Austin Tracy Elementary Principal Lee Johnson breaks down his school's report card data and outline the steps forward to Board member, and Vice Chair, Mike Miller, left, during the Dec. 14 Barren County Board of Education meeting. Michael Crimmins/Glasgow News 1.
By MICHAEL CRIMMINS
Glasgow News 1
As members of the Barrentones gathered around their director, Byron Lucas, to sing numerous Christmas carols, the five members of the Barren County Schools Board of Education, along with Superintendent Bo Matthews, met to discuss and approve various agenda items during Thursday’s meeting.
During the roughly two-hour meeting, the board listened to Scott Harper and Anthony Frazier, both department heads, and the principals from Eastern, Park City and Austin Tracy elementary schools.
At approximately the hour mark of the meeting Scott Harper, director of instruction and technology, informed the members that they would be engaged for the next three months breaking down the data gleaned from the 2022-2023 school report card by breaking up those present into three groups, and spent 10 minutes with each individual school. The batch of school data consisted of Eastern, Park City and Austin Tracy elementaries with their respective principals Erika DeVore, Beth Davidson and Lee Johnson.
Eastern had an overall score of 74.3 with a green overall rating representing a change level of “increase.” In reading they had an index score of 60.5, which is up from the prior year’s 57.9. Across the board, in all categories — math, science, social studies and writing — Eastern had better index scores.
DeVore said the biggest area of concern currently was writing, while she saw “huge gains” in science.
“It has been since I’ve been here,” DeVore said. “We’ve tried different things and, everyone will probably say this, but around the COVID time we were really gaining speed…and was really excited for that group to get to test and then they didn’t get to. So now we’re having to look again and say ‘okay that writing committee we have where are they? Let’s get back together and decide, across the board, where we want to go with writing.’”
She said while they could stand to see an increase in their scores, DeVore said the teachers are celebrating the growth. The focus now is replication and maintenance.
Park City Elementary had the lowest scores of the three schools displayed at the Dec. 14 meeting and being given a federal classification as a “Targeted Support and Improvement” institution.
“We have our work cut out for us, and we realize that,” Davidson said. “We know that there are lots of areas for growth in Park City, therefore we have put some things in place that are going to make a difference. We’re already seeing some improvement with our winter testing.”
The school had an overall score of 41.3 with an overall rating of orange. According to data Davidson provided they went down on math and science while increasing in reading, social studies and writing. Davidson said teachers focusing on instruction and being intentional have already started showing improvements.
Johnson, who is the principal of Austin Tracy, said the “scores are not where they want them” currently, but the data reflected one snapshot of the school. He said they look more so at longitudinal data of individual students and classes “so they get where they need to be” by the time they go to sixth grade.
“In a small school like us we sometimes have that variability between classes,” Johnson said. “This is really not indicative of what’s happening in our school.”
Johnson said they will focus on reading and math going forward; simultaneously working on Novice reduction and “pushing high achievers as high as they can go.”
“We’re not discouraged,” Johnson said. “If anything we are fired up.”
After each principal spoke, Anthony Frazier, director of pupil personnel, presented the board with two items.
The first concerned a lease agreement between the board and the city of Park City. The lease, signed by Park City Mayor Larry Poteet, states that a piece of land on N. Gossom Street — a piece of land near, and owned by Park City Elementary — will be used by the city for a dog park. The lease states that the city will have sole use of the property, be liable for use and maintenance and be responsible for its upkeep. Frazier said it was a year-by-year lease. The board members unanimously approved the lease agreement.
The second item Frazier presented involved the 2024-25 school calendar. According to what the calendar committee recommended — which Frazier said is very similar to this year’s calendar — the school year would begin on Aug. 14 and ending on May 22 with 82 days in the first half of the year and 88 after. The board members approved the first reading with the second, and final, reading occurring at the next meeting.
The board also went into closed session to discuss possible litigation as is allowed in the Kentucky Revised Statutes. No action was taken after the members voted to return to open session.
The next board of education meeting is scheduled for Jan. 11.
Comments