Committee assignments, MMR progress and the welcoming of new board members were all a part of Monday’s Becker School Board meeting.
Oath of Office
Replacing Ross Demant on the board is newly-elected Connie Robinson. Jason Kindred and Lori Molus retained their seats in the election last November. The terms for the board seats are four years each.
Ryan Sommerdorf and Kami Ziebarth will continue to serve as the student representatives on the school board this year.
Election of Officers
The board voted to maintain the current positions on the board, including keeping Aaron Jurek as the chairman, Kindred as the vice chair, naming Mark Swanson as the clerk and Molus as treasurer.
Committee Assignments
The board reviewed last year’s school board committee assignments and since Demant’s seat was replaced by Robinson, she was asked if she’d be okay with taking on his old assignments of being on the free & reduced price meals, certified negotiations, administrative negotiations, nutrition and technology.
Robinson agreed to the assignments.
The only other change to the assignments was for Bryan Olson to accept being part of the curriculum advisory committee and community education, while Molus dropped community education in place of Olson.
Steering Committee
Jurek said the steering committee (consisting of 20 representatives), is looking into moving the high school to five-period trimesters instead of the current four-on-four block semesters.
Jurek said 16 of the 17 representatives at the last committee meeting voted to approve the change that is targeted for the spring school period. Currently, Jurek says, the committee is gathering data and will pass this information along to students and parents in a timely manner.
Jurek said the committee looked at trends and data and used six components as part of their data gathering. The components identified more schools are turning to trimesters — with staff at Becker’s middle school also considering the change.
Malone Report
Dr. Stephen Malone said school board members are now registered for the MSBA (Minnesota School Boards Association) conference on Jan. 12-13 at the Minneapolis Convention Center. The conference features nationally recognized speakers, workshops on a variety of topics, a Show and Tell event and a trade show.
Malone advised everyone on the board to check with him to verify their travel plans and itinerary.
Board Handbook
Dr. Malone included in the board’s packet a 15-page PDF titled, “The First Monday In January” which is a handbook identifying everything one needs to know for one’s school board meeting.
The handbook included topics on meeting agendas, the seating of new board members, open meeting laws, the election of officers and general procedures. It also touched on the subjects of voting, the duties of the officers, the calendar and how to conduct business at each meeting.
MMR Progress
Malone mentioned a district reading coach has been identified and contracted for one day per week beginning Jan. 23. She (unidentified) will begin working with high school English teachers and will also work with primary school teachers.
Malone says common assessments for high school math continues to be the focus of weekly PLC meetings. The results of student achievement on common assessments are analyzed after instruction to determine mastery of academic standards and effective instruction.
Malone says on Dec. 14, the high school math teachers met and continued planning for the algebra II probability and statistics. Standards were also placed and assessments were developed.
For high school English, Malone said teachers met Dec. 16 and processed student work (including writing samples) from English 10B and English 9 using the data protocol. Progress on curriculum for English 10A was also completed including course templates, units, pacing, and common assessments.
For the intermediate school, Malone said many classroom teachers have implemented guided math (small group instruction) within the classroom to differentiate instruction. These teachers have been collaborating and observing one another for best instructional practice.
Malone also said a group of classroom teachers are flexibly grouping for reading, math and science instruction to meet the varying needs and academic levels of students. Data from common assessments are showing growth for students at all achievement levels.
Fourth grade teachers have created additional reading (vocabulary) and math fact fluency support programs for students to utilize on iPads. The iPads will be sent home in collaboration with parents for these specific reading and math programs.
Twenty-two of the 26 classrooms scored below the grade level reading proficiency as measured by DIEBELS at the beginning of the year. Twenty of the 22 tested above grade level after the PRESS intervention. One of the two classrooms low in fluency completed another round of the PRESS intervention and is now above benchmark. The other classroom low in fluency is completing an extended PRESS intervention.
Up Next
The next Becker School Board meeting is Feb. 6 at 6 :30 p.m.
