FIS Teachers of the Month named at BOE meeting

Barbara Atwill

The Fulton Independent Board of Education met in regular session Oct. 9, in the board office.

Superintendent DeAnna Miller shared her gratitude for Pastor Dr. Jessie Webb. “I want to express how grateful I am for Dr. Webb and his involvement with our youth in Fulton. I travel across the state frequently to meeting and last week I had the privilege of attending the Kentucky Board of Education meeting in Frankfort. One of the school board members asked me where I was from and I said Fulton, Ky., and he said he had a good friend down there who is a pastor, and I said oh is it Dr. Webb, and he said it most certainly is. We had a conversation about how Dr. Webb’s life is devoted to the involvement of youth and working tirelessly to benefit the children of our area,” Dr. Miller said.

“I want to publicly thank you Dr. Webb. Your dedication and work are recognized all the way across the state and we are glad to have you as one of our own,” continued Miller.

Superintendent Miller encouraged Fulton High Principal Mancel Elam to go ahead to Louisville to spend some time with his son and family, as this is Fall Break week, earlier in the afternoon instead of waiting until after the meeting.

Miller presented Principal Elam’s Advancing Student Achievement to Proficiency Update for September which included:

• Every primary, middle, and high school student’s name, with perfect attendance, was entered for a drawing and received a free meal at Vaughn’s Grill.

• Jada Martin and Kereni Ware were recognized for being named to the All “A” District team for Volleyball.

• Four middle school football players were recognized for Eighth Grade Night.

• There were two House Challenges in September.

The first house challenge, middle and high students participated in a scavenger hunt around the school to find historical things about the school, solve riddles, go to area businesses and introduce themselves as a student, and invite them to the school or a ballgame.

The business would then give them a QVC code, take a picture with their phone, and earn house points.

The elementary school had the task of filling up balloons, and taping them together to create a tower. After completing their tower, it was transferred from the room to the gym, where it had to be free standing.

This activity involved team work, critical thinking, and helped to encourage the older kids help the younger ones by stretching the balloons so the younger ones could blow them up before starting the tower.

Helping with building relationships was Bob Jackson with Murray State University.

He visited Fulton High, brought t-shirts for every senior, invited them to the MSU campus to a career fair, and free football tickets to the MSU vs. UTM game. Approximately 30 attended the football game.

Fulton Police officers stopped by the school to do a random walk through and played soccer with students in the gym.

At Carr Elementary a Bulldog Bookstore will open Oct. 15. “Bulldog Bucks,” used to buy time in the Book Store, are earned for good behavior, good grades, perfect attendance.

All K-5 grades have implemented Guided Reading Groups and Literacy Work Stations daily.

Family Read Night will be Oct. 30 with those planning to attend asked to come in costume to Carr Elementary.

Teachers will have candy and treats in their classroom to encourage parents and students to visit the classroom and teacher.

Afterwards, in the Library will be reading night. Every AR point earned the student will be given that many house points for their team the next day.

Matthew Moxley was recognized at the August Teacher of the Month at Carr Elementary. September Teachers of the Month were Alley Evans at Carr Elementary School, and Joseph Dublin at Fulton High School.

It was announced Dianne Owen and Nathan Castleman worked to get the Fulton High School approved as an ACT testing site, and the middle school and high school second professional learning committee (PLC) are integrating ACT classrooms.

The ASFAP test will be coming up Oct. 23, parent-teacher conferences will be Oct. 25

Tracy Pulley, Family Resource Youth Service Center coordinator, gave a report of scheduled activities for September and October.

Sarah Townsend, District Assessment Consultant, reported on the test scores for 2017-18.

“Basically, there is a new accountability model coming into play and the Unbridled Learning is going out. The whole model is not complete. For this year, we are in a transitional period to the new accountability model,” stated Townsend.

The new model is expected to be completely in effect after the 2019-2020, it is still changing.

For the 2017-18 school year, schools are being identified as one of three categories.

