The Owen-Withee School Board held their regular meeting on Monday, June 15. Under the Public Participation portion of the agenda, custodian Mike Person brought a couple of items to the board’s attention. He spoke about the issue that some items that can’t be recycled are still being put in the recycling dumpster. Board member Julie Wendler said it could have been a mistake. It was baseball helmets. They are plastic but contain other items that can’t be recycled. District Administrator Randy Bergman said he would speak to the staff about it. Person also said that the janitors take pride in their work, but there are now scratches on the floor in the hallway from the Fitness Center to the front doors due to equipment from the Fitness Center being dragged across the floor.
In the Consent Agenda, the board approved the minutes, payment of bills, activity accounts, WASB membership at a cost of $3,364, the Seclusion & Restraint Report, the Grow Your Own Scholarship Agreement, the hiring of Kara Hudak for the Elementary Special Education teacher position, and the resignation of 4th Grade teacher Amanda Kosar. One male special education student was included in the Seclusion & Restraint Report. The Grow Your Own Scholarship is an agreement between the school districts of Colby, Spencer, Abbotsford, and Owen-Withee. Scholarships are awarded to students going into the education field with the agreement that they will come back and teach in the district that gave them the scholarship if a position is available. If no position is available, they commit to taking a position in their field in one of the other schools. If no position is available in any of the schools, the requirement is waived. If the person refuses a position or leaves without five years of service to the district, they need to pay back some or all of the scholarship.
Julie VanArk gave the AGR (Achievement Gap Reduction) Report. The assessments track students in grades K-3. She said there was a lot of growth and they met a lot of their 80% goals. For Kindergarten, in reading, they were at 85% of students scoring at grade level or above in the fall. By the end of fall semester that number had dropped to 84% and by the end of the year to 83%. The primary reason for the drop was a reduction in students. In Math, they were at 88% in September, and 96% at both the end of the fall and spring semesters. In 1st grade, for reading, they were at 84% meeting grade level in the fall, which dropped to 82% by the end of fall semester and 79% by the end of spring semester. That was the equivalent of 26 of 31 students in the fall and 27 of 34 students in the spring. For Math, they were at 81% in the fall, 79% by the end of fall semester, and 74% by the end of spring semester. This equates to 26 of 31 students in the fall and 25 of 34 students in the spring. In 2nd grade, for Reading, 65% of students scored at grade level or above in the fall, 61% at the end of fall semester, and 74% at the end of spring semester. In Math, the numbers were 50% in the fall, 81% at both the end of fall semester and spring semester. In 3rd grade, for Reading, the numbers were 71% in the fall, 76% at the end of fall semester and 81% by the end of spring semester. In Math, the numbers were 84% in the fall, 80% at the end of fall semester and 85% at the end of spring semester. Again, Van Ark noted that although not every group met the 80% goal, many students showed growth from the beginning of the school year to the end.
The Mystery Science Curriculum was approved. It was noted that students in grades K-3 don’t get a lot of science time. Curriculum was looked at and this one will cost $1,000 for a year with online information and activities. Staff will be able to get through the entire science curriculum which they couldn’t always do in the past. It meets Wisconsin science standards and offers a lot of hands-on activities. The district did a pilot program this year and would like to implement the curriculum in the classrooms next year. The 4th and 5th grade students will use the same curriculum that is used in middle school for now.
Kristi Ruggles gave the SOAR report with some help from Katie Hatlestad. The program is an intervention program for students needing help in English Language Arts. Eventually they hope to add Math intervention also. She said the goal is to give kids extra reading time and to strengthen core curriculum. She said that currently 70-80% of students are in intervention. They talked about STARI. The district is part of a study and was provided with all materials and training at no charge. The program was used in grades 7-9 and 11. Students in 10th grade used Essentials. They probably will not use that program again because it seemed to help with writing but not reading. Some students participated in Extension groups using a program called Common Lit 360. Middle school students completed novel studies. They compared how individual students did by tracking them through grade levels. The average growth in reading was 2.25%. They said the core curriculum needs to be strengthened. The 11th grade ACT scores showed a 2.19 average point growth in students who participated in STARI, 2.17 average point growth for students in Extension, 1.83 average point growth for students in ALT, and 1.46 average point growth for all students. There were students who participated in the intervention programs that improved their reading scores by a lot. They went through a lot of data on how student achievement had grown or not grown. Overall teacher response to the programs was positive. Teachers also had some ideas on ways to improve the programs for students. Wendler asked if they felt that some of the problem with students having difficulty was because so many kids are being sent out the building for jobs, etc. Board president Dean Schmelzer asked if there were students in the program this year who wouldn’t be included next year. There are two students that won’t be in the program for sure and four moving from Extension to STARI.
The board approved a contract with Tina Spannen to be the district’s occupational therapist. She won’t be shared with Loyal next year, but just work in Owen-Withee. She will be paid $19,590.06.
The board also approved FBLA students going to national competition in Texas. There will be four students competing and two working as pages.
The student handbooks were approved for next year with no changes. Board committees will also remain the same until board president Dean Schmelzer makes a decision on committees for the year. Ellen Petersen will take the place of Joan Jalling on the committees that she served on.
A storage shed was approved to be added on school grounds to be used by the O-W Theatre Department and the ShowCase Players. The ShowCase Players had storage at the mall in Abbotsford, but that is no longer available to them. The fire department is asking that the O-W Theatre Department move items out of the room where the sound equipment, etc. is housed. There can be nothing flammable stored in that room. Bergman is suggesting they purchase a storage container with the space shared by the O-W Theatre Department and the ShowCase Players. He estimated the cost would be around $2,500. The ShowCase Players might cover the entire cost or the cost could be shared. The board approved the addition of the storage container.
Under Administrator Reports, Elementary Principal Julie VanArk reported that it was the last week of summer school. They had 121 students attend. Students were given free breakfast and lunch. She said that the Withee Library was again sponsoring a program for the last day of summer school. The Literacy team has met to complete the yearly Literacy Analysis and Planning Guide. The Wisconsin Multi-Level Systems of Support team also met and are working on a handbook to be implemented in the fall. Attendance for the year finished at a 95.9% attendance rate. The team working on attendance is working on plans for next year. She said they need community involvement for the Fulcrum Foundation Grant that is helping pay for the Inclusive Playground Project. They will be handing out information at the Withee Days parade. Ovyn’s is doing the excavating at cost. Kopp Concrete is doing the concrete and lawn work. They sent out about 50 letters asking for donations.
President Schmelzer read the Middle/High School Principal’s Report in the absence of Nate Johnson. The report stated that 60 middle school and 91 high school students made the Honor Roll or Merit Roll for second semester. Four track athletes made it to state. There are five students participating in the middle/high school recovery program.
District Administrator Randy Bergman talked about the issues with the sewer pipe running under the golf course. It has to be fixed. He is getting estimates to run a new line to County X as well as what it would cost to line the current pipe. He is suggesting the building committee meet with the golf course management. The sewer line was put in around 1952. Haas has already looked at it and Suda will be looking at it. The roof on the crow’s nest is coming off and it needs to be re-roofed. He is getting estimates. They need to do a budget revision and finalize CPI wages. There will be a special meeting on June 29.
Wendler said the Negotiations Committee had met with the teachers on CPI.
Under requests for future agenda items, it was suggested they talk about who is considered administration. They should talk about adding a camera by the dumpsters. This could possibly be paid with by a safety grant. Custodian Mike Person said they should talk about whether they want to keep the greenhouse. He feels it is using electricity but not being utilized.