COVID-19 response and test scores top discussion, general levy approved for May election

SEELEY LAKE – At their March 11 meeting, the Seeley Lake Elementary school board discussed COVID-19 preparations, the 2018-2019 test scores and unanimously approved running a general fund levy. The General levy will appear on the May 5 mail-in election.

During his superintendent report, Daniel Schrock said that he ordered a cordless disinfectant fogger for $700. It will not arrive until April 30. It takes an average of three minutes to clean a room. Until then they are promoting good hand washing techniques, frequently wiping down commonly touched surfaces and have scheduled a deep cleaning over spring break.

“Our kids learn best when they are here. The healthier we can keep them and our staff, that is money well spent,” said Schrock.

SLE District Clerk Heather Mincey added that the school has been using green products to disinfect but they are not effective against viruses. She has been looking for the proper hand sanitizers and disinfectant wipes. She has 30 packs of disinfectant wipes but the rest are two months out.

Schrock said he is in contact with the Missoula County Public School District who is taking direction from the Missoula City-County Health Department and the State.

“We will be lock-step with that,” said Schrock.

SLE received a letter from the Office of Public Instruction (OPI) identifying Seeley Lake seventh and eighth grade as Targeted by OPI for the first year for the Special Education student group because they are performing in the lowest 5% of the state.

“The first step in any problem is identifying there is a problem,” said Schrock. “The second step is bringing in the resources and experts in to help us elevate those scores and a collective effort to improve.”

Out of 183 students, special education teacher Janina Bradley has a caseload of 36 students, significantly higher than any other educator at SLE. Schrock said the average special education rates in a school are 10-12%. SLE far exceeds that for special education and that doesn’t account for emotional disturbances or behavioral occurrences.

“Once it is in an [Individual Education Plan], we are on the hook and bound to provide those services, whether we have the money or not,” said Schrock. “It is also what is in the best interest of these kids. They need help.”

Schrock said that he feels the special education students have become disgruntled after repeated failures to the point that their “give-a-darn” is broken. Success builds on success and these students haven’t seen it. They need to feel appreciated and accommodations made so they can be successful.

“There is a big need in this community, bigger than I have seen in other communities in Montana,” said Schrock.

Schrock said when he came in last fall, he didn’t have time to assess and make curriculum changes but he did implement Accelerated Reader (AR) and provide incentives for the students to achieve. He appreciates Stageline Pizza and Rovero’s for supporting those incentives and is thankful for the students who have embraced it.

“The smiles that I see from the kids that are getting a pizza in the community, it really is amazing,” said Schrock. “I’m proud of that. I’m thankful that our kids have taken to that and that our teachers have supported that because it takes silent sustained reading time, it takes progress reporting time. We did what we could in the short amount of time that I had to get something going positively towards incentives and incentivizing the progress with literacy in our school.”

Second grade teacher Patti Crum said with the help of third grade teacher Kristy Pohlman, she implemented testing, AR and started a competition between the two grades to get her students up to reading level. In January, the students started at average just barely above second grade reading level. Now they are on average at 3.29. There are four students at the high first grade level and receive Title 1 support. The rest are reading at a third – fifth grade level.

“Thank you for bringing those tools to my attention. The incentives work,” said Crum. “They just love it.”

While Swan Valley School received $37,000 for training including two experts when they were targeted, Schrock said that he doesn’t know what resources SLE will receive or how much funding will come with it.

“Hopefully with this designation and the additional resources that will be on site next year that growth will continue,” said Schrock. “There is tremendous room for improvement and it is my hope as I leave this school district that will continue.”

In regard to the rest of the school, Schrock said the data is pretty glaring. He said SLE was not targeted in the lower grades based on test scores from last spring but there is a lot of room for improvement. The percentages are based on 100% participation.

Third – sixth grade results in Math showed 41.67% of students were proficient or above. The state average is 41%. There was a negative progression in math from year to year.

In reading, 42% of the students were proficient or above with the state average at 50%. That was pretty flat growth between grades.

Satisfactory attendance was at 48% for the 95 percentile for grades three-six.

“That is really low. Our kids need to be appreciated when they walk through the door,” said Schrock. “This is the safest place for many of them to come to. It is very important that they feel appreciated, valued and that they have a semblance of success.”

Fourth grade science scores are 84% of students are proficient or above. Schrock said this is a credit to the students and the staff.

For mainstream seventh and eighth graders, last year’s test scores showed 35% students were proficient or above in math compared to the state average of 42%. There was a negative growth percentage between the two grades. Schrock said students were not making the progress they needed to between grades.

In reading, 37% of students were proficient or above. That is 13% lower than the state average of 50%. The growth was flat between grades.

Science again was significantly higher for the eighth graders that were tested. 75% of students were proficient or above at SLE compared to the state average of 62%.

Johnson questioned why scores are so high for science but low for math, since they should be correlated.

Schrock said he doesn’t know why because there has not been progress monitoring or interim testing prior to this year.

Paraeducator Patty Dillree added that the math and science test scores includes the special education students. They take the same tests but some of the special education students attend science and math class in the regular education setting while others engage in alternative science and math. Because there is such a high caseload, that can be part of the skewing.

Schrock recommended SLE needs to do better at supporting the special education program and said it is up to the administration to figure out how to address the issues.

The board discussed running a general fund levy. The last time SLE ran a voted levy was in 2016. In the past, the cost of the election washed out any gain to the budget, however, this spring there is going to be an election for the board of trustees so there wouldn’t be the additional cost.

District Clerk Heather Mincey explained passing the levy would add to the general fund and it can shorten the gap in future years between the school’s maximum budget without a vote and a maximum budget with a vote.

The board unanimously voted to run a levy vote for $5,471.62. This comes out to $0.83 for a $100,000 home and $1.67 for a $200,000 home.

The board also voted to approve a resolution to run a transportation building reserve and tuition permissive levy. For more information see page 14. The board will vote whether or not to impose the levy when they approve their budget in July or August.

In other business:

• Music teacher Sandra Abbott informed the board that she will not be signing her contract to teach music again next year due to personal reasons.

• The board received the results from their community crossover event from Feb. 22. They are available to the public by contacting SLE. The board will discuss it at their April 21 meeting at 5:30 p.m.

• The board hired Brett Haines and Bradley Miller for this year’s track coach.

• As of Monday, March 16 there are six candidates running for three open trustee positions. The closing date to file for the board is March 26 at 5 p.m. The Pathfinder will be running an Election Guide in the April 16 issue following the mail-out of ballots April 15 highlighting the candidate bios and positions on key issues.

The next board meeting is April 21 at 5:30 p.m. at SLE.