Gilman seeks solutions to improving learning

The after-effects of COVID-19 may take years to work through when it comes to educational delays.

That was the message coming from the twice-yearly achievement gap reduction report presented to members of the Gilman School Board on Monday evening. On a broad overview, the report shows that the school is meeting its goals in moving children up to the benchmark levels and as a group advancing as they should through the year.

“They are meeting what the average growth has been,” said district administrator Walter Leipart.

Board member Tammy Weir asked what is being done and what information is being given to parents for the students who are not hitting their goals.

Board member Lauren Zach said as a parent that the teachers sent home information over the summer with areas to continue working on.

“We are no different than any school district in the nation,” Leipart said. He noted that all districts are seeing the same results and noted that one of the issues is that benchmarks were from pre-COVID students. He said that a student who missed two weeks or even up to six weeks fell behind and is working to catch up.

“Our teachers are working hard to meet the needs of our kids,” Leipart said.

“We have to stop saying it is because of COVID,” Weir said, saying it is time to move on from that and focus on what we are doing to address the problem of children falling behind. “We are a smaller school district, we can take these two kids and work with them so they don’t get further behind,” she said.

“They aren’t using COVID as an excuse,” Leipart said, noting that is a factor.

“A factor is not an excuse,” he said. He noted the issue isn’t so much that students are falling farther behind. “We are still pushing past average growth,” he said. But that it is a challenge to get that to accelerate to catch up.

“We have yet to figure out what the secret sauce is to accelerate,” he said.

Leipart also said they need to focus more on getting students to where they need to be educationally over time. He explained that after a certain point, learning becomes applying the fundamentals in different ways. “Math doesn’t change after eighth grade, you are using the numbers in a different way and adding seven more letters,” Leipart said, but noted that the basic math skills are still there. He said if they can get the students to where they need to be by seventh grade, then they will be at the reading and math levels they need before they graduate from the district.

Leipart also said there is a community trend. “We have some very great students,” he said, noting the rest are slightly below the state average consistently.

“Academics looks different in this community,” Leipart said, noting that is not a criticism, just a factor in overall student growth.

He gave the example of a class of nine students where six of them have challenges. “You will have that sometimes,” he said.

On a more positive note, Leipart also gave the annual seclusion and restraint and student discipline reports for the year.

“Our kids are well behaved,” Leipart said. There were no seclusion or restraints reported this year.

In regard to the discipline, Leipart said in the first quarter they had 17 detentions and 2 in school suspensions. In the second quarter there were 11 detentions and one in school suspension. In third quarter there were 19 detentions and no suspensions. In the fourth quarter there were 19 detentions, and one in school and one out of school suspension. By the numbers, Leipart said they had 300 kids in the school for 174 days and had less than 80 referrals for the entire school year.

“That is impressive,” Leipart said. In other business, board members:

 Approved the personnel changes with hiring Nicole Butler as Spanish teacher/interventionist, Kelly Lind as SPED teacher, Steph Siok at middle school volleyball coach and Tuesday Trawicki as 4th grade teacher. They also approved the resignations of Stephanie Goebel as school counselor and middle school volleyball coach, Gail Robaczewski as community education director, Phil Angell as middle school football coach, Justin Young as assistant baseball coach and Dave Kroeplin as baseball coach.

 Reviewed the results of the Hope Survey done by staff and by students from grade five and up about a variety of topics to assess the climate and school culture on a seven-point scale. “This data is the voice of your students and staff,” Leipart said, noting that five or better was considered doing well. The district will use the data from the survey to address areas of concern and work to improve the scores.

 Approved a 4% increase for the base compensation for school bus contractors.

 Approved the long range facility plan updates for Fund 46. This is done on an annual basis to add projects as needed. One area that Leipart addressed was that the only area of the building not currently air conditioned was in the middle school wing. He suggested adding that to the long range plans at a cost of $545,000. Other projects added include upgrading playground equipment, technology equipment, and parking lot repairs. Getting an item on the plan only means that it is eligible to use the Fund 46 money for that project.

 Waived the second reading and approved board policies volume 32.1. It was scheduled for first reading at the meeting. Leipart said the vast majority of changes were technical changes. “There are no substantive changes in this batch of policies,” he said.

 Approved the annual renewals for the district’s property, general liability, crime, automobile, errors and omissions, cyber solutions and umbrella insurance for an overall cost of $81,637. This is up from past years.

 Approved the routine end of year budget amendment. Leipart explained they do this each June to bring the budget in line with what the actual revenues and expenses of the district were over the past year. As a result, he proposed putting up to $100,000 into the district’s Fund 46 account from carryover to use for future capital projects.

 After a closed session, the Board returned to open session and voted to not extend a coaching contract to Bobbi Marion for the boys varsity basketball coach for the 2023-2024 season.