At their October 21 meeting, the Kingsland School Board reviewed a proposal from the 2025 senior class, which asked the school to consider allowing the seniors’ last academic day be May 16.
“Effectively we would be forgiving three academic days for them,” Superintendent Scott Klavetter stated.
According to the proposal, the class believes this would save students from having to miss so much school in the last couple weeks for the class trip. Also, students who are not passing all classes could use this time to work on missing work with their teachers. Finally, teachers would be able to teach and test up until May 16 and still have plenty of time to grade work.
If approved, the end of the year would line up with the last day being the 16th, then the senior class trip potentially from May 19 through the 22, the Academic and Arts Awards Ceremony and senior checkout is May 23 with graduation being held on May 30.
“I personally think it is a good reward for a job well done,” board member Cindy Seabright expressed.
Members questioned how this would affect the students’ required hours. The state statute requirement for grades 7 through 12 is 1,020 hours and Kingsland is at 1,053 hours, which is approximately 6.5 days so the seniors would still be over the required minimums.
Members discussed whether students should be required to meet all the academic requirements by May 16 in order to attend the class trip. The class trip is considered a school trip, so those days count toward their required hours. This may be further discussed when the senior class presents their class trip proposal to the board.
“I don’t have a problem with their plan. I think it would give them some insight into what their spring will look like, but I look at it as a trial basis,” Rader said.
The board approved the seniors’ proposal.
World’s Best Workforce Summary
Next the board reviewed their 2023-2024 World’s Best Workforce (WBWF) annual summary. This is a summary the district must submit to the state annually, which describes how the students are doing academically against the district’s self-appointed goals.
The board previously reviewed the report at their October work session. During this time they found the goal for the preschoolers showed they are on track with 4-year-old preschool students achieving 80% kindergarten readiness on 60 skill sets, which are measured on the Teaching Strategies gold Child Assessment Portfolio.
It was noted there are families who are not participating in preschool, so those students are not included in the data.
When assessing the achievement gaps between student groups, Klavetter stated, “If you look at both our math and reading results, they need to be better. The interesting thing is you look these they are right at about state average. We have talked about revisiting our strategic plan and one of the things I might ask you to consider is using multiple measures of success. Our Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment (MCA) scores could be better, I’m not here to hide behind that, but if you look at our fast bridge scores that we do three times a year they are better. If you look at the leveling program that we use for our reading they are better.”
Klavetter suggested using other data to rate success such as attendance, participation in school activities including sports, drama and clubs, all of which have all been shown to help prepare students for life after graduation.
“I think that might be something interesting to look at that might give us a more accurate picture,” Klavetter said.
The board also discussed how to help students with testing strategies, so they feel better prepared for these standardized tests and will, in turn, take them more seriously.
The board approved the summary.
Compulsory Attendance Report
Every year the district is required to report their compulsory attendance report.
“One question we get a lot is ‘what is going on with home schooling these days?’ The answer is that number is growing,”
The report shows there are now 72 students within the district being homeschooled. According to Klavetter, every home school student is required to registered with their local school district and this is the information in the report.
It also showed there are 32 students from the district attending St. Johns School in Wykoff.
The report was approved by the board.
Other Business
- The board thanked Valley Home Improvement for the use of their forklift, which was used to unload the computer numerical control (CNC) wood router for the Ag Department. They also thanked Amy Freiheit for donating pizza for the Early Childhood Screening workers.
- The board discussed the Minnesota Department of Education Commissioner’s response to the district’s review and comment submittal in which Rader noted, “They thought we were acting in the school’s best interest and financially we have the ability to afford any upkeep of any additions we may make or could benefit from the maintenance.”
- The Minnesota State High School League Foundation (MSHSL) Form A was reviewed and approved. This form allows the district to accepted grants and funding to assist the school in recognizing, promoting and funding extracurricular participation by high school students in athletic and fine arts programs.
- The Assurance of Compliance, which states the district will continue to follow all state and federal mandates and statues, was approved by the board.
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