Hillsboro students post high assessment scores
Good news travels fast.
While the official final report card isn't expected for a few more weeks, school principals have received a preliminary report from Topeka showing that students in USD 410 performed exceedingly well in the reading and math state assessment tests they took last spring.
By all indications, on average, the vast majority of students, and each district school overall, passed the assessments with flying colors.
The preliminary test results were shared by two school principals at the Sept. 11 USD 410 board of education meeting.
Last spring, Hillsboro High School sophomores took the state math assessment test, and juniors took the state reading test. Middle school students, sixth through eighth grade, took reading and math assessments.
High school principal Dale Honeck told the board a preliminary report he received shows last year's junior
— Continued from Page 1
class scored an overall average of 84.9 percent on its reading assessment, compared to the state average of 58 percent. He also indicated math scores were about 81 percent, which were also well above the state average, he said.
In addition, Honeck also reported good news on the school's ACT test score results.
"For the graduating class of 2006, of the 41 students who took the ACT, our composite was a 24, which is very good," he said. "The state average is about a 22.2 and the national average is about 21.
"In the reading, the composite for that group was about 25.3. That was the highest score that we had, so that was something to be pretty proud of," Honeck said.
In a written report to the board, middle school principal Greg Brown reported that his staff had begun to examine their students' performance results as a group and soon would be looking at each student's scores.
"This is just the briefest of summaries," Brown said. "I think it's very good results."
Brown shared a chart showing how the middle school tested overall in a number of "indicators" or specific subject areas, in which the students were tested. Brown's report reads, "Keeping in mind the above outlines 'class averages' the overall results are remarkable!"
In an interview after the meeting Brown said he looked forward to receiving the final test results so he could help the public understand the significance of the scores.
"We should have a more understandable report before the next board meeting," Brown said.
In a related matter, students in USD 410 were given the day off Monday so teachers could spend the day learning a new method for assessing students' performance in reading and math.
A trainer from the Northwest Education Association was scheduled to provide training in the use of Measures of Academic Progress (MAP), a testing program which helps meet the needs of individual students.
"It's a good, reliable instrument," Mohn said. "My concern with it has been, as we have said at the beginning, we're overloaded with testing already; we're now going to do some more testing."
In other business:
— As part of its consent agenda, the board approved members of building improvement teams, professional development council, and site councils for 2006-07.
Building improvement teams:
Hillsboro Elementary: Lenna Knoll (chairman), Gloria Winter (vice chairman), Sandy Arnold, Michele Berens, Keli Chisholm, Debbie Dick (first semester), Michelle Goldsby (second semester), Rod Just, Rita Loewen, Claire Overstake, Melissa Stenfors, and, principal Evan Yoder.
Hillsboro Middle School: Darlene Bartel, Michelle Faul, Sue Railsback, Stephanie Sinclair, Tonja Wieneck, and principal Greg Brown.
Hillsboro High School: Kory Unruh (chairman), Creigh Bell, Anita Boese, Stuart Holmes, Diana Holub, Monica Leihy, and principal Dale Honeck.
Professional development council: Dustin Dalke (chairman), Darlene Bartel, Greg Brown, Eleanor Jost, Bob Woelk, and board member Gary Andrews.
Site councils:
Hillsboro Elementary: Eileen Butler, Candace Couts, Keana Fairchild, Penni Funk, Elizabeth Hill, Edy Jost, Wendy Jost, Kim Klein, Tina King, Lisa Loewen, Sara Morey, Robin Plenert, Amy Ratzlaff, Shelly Shale, Tawnya Siebert, Tim Unruh, Christy Wulf, and principal Evan Yoder.
Hillsboro Middle School: Jan Frantz (chairman), Connie Weber (vice chairman), Carolyn Brazil, Pati Funk, Lori Klein, Kandis Pankratz, Shelly Rooker, Diedre Serene, Marolyn Schlehuber, Dale Winter, and principal Greg Brown.
