social science 48 percent/43 percent; biology 47 percent/34 percent. The percentage of R-II students scoring ready for college level course work in all four subjects was 30 percent, while the state average was 23 percent.
The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education announced that end of course exams for Algebra I and English II did not produce year-to year comparable results so the scores will not be released and will not be included in schools’ Annual Performance Report. DESE is holding Questar, the testing vendor, accountable and seeking legal action against them. Albrecht said she has participated in several webinars and meetings on the topic to stay current on the situation.
Foundation event
The Maryville R-II Educational Foundation is holding its annual event Saturday, Sept. 23. Tunes and BBQ will be held at Dot Family Farms and feature the Kansas City band The Center State.
“The foundation has been in existence for probably 10, 12 years and we don’t do a lot of fundraising, but some of what we do is geared toward supporting the teachers mini-grant program,” Assistant Superintendent Steve Klotz said. “Our teachers have the opportunity in the spring to apply for up to $500 of a grant from the foundation that helps them support extra above and beyond kind of things for their classroom that wouldn’t fall within their classroom budgets. We usually fund between six and 12 of those a year.
Albrecht thanked Klotz for his work smoking meat for the occasion and said if anyone was still in need of a ticket, they could reach out to the district office.
“Our community is always very supportive of causes, especially education so we like to put on an event once a year or so that allows our alumni and community members to kind of get together and have a good evening of socialization and support the schools,” Klotz said.
Northwest students attend
With an audience of around 100 education students from Northwest Missouri State University, the board held its regular meeting in the Lee and Nina Schneider Performing Arts Center. After the open session board members fielded a few questions from students about their duties as board members and were informed that not all board members have a background in education.
The next meeting of the Maryville R-II Board of Education is set for 6 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 17.
SKYE POURNAZARI/DAILY FORUM
Mariah Huston a freshman Northwest middle school math major asks the R-II school board about how the district handles its school lunch program.