The Comprehensive Support and Improvement (CSI) category was previously the priority school rating; Targeted Support and Improvement (TSI) category, like a focus school; and “Other”. Basically “Other” means the school is not CSI or TSI.

For the 2018 reporting year, school districts will receive data for components at the elementary and middle school level in Proficiency in reading and math, separate academic indicators and growth; high school for Proficiency in reading and math, graduation rate, and transition readiness (formerly College and Career Ready). The schools will receive either a CSI, TSI, or Other rating.

Schools districts and state will not receive an overall score this year or the five star rating, because all components are not complete.

There are separate academic indicators in science, social studies and writing. Science is fourth and seventh grades., social studies is fifth and eight, and on-demand writing is fifth and eight.

“We are looking for growth in reading and mathematics, and proficiency for English attainment, if you have English language learners in your school. We did not for the 2017-18 school year. For the high school, it is Proficiency in reading and mathematics, using the ACT sub-scores for graduation rate. The indicator was for the fourth and fifth year rate used for CSI 1. The fourth year graduation rate is used for CSI 2. If your graduation rate was below 80% you are automatically put in the CSI,” continued Townsend.

“Transition Readiness includes the ACT, advanced placement, industries certifications, dual-credit (not being used for the 2017-18 school year, but will be used after). The TSI is looking at specific student groups, like African-American, special needs, free and reduced lunch is what they are looking at for the target support group,” stated Townsend.

Comprehensive Improvement for CSI 1 is for the bottom five percent of all schools in that school level, including elementary, middle and high school separately in that level. CSI 2 is less than 80% graduation rate at the high school level, with no school at CSI 3 because the process is just starting.

Cut scores for each level in elementary 33 schools were identified as CSI across the state, 12 at the middle school level and five at the high school level.

The District summary includes Carr Elementary as a CSI school, the bottom five percent of elementary schools in the state. Proficiency was at a 55%, the separate academic indicator was 50.8% and growth was 15.3%.

Superintendent Miller said, “If you look at growth at 15.3%. We qualified for CSI by five-tenths of a point. That’s frustrating. Five-tenths in a district our size that means if one student had made a better test score we would not have been in that group. In a larger school district, it would have to be several students. This is both frustrating but at the same time very encouraging, because I already see so many improvements with our instruction.”

In the separate academic spot, we had a 50.8%, missed by about 1.6%.

Fulton Middle School proficiency rate was reported at 56.4%, separate academic indicator was above the cut score, and saved it from receiving the CSI status. Growth was just a little below.

At Fulton High School it was reported Proficiency is low, but the Transition Readiness was above the cut score and overall graduation rate is above, and the four year graduation rate was made.

“We have work to do, but we should be able to move. If we can move our kids from Novice to Apprentice, Apprentice to Proficient, and Proficient to Distinguished will do a lot for our school. Our goal for the elementary school is increase our Proficiency in reading and math. Increase our separate academic indicators, social studies, science, and on-demand writing and increase our growth,” continued Townsend.

Middle School saw a lot of growth from Novice to Apprentice, and need to keep working to move from Apprentice to Proficient, she reported

ACT scores at the high school will nowbe used as a requirement for graduation, hitting a benchmark.

“We need to keep increasing our Transition Readiness, getting our kids ready for post-secondary and keep our kids in school and graduating on time. One good thing about the process is in this system you are not in it for an extended period of time as in the past. You have the ability to move out of it within a year. There is a lot of work to do, based on the test scores of 2019,” stated Townsend.

Fundraiser requests were approved.

The personnel report included:

• Appointments of Janet Williams, substitute teacher, non-certified emergency sub program; Destiny Brown, part-time custodian; and Brittany Gray, substitute foodservice Assistant.

• Resignations were received from Trista Ray, part-time custodian; Destiny Brown, part-time custodian; and Kathy Godfrey, food Service Assistant effective Oct. 25.

• Retirement of Laurie Thorpe, finance officer effective Jan. 1, following 27 years of service.