Hillsboro High School: David Suderman (chairman), Coleen Koop (vice chairman), Myrna Hamm (secretary), Marlin Bartel (treasurer), Daniel Berg (student council representative), Ken Johnson, Cheryl Jost, LaDonna Langley, Cheri Marsh, Wendy McCarty, Penni Schroeder, Bob Woelk, and principal Dale Honeck.
— The board extended 195-day contracts to teachers Stuart Holmes, Scott O'Hare, and Jim Robb as additional compensation for teaching on the TEEN network. Holmes is teaching international relations, Robb is teaching American government, and O'Hare is teaching and earth and space science class. The master contract provides three additional contract days, which adds $653, $641, and $564 to the teachers' annual salaries, respectively.
— The board approved a supplemental contract to Diana Holub to serve as sophomore class sponsor, replacing Michele Melton.
— The board approved the 2006-07 master contract as agreed upon on Aug. 30 by the interest based bargaining team and ratified 38-0 by a vote of the districts' teachers.
In addition to a seven percent raise in salaries, the 2006-07 master contract includes the following changes:
— Teachers who volunteer to supervise students during their 30-minute duty-free lunch period will receive $20 per day.
— Sick leave days may be converted to personal leave after all paid personal leave has been exhausted. The rate of conversion will be a ratio of three sick leave days to one personal leave day.
— Added an assistant cross-country coach at four percent to the extra duty percentages.
— Established a new base salary for the district at $29,700, which is an increase of $2,000.
In addition, a salary step was added to each column on the teachers' salary schedule, assuring that those who previously had reached the top of their tiers would get a seven percent pay raise.
— The board also voted to approve the 2006-07 contract for classified personnel, with the following changes:
— As with the new provision in the teachers' contract, sick leave days also may be converted to personal leave after all paid personal leave has been exhausted.
— The district will reimburse up to $85 for out-of-pocket expenses for those required to have a physical exam as a condition of employment, up from $65 previously.
— Bus drivers will be paid at a rate of $8.35 an hour (up from $7.85) for hours in excess of contracted routes.
— In a bit of show-and-tell during the superintendent's report, Mohn told the board the "mystery water leak" under the concrete floor at the elementary school had been found. He showed them the ruptured, twisted piece of pipe, which was replaced at a cost of $2,400.
"This is the pipe that was leaking under the elementary school," he said. "It wasn't up to code when this addition was made back in the early 1980s. This kind of flexed tubing was not within code, but it was installed."
After shutting the water off for a week, contractors cut a hole in the concrete floor within six inches of the leak.
"Looking back now, we could have probably had a local person do it and save us some money, but we just didn't know," Mohn said. "We ended up being pretty lucky."
— The superintendent also reported that he had declined the FCCLA club's request to travel by automobile to a convention in Phoenix, Ariz., suggesting instead that it find someplace to go within a 500- to 600-mile radius of Hillsboro.
"These kids need some kind of rewards. They're good kids, they're doing extra things," Mohn said. "But we've just got to stay a little closer to home."
— In a decision he suggested he might live to regret, Mohn announced a district-wide search to find and revise the "stupidest rule" in the district's myriad of handbooks, manuals, and other books.
"We've talked a little bit about trying to look at the things we do, that when we step back and look we say, 'Why do we do that? Is there a good reason to do it?' and, 'Have we just continued to do it because we always did it?'
"Here's an example," he added.
"We had a parent call all aggravated that we've got this rule at the middle school that if you lose something, that you've got to pay a quarter to get it out of Lost and Found.
"Well, the purpose of it is to help teach kids to be responsible. But I ask the question; when our teachers forget their notebook at a meeting, do we charge them a quarter to get their notebook back. Even we as adults sometimes lose things, so we changed the rule."
Mohn invited board members to join him and employees throughout the district in a crusade to find rules and guidelines in handbooks and other materials that are out of date, or, in retrospect, should never have been written.
"We even thought about making it kind of a contest, who can submit an idea for the stupidest rule we have, but then we thought, someone's liable to submit an idea that they think is stupid that we think is our greatest rule."
— The board approved the payment of bills totaling $304,732.76.
— The board met twice in executive session to discuss employment matters and property acquisition, but no action was taken.
