School board takes hard look at recent assessment test

Parents and administrators discuss possible plans for boys soccer

by Matt Hughes

J-E News Editor

On Monday night the Webster County School board heard a proposal from WCHS principal Tim Roy and parent Allison McCormick about the creation of a Webster County High School boys soccer program for the 2014-2015 school year.

“The process the KHSAA prescribes is to do an interest survey will all seventh through eleventh graders,” Roy told the board. “If you have twice the number of students that would be required for post season play, then there would be a parents meeting. If you have the support there, then you can move forward.”

A boys soccer program has been long debated in the district, which has had girls soccer for thirteen years. The difficulty has always been Title IX consideration, which is no different today than ever before.

Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 is a federal law that prohibits sex discrimination in education programs that receive federal funds. The Title IX statute became law June 23, 1972, and the regulation implementing the statute went into effect on July 21, 1975.

The basic idea is to make spending on girls and boys sports as equal as possible. But football is always one of the most expensive sports, swaying the spend in favor of the boys.

“The KHSAA gives leniency to schools with football programs,” said Allison McCormick.

“They realize that the boys spending will always be higher because of football,” added Tim Roy.

Board Chairman Jeff Pettit urged Roy as well as athletic director Matt Bell to pursue the issue further, and to take advantage of McCormick’s willingness to help push the issue. He tasked the group with coming up with a plan that they could present to the board at it’s next meeting.

Discussion of the district’s recent assessment test scores was a bit uncomfortable and even heated at times. Kim Saalwaechter, district Instructional Supervisor let the board and gathered administrators know that test scored had to go up.

“We could look at becoming a consistently low scoring school,” Saalwaechter said. “That’s a district that needs state assistance.”

“We know what we did last year at the high school,,” said Pettit. “I’m sure we did some of the same things at the middle school and elementary schools. If we look at the College and Work Ready scores, we dropped four and a half points. So what we did isn’t working.”

Board member Leland Steeley wasn’t pulling any punches when he addressed the principals gathered at the meeting.

“Have we sat down with our students or had them come to their teacher and discuss things that weren’t on the test?” Steeley asked. The answer was negative.

“How many students in your senior class are college and career ready?” he asked Tim Roy.

“We started the year with 26 (of 150) students college ready based on their ACT scores,” Roy answered.

Mickey Dunbar followed the same theme, first voicing his disapproval in the absence of Middle School principal Geoff Bailey.

“Where is Mr. Bailey? It would have been nice for him to have been here. I am very, very disappointed that he is not here for this discussion. That is ridiculous.”

Dunbar then questioned the district’s continued use of a four day school week, pointing out that it was one of the most glaring differences between Webster County and other districts that were improving.

“Actually, the letter we got from the Education Commissioner said that we had to meet our delivery targets on the assessment tests to continue with the alternative schedule,” said Saalwaechter.

Tim Roy. Clay Principal Clay Mattingly and Providence Principal Greg Bowels both voiced their dissatisfaction with the short school week. Mattingly pointed out that the schedule lengthened the day by only 15 minutes, but shortened the school year by 13 days.

Roy said that most of the time his daughter never has home work over the three day weekend.

Bowels added that his teachers had to spend one of the four remaining school days reteaching students what they forgot over their long weekend.

“When we first implemented the four day week, out test scores rose,” said assistant superintendant Alan Lossner. “But over the years its lost steam. I think a five day week is what’s best for our students. I would implement it next week if I could.”