BonnerSprings.com

A year of accomplishment is how Delaware Ridge Elementary principal Cindy Lockyear described the school’s second year of existence.

“(Delaware Ridge Elementary) had what I would consider a very successful year,” Lockyear said in her year-end report during Monday night’s USD 204 Board of Education meeting.

Lockyear’s was one of two year-end reports presented at the meeting; the other report was made by Edwardsville Elementary principal Aaron Miller, .

Lockyear reported enrollment had gone up by 18 students during the course of the year, and she expected next year’s enrollment to grow further, especially with more families moving into the Delaware Ridge housing development.

“I’m guessing we might go up another 22 students next year, and maybe even more than that,” Lockyear said.

Lockyear also noted a number of staff changes occurring next school year. These include preschool and second-grade teachers Staci Bruns and Michelle Davis, who both accepted teaching positions elsewhere. Four new teachers hired for next school year are Kristi Mayer, who will be teaching kindergarten, Beth Baughman, who will be teaching first-grade, Sheila McDonald, who will be teaching fourth-grade, and LaDrew Murrell, who will be teaching physical education.

Lockyear also made special note of Miller, former Delaware Ridge assistant principal, who moved into his new position as principal at Edwardsville Elementary about a month ago.

“It’s awesome we were able to find a position in the district to keep him with us,” she said. “We’ll miss Aaron, but I think we’ll be able to take care of it.”

Delaware Ridge met Academic Yearly Progress standards, Lockyear reported, with 90 percent of students meeting or exceeding standards in the state assessment tests in reading and math. She said that one reason for this might be the portfolios each student kept throughout the year that included progress reports and a list of individual goals. This helped students monitor their progress, Lockyear said, and also take ownership of their work.

Lockyear said while she was impressed with how well most of the students were doing, it was important not to forget the 10 percent of students who didn’t meet standards.

“When you just look at the surface, that (90 percent) is great,” Lockyear said. “While we’re at that 90 percent or higher, there are still 10 percent of our students that are not meeting standards. We have to do whatever is necessary to meet their needs and make sure that they’re making progress.”

Another challenge during the next year will be reaching the English-as-a-second-language students, Lockyear said. She said without a bilingual staff member, it had been difficult to communicate with parents who speak little or no English.

In his Edwardsville Elementary year-end report, Miller said attendance had grown by 14 students during the last year, and next year, he expected to have 22 more. A new counselor, Kristin Moulin, had also been hired.

Miller reported he had switched teachers in each grade level. He said in addition to several other grade switches, two second-grade teachers will teach third grade next year. This will be an experimental approach, Miller said, to measure student growth in each grade level.

“I’m hoping we can get some things stirring to help each grade level grow,” Miller said. “I want to see how this helps our kids develop.”

Miller said assessment tests for the school year were somewhat disappointing. Edwardsville Elementary only met AYP safe harbor, a provision for schools failing to meet standards but that are able to, as Miller said of Edwardsville Elementary, “… move 10 percent of (students) from academic warning or below up to the next level.”

He said more growth had been made in the younger grade levels — 11.5 percent growth in the second grade — and some students in higher grade levels were having to catch up with lessons they didn’t learn successfully in earlier grades. This is a problem, Miller said, and one the whole school would have to fix.

“This is all of our job,” Miller said. “If someone’s getting to the third grade, and they’re not meeting their grade level, someone didn’t do their job along the way. It’s going to be a whole school process.”

Miller said the staff at Edwardsville Elementary would have many challenges ahead, including strengthening communication, but the school had every chance to get on target.

“I think we’re really trying to change some things for the good,” Miller said. “I think we really have some good things going on and some good people who are going to work hard to get us where we need to be.”

In other action, the board:

• Heard Tami Koppang, director of business and finance services, correct a statement she made at the May 18 meeting regarding gifted education. Koppang said at the earlier meeting that the program was “no longer federally mandated,” but said during Monday night’s meeting that her statement had been incorrect in that the program had only ever been state mandated.

• Heard a question from Edwardsville resident Troy Thompson. He asked about a $50,000 cut made to Expeditionary Learning.

“Did that money come from the (Kauffman) grant that we received, and is that money just gone, or is it being shifted to another program, or what?” Thompson asked the board.

Koppang said the Kauffman grant was one that was matched by the district, and it wouldn’t be matched as heavily during the next year as it had in the past. She said most of the cuts would come from those made to professional development and travel.

• Approved the adoption of the agenda.

• Approved the board minutes from the May 18 meeting.

• Approved the treasurer and clerk’s report.

• Approved warrants totaling $235,669.73.

• Approved a bid made by Brandy Electric for the Bonner Springs High School baseball field lights and a bid made by Heartland Seating for new bleachers at Clark Middle School.

• Heard a technology report made by USD 204 IT director Ken Clark about technological development made within the district. Updates in his report included that six Dell servers had been acquired for the district, and new iMacs had been purchased for Clark Middle School, Edwardsville Elementary, Bonner Springs Elementary and Delaware Ridge. Additionally, new advancements had been made to e-mail accounts, time clocks and enrollment procedures. LCD projectors and televisions had been installed in 95 percent of the rooms, and several Bonner Springs High School students were able to take a televised Chinese Mandarin class via the new interactive distance learning system.

• Approved the board meeting dates for the 2009-2010 school year.

• Approved bills totaling $45,698.03.

• Heard a bond issue update. Superintendent Robert Van Maren was absent from the meeting but reported via e-mail the concession stand was moving forward. The idea was also raised by the board that some of the excess money from the bond might be used for the new baseball field lights and bleachers at CMS.

• Heard the superintendent’s update. Van Maren reported, also via e-mail, summer school at BSE, CMS and BSHS begins next week, June 8. He also reported more information was coming regarding the education stimulus money.

Koppang added to this report by saying more cuts to the budget could be made in November.

• Approved a motion to hire the best person for the CMS guidance counselor position, whether that person has experience with guidance counseling or social work.

• Approved all new, renewed and summer contracts.

• Approved the resignations of Michelle Davis, second-grade teacher at DRE, Bob Gadwood, eighth-grade science teacher at CMS, Paula Peterson, maintenance secretary, and Amanda Rhodes, BSE Title I reading aide.

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