During the March meeting, the Big Lake School Board approved bids for two campus improvement projects. 

The school board received bids for work on the Middle School Media Center renovation project. Unfortunately, all the bids came in a bit higher than estimates, with the low bid (Weber, Inc.) at $1,797,000. Grounds manager TJ Zerwas suggested a couple of possible reasons for the increase, including new federal tariffs and bidding out the project later in the season. The school still has plenty of funds from the bond (approved by local voters) to finish the project. 

The board also received bids for the Independence Elementary fire alarm replacement project. The school has to replace these alarms according to state statute due to recent HVAC replacements and renovations. The low bid (Johnson Controls) came in at $289,865, which Zerwas said was a shocking amount, as it was significantly lower than the estimate they received a year ago when considering the project. The project will be completed over the summer. 

Financial Report

The schools saw growth in enrollment, which has been a trend for the last several months. They gained three students in February. The funding the school receives from the state is directly tied to their average daily membership (a.k.a. enrollment) and so Business Manager Angie Manuel made a budget revision to show the increase. Manuel stated the schools are finally back to their enrollment levels of two years ago.  

The board approved sending $36,755.83 to Wright Technical College as per the terms of their partnership.Wright Tech relies on their partner schools for their facility maintenance fund, which will cost $406,591 next year. Each school in the partnership levies to pay for this cost, and so their students have the opportunity to explore higher education opportunities. The Big Lake share has gone down from previous years.

MTSS and PBIS Updates

Multi-Tiered System of Supports is a framework of support intended to support each student at his/her level of learning. It is a nationally-acclaimed program which the Big Lake District has been implementing for nearly three years, though this is the first year where it is actually being implemented district-wide. The district received a grant to help fund their efforts with MTSS.

The program works by having school staff work as MTSS leads or an MTSS coordinators. There are teams which work to recognize students who need additional help and make sure they receive the support they need. When staff identifies a student who needs additional support, the student’s parent is notified and staff works to complete an assessment to determine what kind of assistance the student needs.

The MTSS teams in the district intend to keep families updated on their efforts through newsletters, phone calls, and parent-teacher conferences. 

The school district also implements PBIS (Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports) which is intended to improve student behaviors. There are three tiers to PBIS, including: establishing support for students and preventing unwanted behaviors; directly supporting students at risk for problem behaviors before the behaviors start; and offering individualized support to students to improve behavior and academic outcomes. 

Each school has their own PBIS goals for the year. These goals can be found with the meeting agenda at https://tinyurl.com/Big-Lake-Schools-March-Meeting.

Data Update

The board gets tri-annual updates on student data. Student attendance rates are high, with attendance being at about 93-96% typically, with the percentage of full-day attendance being between 85-90% typically. A student may not be counted towards a full day attendance for many reasons, including leaving for appointments, due to illness, or pursuing work studies or college level classes off campus. 

Benchmark tests are administered to students to see how they are performing with the material. Those in the 40th percentile and higher in their scores are considered at grade level. Those below that level are flagged for needing additional resources, especially those below the 15th percentile. 

Unlike with reading, there are not significant structures for math intervention for students. The district has made a big push lately to improve reading literacy, but, according to Assistant Superintendent of Teaching and Learning Minda Anderson, there are not any set up structures to do the same for math. At the moment, teachers and building staff have to set up their own interventions for struggling students. Anderson says she hopes to focus on building up the math interventions in a couple of years after the schools have finished integrating the reading intervention programs. 

The board reviewed and discussed the presentation of student scores, which can also be found with the meeting agenda (https://tinyurl.com/Big-Lake-Schools-March-Meeting). 

In Other Business, the Board: 

• Approved the non-renewal of some teaching contracts (due to performance, licensing, and other reasons) which is completed in March in order to give individuals time to find new employment;

• Heard committee updates;

• Heard student representative and superintendent reports.