At their October 2 meeting, the Houston School Board heard from all the administrations of the Houston Schools about the goals that have been set for this year.
Houston Preschool set a goal to focus on Mat Man. Using scaffolded instruction, the teachers will work with students to draw Mat Man, a line drawing of a person. This helps with school readiness for the preschoolers.
The elementary school set a stretch goal this year, having easily met their goals the preceding years. Their goal is to move from 48% to 58% of students exceeding grade level in reading with a 10% growth overall.
The high school had not met its goal the previous year. It will continue to use FastBridge to assess student performance and will work to improve scores by 2% this coming year.
Summit’s site goal will use FastBridge data for both the onsite and online students. The focus will be on helping the highest risk students. The goal is that the students “demonstrate measurable growth” in their spring FastBridge testing. Summit currently has 15 full-time and two part-time students in its onsite program, and 88 full-time and two part-time students in its online program.
MNVA elementary and middle school students have a state required dyslexia test for students who fall below grade level this year. As a result, the schools couldn’t set a goal for all students based on one specific test’s data. The schools set a goal that 80% of their students will demonstrate growth as measured by FastBridge; a large portion of their students will be taking the dyslexia test instead. This test has not yet been used by any students in the state; there will be no data from previous years. MNVA continues to use whole group and small group instruction with interventions in place.
MNVA is on a CIP (Continuous Improvement Plan). Three additional ADSIS staff members have been hired to provide further support to the students.
Homecoming
Homecoming King and Student Council Representative Grayden Beckman shared updates on the week’s ongoing homecoming celebration. Sunday night’s added powder puff football game was a great success; the senior team members won the competition and received bragging rights and free admittance to the homecoming dance.
T-shirt sales garnered 40 preorders and 10 follow-up sales. A pepfest was planned for Friday and the royalty was scheduled to visit the nursing home. Class games were set for Friday with a bonfire in the evening.
The football game was set for Saturday due to the shortage of referees; a bean bag tourney was set for after the game with an outdoor homecoming dance to be held in the evening.
Beckman thanked the businesses for allowing the students to decorate their windows and the fire department for being present at the bonfire.
Board Business
The board discussed the possibility of having a speech team. After checking on student interest and learning that five or six students were interested, the board decided to turn down the offer of a co-op with R-P. The board felt having their own speech team would promote more growth of speech; a community member is interested in becoming the coach.
The new basketball coach asked the board for permission to create some spirit shirts for the team with a different logo than the school usually uses. Some sample ideas were presented to the board to give them an idea of what was being considered. Lisa Schultz felt it was important to keep the logos consistent.
The uniforms were not being changed. MSHL has specifics needed for uniforms. The only items the school actually purchases for the team members are their uniforms.
Mimi Carlson pointed out that other teams such as robotics have created their own shirts. The board decided to allow the coach to design and make spirit shirts, with Schultz opposing.
Hurricane Heroes
Superintendent Mary Morem recognized Emma Brevig and Lydia Pedretti as October’s Hurricane Heroes. The duo had helped all the families with getting their Chrome books at the Back-to School Night. According to Morem, the girls made the distribution of Chrome books a success.
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