Kennewick School Board Meeting January 26, 2011 5:30 PM Adjournment at 8:42 PM
Board members Dawn Adams, Heather Kintzley, Kathy White and Akshai Baskaran were present.
Board members Lynn Fielding and Wendy London were delayed 17 minutes while finishing a meeting with Superintendent Dave Bond.
Business:
• Board member White announced she will be attending a school directors’ meeting in Washington, DC
• Sam Shick reported on KSD nutrition policy for school breakfast and lunch programs. Samples of new salads and wraps were provided to the board and others in attendance. Healthier selections are replacing cinnamon rolls and fries.
• Jim Beaver, County Commissioner, was recognized for his leadership organizing county and railroad resources to advance construction of the access road to Cottonwood Elementary. Board members offered their thanks and Bond presented Beaver with a plaque.
• Bond read a proclamation to the board from Governor Gregoire honoring their community service during School Board Recognition Month. Board members received certificates. Fielding was noted for nearly 23 years on the board and Kintzley for one year.
• London stated there is a proposal to name the district administration building after former superintendent Don Anderson. White added there is a process for naming KSD buildings.
• The main business of this meeting was discussion of the KSD Strategic Plan. There was robust, thoughtful dialogue about several North Star goals. See details below.
• Ron Williamson gave the first and second reading of two policies regarding field trips and extra-curricular student travel. Trips shorter than 300 miles from Kennewick will not require prior board approval while trips farther than 300 miles will require approval. Both policies were unanimously approved.
• Bond read Board Member Compensation policy 1532 which provides a $50. stipend for attendance at board meetings. The board voted unanimously to waive compensation.
KSD Strategic Plan
Bond presented a calendar for completing the district North Star goals. These are the major goals driving curriculum and instruction district wide. The district utilizes the SMART goal model (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Related to student performance and achievement, Time-bound). See calendar at end of this article.
He proposed to offer potential goals for board consideration then have the board take one of five actions: Adopt the goal as presented, adopt the goal with modifications, reject the goal, review and consider at a future meeting or obtain more information before making a decision.
Potential Goals -
Reduce incidents of fighting, bullying and harassment by 5% per year.
Discussion raised the need for definitions for bullying and harassment, for uniformity of coding student behaviors throughout the district and reduction of the number of categories of student behaviors from the current 20 or 30 to a manageable number. Also considered was whether to quantify this goal or to focus on conflict resolution training like PSR.
The board decided to have secondary school principals draft a revised goal to bring to the board in two weeks.
Reduce OSHA Reportable Incidents and Reduce Accepted Claims.
Bond stated that KSD’s claims are 8 to 12% higher than comparable districts. Adams added that Kennewick’s safety record is “horrible” and there is OSHA data available for comparison with education institutions nationally. Board discussion included using ESD data for comparison with local school districts and the strategies necessary to improve Kennewick’s adult safety program. Vic Roberts will research OSHA safety data.
The board decided to keep this goal while adding ESD data.
Increase the number of students entering Kindergarten with scores of 30 points or higher on KSD literacy assessments to 80%.
Using KSD data, Bond illustrated that when parents bring students to kindergarten scoring 30 or more points on the literacy assessment, KSD can get 97% of those students to meet the third grade reading goal. He expressed that this is a worthy goal if KSD can afford it.
Strategies to achieve this goal included increasing support through ECEAP and READY! for Kindergarten programs.
Considerations during board discussion were that KSD’s mission is K-12 and that money spent on pre-kindergarten programs necessarily reduces funding for K-12. A response was that money spent preparing students for kindergarten will reduce the need for spending in later grades to help students catch up. It was noted that with mobility in Kennewick, many of the students in the pre-kindergarten programs will not be in Kennewick schools for their continuing education.
Bond stated that KSD will work on the whole range of strategies factoring in budget and time considerations.
The board voted 3 to 2 to pass this as a North Star goal.
Baseline Current Winter First Grade DRA and Create Special Focus on Reading Growth in Grades K-1.
After some discussion there was consensus this is a strategy to meet the third grade reading goal and would not become a North Star goal.
Raise the Third Grade Reading Goal to the 50th Percentile which is a RIT Score of 200 on the NWEA Test.
Bond described the RIT score as not truly being a single number but as a range of values. For example, the current standard is a score of 194 (35th percentile) which represents a probable score between 190 and 198. A student repeating the test under the same conditions will achieve this score 2/3 of the time but will score below or above this range 1/3 of the time. So, two out of three times a student takes the test the score will be valid but one out of three times the score will not be valid.
Bond repeated a quote he has heard stating that “data can be precise but not accurate”.
Note: I will be meeting with KSD administrators to better understand the meaning of NWEA testing and RIT scores and will report on that in several weeks.
Bond offered strategies for meeting this goal as increasing time for reading instruction for selected students, more teacher and paraprofessional training, unifying district curriculum and establishing district wide pacing charts.
On average, each school day, KSD elementary schools offer 120 minutes of reading instruction, 60 minutes of math instruction, 50 minutes of writing instruction, 45 minutes of science or social studies, 45 minutes of recess and 30 minutes of music, PE or library time.
Additional time to meet this goal would reduce student instruction in science, social studies, music, PE and library.
