Kennewick School Board Meeting May 11, 2011 5:30 PM Adjournment at 7:30 PM
All board members were present.
Business:
• Superintendent Dave Bond recommended that KSD take no official position regarding construction of a private RV park near Cottonwood Elementary school. The board concurred.
• The school board will conduct a retreat for discussions on Saturday, June 11.
• The state legislature has not yet produced a state budget. A special session is possible in June.
• Board members Kathy White and Wendy London participated in a two day Washington State School Directors Association (WSSDA) training for school board members.
• Bond presented a comprehensive report of information collected from KSD parents, staff, teachers and administrators regarding the proposed KSD Strategic Plan North Star goals.
See details below.
• Ron Williamson presented the second reading of Policy No. 3207 Students: Prohibition of harassment, intimidation, bullying and cyber bullying. The policy was approved unanimously by the board.
• Chuck Lybeck presented the district-wide Science adoption for grades K-5. See details below.
• Williamson presented a recommendation from a district committee to alter start times for KSD schools beginning next fall. The recommendation was adopted with revisions. See details below.
KSD Strategic Plan North Star Goals
For specifics of the goals see:
http://ksdcitizens.org/2011/04/01/ksd-strategic-plan-proposed-north-star-goals-2011-12/
Bond stated that about 250 parents, teachers, community members and administrators responded to KSD’s request for comments about the 11 goals. Approximately half of the responses were from district staff and the other half was parents.
The school board will review the comments and reconsider the goals during the March 25 meeting. Final adoption of the goals will be during the June 15 meeting.
Bond noted that some goals were not well understood by the public and even by teachers. Context and terminology are important to knowing the meaning of a goal. Within the format designed to solicit input it was not possible to clarify some points for the respondents.
The input forms provided an option to rank the top three and bottom three goals. Based on responses the rankings are:
Highest Priority: Student safety (goal 1), third grade reading goal (goal 2), extended graduation rate (goal 9), catch-up growth (goal 6) and kindergarten readiness (goal 3).
Lowest Priority: 8th grade Algebra (goal 7), adult safety (goal 2), kindergarten readiness (goal 3), well-prepared graduates (goal 10) and extra/co-curricular opportunities (goal 8).
While 250 forms were included in the collection of data, not all items received responses on each form. The actual number of responses for each goal ranked as number one:
Highest Priority
Student safety (1) 143
Third grade reading (2) 88
Extended graduation rate (9) 60
Catch-up growth (6) 59
Kindergarten readiness (3) 57
Lowest Priority
8th grade Algebra (7) 94
Adult safety (2) 80
Kindergarten readiness (3) 69
Well-prepared graduates (10) 57
Extra/co-curricular (8) 55
Other goals suggested by respondents:
Health and Fitness
Parental Involvement
Engaging Hispanic and/or bilingual parents
Reducing class sizes
Improving teacher quality
Additional opportunities for gifted students, especially in middle school
Opportunities for top quartile students
Increasing technology access
Character education / Positive human relationships
Third grade math goal (Bond commented there is a goal now)
Job shadowing
Fewer goals / sharper focus
Fewer interruptions to daily schedule
Nine Intelligences
Bond has provided a detailed report which is available on this site as a separate article.
K-5 Science Adoption
KSD currently has 17 science kits which are used in classrooms. Five of these kits will be replaced by different kits which meet new science goals. The kits are:
Patterns All Around from Building Blocks of Science for grade 1
Push, Pull and Go from Building Blocks of Science for grade 1
Habitats from Science Companion for grade 2
Our Solar System from Science Companion for grade 4
Energy from Science Companion for grade 5
School Start Times
High school principals had initiated a discussion about school start times because zero hour classes must begin at 6:30 AM. This early start has been problematic with students being tardy or absent. The study committee recommended starting high school 15 minutes later than now which would be 7:50 AM. Zero hour would also start 15 minutes later.
Transportation requirements would necessitate changing start times for elementary and middle schools as well.
Board discussion focused on the impact for working families of elementary school students. The proposal would change elementary start time to 8:50 AM. Following some deliberation a compromise was unanimously approved by the board to set high school and middle school start times 10 minutes later next fall with elementary start time 5 minutes later.
This will be reviewed next school year for reconsideration of the original proposal.
The length of the school day will remain the same so school end times will be 10 minutes later for high school and middle schools and 5 minutes later for elementary schools.
High school start time will be 7:45 AM and end time will be 2:20 PM
Middle school start time will be 8:00 AM and end time 2:28 PM
Elementary school start time will be 8:40 AM and end time will be 3:17 PM
