Boone County School Board November 9
Quantifying Total System Effectiveness
The District presented the State’s effectiveness reporting system termed “Accountability Report.” Even the administration’s presenter described the report as “gobbledygook” because no insight can be extracted, much less improvement action steps identified from the report. The State required presenting some measure of change from last year rather than actual ratings for both years for both academics and soft measures like SEL (social emotional learning). No reference is made to local results vs. national or international results for comparison. It appears the impact on students from Covid closures are being hidden by the new reporting system.
Bus Driver Shortage
The State has allocated funds for 80 positions still open for bus drivers. Administration and the school board are still refusing to increase salaries for bus drivers, knowing that is the issue. Bus drivers must have a CDL and if they have one they can nearly double their pay elsewhere.
Special Local Legislators Meeting
Matthew Turner, superintendent of Boone County Schools, invited local state legislators to an “informal” meeting with the administration and school board. Unbeknownst to the legislators, the meeting was later posted as a workshop open to the public and set up as an adversarial debate moderated by a lobbyist paid $1,000 by the district. With the meeting setup unbeknownst to the legislators until arrival, the legislators felt blindsided.
Main issues raised from our legislators to the board were:
- Sen. John Schickel: Discipline and inappropriate content being taught in schools.
- Rep. Marianne Proctor: RFID cards and New Standards Goals of only 40% Proficient/Distinguished
- Rep. Steve Rawlings: Panorama (an SEL and teacher education curricula provider)
- Sen. Gex Williams: School Choice; “diversity in schooling options to include classical education”
Given the adversarial tone, no go-forward action steps were identified.