High test scores don’t result in good grades on state report card
Assessment scores are up but the state report card grade was not thanks to how the Department of Public Instruction weighs different areas of the assessments tool.
At the November 24 meeting of the Rib Lake School Board, guidance counselor Michelle Rhodes presented on the state report card, which had been released last week, and the testing results that report card was based on.
District administrator Travis Grubbs cautioned people to go beyond just looking at the numbers on the reports and instead read the pages of documents explaining how those numbers were reached.
The district met expectations with an overall score of 68.9. The elementary school also met expectations with a score of 69.4. The middle school met expectations with an overall score of 69.8. The high school met expectations with a score of 65.5.
“Every school gets a different equation based on free and reduced lunch,” Grubbs explained. The DPI does this to reflect that generally high poverty districts do not have high achievement. As a result, the state puts greater emphasis on showing improvement, something that is challenging for a district such as Rib Lake where the students already perform well on the assessments.
“This year we got dinged pretty hard, solely because of our free and reduced lunch count,” Grubbs said. The elementary school had gone from 49% of students on free and reduced lunch to 54% of students on those programs shifting the formula used by the state in assigning the district a grade.
“Our growth is off the charts high where we start,” Grubbs said, giving the example of math where third grades had only one or two percent of students who were not proficient.
“It is frustrating to see our composite fall when our students are doing better,” Grubbs sad Grubbs said Rib Lake and other schools in the CESA 9 group have prepared local school report cards which present a more complete view of how the schools are doing. He said they will be pushing for the state to adopt this type of school assessment rather than the state report cards.
Vehicle searches
A search of vehicles in the student parking lot drew concern and anger from parents.
Mitch Peters spoke during the public comment period and described it as an “unlawful search.” He said he understood that according to the student handbook, vehicle searches are allowed if reasonable, but that he questioned the reasonable part. He said of the 50 vehicles in the parking lot, 16 were searched. Of those 16, there were four positives where vaping items were discovered. Peters noted the high number of false positives. Peters described it as being an unwarranted search.
“We are invading privacy and not getting results,” he said.
Peters said that students don’t realize they have the right to have their parents there when a vehicle search is being done.
Parent Roger Bergemann also expressed anger at the searches and especially Grubb’s involvement in the search process questioning in what other situation would a civilian be allowed to assist in a police search. He also stated that the vehicles aren’t owned by the children, but by their parents. “They are all owned by us,” he said.
“You took it on yourself to invade my privacy and other students privacy,” he said.
Grubbs invited them to talk about it further with him. A a public comment item that was not on the agenda, the board was not able to discuss it or take any action.
In other business, board members: Gave the go ahead for Grubbs to continue with plans for the Rib Lake School District to purchase a vehicle for behind the wheel drivers education classes. The hope would be to be able to offer greater convenience and lower cost to district families than going with private companies. He said he is looking into the opportunity of if the vehicle can also be used for district general office use such as going to the post office, transporting things between buildings in the district, or when staff goes to conferences. He said this could potentially reduce costs for the district. He projected that with the fees paid for the drivers ed program, the vehicle purchase could be paid off in six years with it able to be a self sustaining program.
Approved moving forward with plans to issue the next phase of borrowing for the school referendum funds. The borrowing was broken into two chunks to fall under federal financing rules. The district was able to borrow at a lower interest rate than what they are getting from having the loan money in savings. Kevin Mullen of Baird noted the district’s bond rating of AAA is very good for a district Rib Lake’s size. The actual interest rate of the money borrowed will be set on the day the 10-year bonds are sold.
Received an update that the board election nomination papers are due with Rollie Thums and Amanda Treffinger up for reelection next spring. Nomination papers are due by January 7.
Approved hiring Ryan Oats Construction to add a third garage bay door into the bus garage at a cost of $12,500. The board also approved an additional $1,200 to replace an existing garage door with an insulated door. Grubbs said this will allow the eventual conversion of that garage bay to be heated to above freezing for when they need to thaw out vehicles. The plan will be for the students in the building program to construct an interior wall in the bus garage separating out what will be the heated garage bay. Grubbs estimated it would cost about $4,000 for the heating system.
Received word that the steam distribution pipe between the wood boiler at the middle school and the high school has failed and will not be useable for this school year. Replacement of the pipe was scheduled to take place as part of the referendum construction project next summer. The wood boiler will still be able to be used for the middle school with backups heating the high school this winter.
Received an update that grant funds for the Taylor County Drug Opposition Partners would run out this year and the partner agencies and school districts involved are working to get it renewed to continuing to provide services to young people the district.
Approved allowing the volleyball team to go to an overnight competition. Sports booster club fundraising and families cover the costs of these types of events with the district typically paying for the cost of the bus. Overnight student travel requires board approval.