There was a lengthy board dialogue about this goal and its impacts on student programs. Clear philosophical differences were revealed during the comments. I paraphrase a few comments from those who participated in the discussion.
Bond – Reading is a life skill and we want to raise the bar for achievement. As reading skills have improved nationally, the standard to be met should also be raised. Some district elementary schools will meet the standard with little difficulty while others will require considerable resources to raise student scores but may never be able to reach the goal.
Adams – Literacy is a fundamental goal and the current standard is too low. As a school and community representative she is proud to tell others about the KSD third grade reading goal. Supports this as a North Star goal.
Fielding – Improving reading in lower grades will help students read science texts in the upper grades. Students who don’t read well are more likely to drop out of school. Supports this as a North Star goal.
Kintzley – Recognizes that not all students will attend college and that many do benefit from exploratory and elective classes, however, these non-academic classes do not provide students with essential life skills. Students having excellent reading skills will be successful through school and life. Supports this as a North Star goal.
London – Believes teachers will continue striving for student reading achievement without this as a North Star goal. Students need a comprehensive education. Students, it is understood for many reasons, will not reach the goal at the same time and it is not a realistic expectation that they will. The third grade reading goal has unintended consequences for the general school program by requiring a large portion of district resources and limiting student opportunities for participation in a richer school curriculum. Asserts this should not be a North Star goal.
White – Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) education needs more emphasis. Parent comments from the community conversation support more recess during the school day. Does not support this as a North Star goal.
Greg Fancher – KSD as an organization needs to be great at something. We want to be great at reading instruction. If we are not great at something then we are not great at anything.
Akshai Baskaran – Questioned whether all schools need the same reading goal. His opinion was that KSD should allow the goal to be tailored to individual schools. Allowing more flexibility to schools and their administrations will provide balance to their programs.
On a 3 to 2 vote this was passed as a North Star goal.
For more information related to this issue I refer readers to these three articles:
http://ksdcitizens.org/2010/11/03/ksd-and-the-reading-foundation/#comments
http://ksdcitizens.org/2010/11/05/ksd-elementary-school-report/#comments
http://www.tnr.com/print/article/politics/82329/education-reform-Finland-US
It was after 8:30 PM so the board decided to continue consideration of the North Star goals on Tuesday, February 8 at 5:30 PM at the Kennewick School District Administration Center.
This document is the calendar for KSD planning –
Strategic Planning Process
January
Broad goals and objectives are discussed at winter School Board retreat. (examples – 90% Reading Goal, Student Health plans, etc.) Board reviews the major North Star goals. In mid January, Board authorizes District to complete the data, and begin tweaking the text. Updating occurs at the last January meeting.
February
Before the 1st meeting, District prepares a draft of the White paper and a preliminary draft of a 2011-2012 strategic Plan incorporating them into intermediary and work plan objectives. Board members provide written comments – provide direction to Administration about changes to incorporate.
Before 2nd meeting, District updates the draft of White Paper and 2011-2012 Strategic Plan also circulated among School Board members. Vote taken in the final February meeting — documents readied to begin circulation among parents, community members, administrators and teachers during March.
March
District circulates the documents among stakeholders, asking for written comments.
District Administrators, Principals, and Teacher Leaders continue to design strategies and indicators to meet the School Board’s goals and objectives, and develop and revise the Strategic Plan based on those.
April
Administrative plan and indicators are circulated among School Board Members for comment and input. District Administrators, Principals, and Teacher Leaders review Board Members comments and input.
May
Early May: Annual Strategic Planning meeting is held with members of KEA, Administrators, Community Members, and District Administration to provide feedback to School Board.
End of May: Strategic Plan is adopted by the School Board.
June
July
August
Strategic Plan is presented to District Administrators at annual Leadership Retreat
In fairness to Mr. Fancher, I see that in summarizing and paraphrasing a much longer statement I have failed to represent the spirit of his comments about the need for great organizations to have great goals. I hold Mr. Fancher in high regard and believe that was the intent of his statement.
Great job, Tom. I appreciate your comment about Mr. Fancher, but still believe the KSD is on the wrong track with this kind of goal setting.
If Kennewick is really looking for a model of a “World Class” program they should take a look at Finland. Read this and tell me that what Kennewick is doing is on the right track:
Times listed for each subject by Superintendent Bond are as follows: “On average, each school day, KSD elementary schools offer 120 minutes of reading instruction, 60 minutes of math instruction, 50 minutes of writing instruction, 45 minutes of science or social studies, 45 minutes of recess and 30 minutes of music, PE or library time.”
That adds up to 5 hours and 50 minutes of instructional time each day.
My questions are: How accurate is this for individual students? Do all students get this or does it vary widely? Is this true across all grade levels?
I would love to hear back from teachers what actually happens to kids in their classrooms.
Interesting. Finland pays their teachers, not their perceived worth, but their expected worth. According to the Finland article, the teachers have been living up to the expected worth.
Finland also provides better working conditions for teachers rather than top-down curricula and testing requirements, resulting in the teachers AND students doing better.
After 32 years of teaching I still do not believe periodic standardized tests , nor, teaching to those tests will improve teacher or student achievment. Both groups need freedom, power, fun, and to belong, all in appropriate doses. With these four basic human needs satisfied they will thrive.
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