ELLY GRIMM
• Leader & Times
AUTHOR’S NOTE: This is part two of the story recapping last Friday’s special meeting of the USD 480 school board, and will share some perspectives from staff and thoughts on overall students achievement.
While FlexMod has been relatively successful since its implementation, those in attendance at the meeting agreed there can always be changes and improvements made.
“I don’t think I’ve made it a secret of not really being a big fan of the FlexMod scheduling overall,” USD 480 Vice President Sarah Thompson said. “I do see multiple benefits to it for a lot of the students, but my main concern is there are students who need more structure. I am open to keeping FlexMod if we can find a solution for those students who need more structure, and I’ve heard multiple suggestions that could possibly work. Maybe some of us board members could meet with the Scheduling Committee at some point and have an open conversation and brainstorm some ideas and then go from there. Those of us who were initially opposed to FlexMod are coming around to it, and we’re wanting to find a solution that can work for everyone. When I ran to be on the school board, I knew I would be making decisions not just for the students of the district, but also for the district faulty and staff. I do think there are students who need more structure that parts of FlexMod just don’t offer. That’s where I am.”
“I remember talking to the students who came and spoke at our Jan. 6 meeting, and they have definitely taken full advantage of the opportunities offered through FlexMod, and they’re using those advantages to the extreme,” USD 480 President Brad Carr agreed. “There are may students taking good advantage of the program, and with the Saints Ahead program, I do have some concerns about those numbers and keeping that student engagement. I’ve also seen and heard some good suggestions from throughout the community, and if we can keep that open dialogue going, that would be great. This is definitely not something we can just implement with the snap of a finger, we need to discuss this thoroughly and make sure we’re doing what’s truly best for the students and faculty and staff, like Sarah said.”
“Student achievement was one of the things that came out of the work session we had, and we want that to continue being a focus,” board member Nick Hatcher said. “For me, this schedule change/improvement, whatever you want to call it, is part of what we feel would help with that. I’m not speaking for the entire board, but I know student achievement was a big part of those conversations.”
“Speaking on behalf of the Scheduling Committee, we would love to work under those parameters,” LHS teacher Kelsey Kronawitter said. “We know FlexMod is not perfect, no schedule is, but we also know there are happy accidents, so please help us with this and help us make it work. We’re willing to make changes – just this past year, we implemented a scheduling pattern that’s specifically for those students who need more structure and accountability, and many of those students are doing really, really well. Improving our process and procedures would be great, and I think the entire LHS staff would be on board with doing that so we can ensure everyone is successful.”
“Alan [Brown] and I were talking about this recently, and I work at SCCC, so I was talking to some of our teachers and different department heads, and there was an agreement how not all LHS students are college-ready quite yet,” Thompson said. “One idea that came up was having someone from SCCC on the scheduling committee who can address what they’re seeing and what the needs are.”
“I know we did have a liaison, but the semester started up and he became busy with all of that work,” Kronawitter said. “But that is definitely something that could be a good idea.”
There are also many factors to consider in terms of success, some of the LHS staff members said.
“Math is a huge area of interest in terms of the state assessment stuff, but I have to say, it’s not the scheduling type that’s causing underachievement in those assessments,” LHS math teacher Michelle Bremenkamp said. “There are so many factors that go into that. The percentage of students coming into LHS who are at grade level is low, and that affects how far we can take them. The typical student should come to high school and start in Algebra 1 and work their way up from there, but the content that’s in the state assessments is more toward the sophomore level. I would say maybe 15 percent of our students actually have access to that content. No schedule is going to fix those issues, so there’s a lot of those issues to fix. Scheduling is definitely something that needs to be taken into consideration, but the overall achievement is something separate entirely. We’re making some good gains, but it’s not enough sometimes. And sometimes it’s the attitude of the students as they’re coming in, because they’ve struggled in math before and don’t really see the need to push themselves, so it’s hard to get over that hump. In 32 years of teaching, I can’t tell you how many parents have said to me ‘Oh, I was never good at math when I was in school,’ as if that explains everything away, but it doesn’t. We have to then train the students away from that mindset so they actually put forth that needed effort. It’s just like any sport, you’re not going to get any better if you don’t practice.”
“I know we’ve seen some good gains in the elementary school scores, so things are maybe starting to come back a little bit, and that’s promising,” Carr said. “I know that’s also something not happening just with USD 480, it’s something happening all throughout the U.S.”
“And especially at LHS, since we’re these students’ last K-12 stop, we’re look at achievement not just with reading and math scores, but also making sure everyone is prepared with other skills they need,” LHS Principal Ashley Kappelmann said. “We also understand not every student is the same – we’ve had some students leave school in 6th grade and then return to the district to go to LHS, and they’re really far behind, so we have to take them into account too. We have to make sure these students are successful in learning a trade or going into postsecondary education. We have a lot of students who might not do that well on the state assessments, but they’re on their way to graduating with their diploma and college credit under their belt. We don’t want to lose sight of any of that.”
