Council ‘Underperforming’; Board Discusses ISAT Results
The Council School Board met for their regular meeting on September 16. All board members were present this week.
No public comment was offered. The board keeps a slot open for public comment at the beginning of each meeting.
Board chairman, Steve Ryals, discussed the new School Resource Officer (SRO) who started duty last week. Chris Carlisle is filling this role and splitting his time between the Council and New Meadows school districts. His role and duties in these districts was discussed.
Ryals next discussed the district’s ISAT (Idaho Standards Achievement Test) results. He stated he was ‘appalled’ at what the results were. He said the district’s score were very low - low when compared to nearby districts and low compared to other small districts in the state. (To view results and to compare school districts, go to www.idahoreportcard.org)
Brian Joyce, High School Principal and Interim Superintendent, stated that Council has been recognized as an ‘underperforming’ school. According to Joyce, the administration was recently notified of this designation. More information about what this means for Council schools will be coming soon. However, he did state that they will be working with Idaho Building Capacity (IBC) to build the district’s capacity to improve student outcomes. ‘With that comes opportunity’ Joyce said when referring to this designation.
Joyce also discussed the Idaho Home Learning Academy, an online school ran by the state. He stated that the district uses this resource currently but he would like to be more flexible with it’s use to keep more students in the district.
Mindy Ivey reported that the lunch program has unpaid balances totaling about $17,000. Due to staff and student turnover, Ivey stated that it would be very difficult to collect on these funds and asked to start the year at ‘zero’ and move forward from there. A $3,500 donation was made to the district to help defray some of this cost. The board discussed the logistics of accounting for student meals and making sure this is accurate as well as billing properly for these.
Elementary Principal Leo Fontana reported that they are working on developing their Special Education program per the corrective action plan that the district has been working under with the state. Fontana reported that he has formalized meetings for the SPED team as well as processes for tracking student progress. Fontana also reported that they are seeing a lot of positive progress with the elementary students and the PBIS program (Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports).
Royce Bauer reported that there is now water and power to the elementary green house and the concession stand.
Mindy Ivey, district business clerk, reported that they will have an audit on September 18.
At the end of the meeting the board approved the hiring of several new substitutes and aides.
