White Oak Independent School District EIC Meeting
September 16, 2009
Welcome:
New members were introduced to the committee and returning members were welcomed back to the advisory team. Marsha Watson, chairperson, expressed appreciation for the members’ willingness to serve the district in this ongoing capacity. During this time, White Oak ISD’s Vision, Mission, and Core Value Beliefs were reviewed.
Roles and Responsibilities:
In order to improve student achievement, this advisory team’s charges will reflect in the District Plan and will include:
- Effective district planning.
- Improving parent and community involvement in the process.
- Establishing accountability performance objectives for all students.
- Increasing staff productivity and satisfaction.
- Improving communication.
- Implementing consensus-based, effective decision making.
- Commitment to long-range implementation of programs.
- Coordination of general and special programs.
No Child Left Behind (NCLB) performance goals, Larry Lezotte’s 7 Correlates of Effective Schools and all areas or programs specified by the TEA will be included in the District Improvement Plan (DIP) and were included in the members’ EIC notebooks.
This committee’s roles include participation in the areas of:
- Planning
- Budgeting
- Curriculum
- Staffing patterns
- Staff development
- School organization
DIP:
The committee evaluated the 2008-09 DIP in May 2009 at the annual three hour working dinner meeting. The district’s goal and the four objectives were determined to have continued relevance and should remain in place for the 2009-2010 year. At that time, the plan was divided into its four objectives and each of the four groups contained members representative of the four campuses, community, parents, and/or business and were led by a campus administrator. Each group recorded their evaluation of progress towards the objectives that year and had the opportunity to omit a completed activity, to make adjustments to one that should remain in the plan, or to suggest new activities to support the district’s goal and objectives. Each group reported back to the large group with further discussions as warranted. An evaluated copy of the 2008-09 DIP was in each EIC notebook. Review of the evaluated copy was invited.
Needs Assessment:
A new draft of the DIP based on the May’s evaluation was given to those present and we began the Needs Assessment process with the disaggregation of TEKS assessment data on page six with the Academic Performance Charts mapping data for three years. Based on this data, the findings included:
- All Science in all grades, and for all groups need to be addressed because only two groups (Title I – 100% and Special Education – 100%) met or exceeded the percentile goal set for them
- There is a correlation between the Social Studies and Reading ability and scores
- There is a correlation between Math and Science ability and scores
- ESL students continue to struggle with the academic language/vocabulary while still developing English as a second language, especially high school students who are new to the States with little or no formal schooling in their home language. This is reflected in this student group’s scores in Social Studies (50%), science (25%), and reading (71%).
- In order to meet the goal of 90% in math, African American (80%), Economically Disadvantaged (87%), At Risk (67%)Asian (67%), CATE (87%), and Special Education (79%) groups need instructional interventions.
- With our small numbers of ESL students, the ESL teachers will work with the Curriculum Director to set individual, campus, and district goals on this year’s assessment requirements.
- Setting obtainable and realistic goals for specific groups led to a long discussion. Our goal is to be Exemplary on each campus and in the district; therefore we want all students to reach 90% on each assessment. However, based on the current data, that may not be a realistic or even fair expectation for all groups in all subject areas. The main areas of concern included ESL students in Social Studies (50%), Reading (71%), and Science (25%); Hispanic students in Science (64%, and Math for At Risk (67%) and Asian (67%) groups.
- The team agreed to have the campus teams look at campus data, determine a feasible goal for each group in the areas of concern and report those finding to the EIC in order to determine an obtainable goal that the district team can agree upon.
- The ESL teachers will meet with the curriculum director and assess a suitable goal for each student per subject to be tested. These individual goals will then be averaged to set a feasible score goal for the ESL group in each of the areas to be tested by students this year.
Stimulus Funding:
Mike Gilbert, Superintendent of White Oak ISD, gave the committee a summary of the budget process with stimulus funding that is available to the district for the next two years. There are three stimulus packages:
- Title I – $80,000.00 over a two year period is to be used on the two Title I campuses (intermediate and primary). Through needs assessments that included teacher input, schedules showing lack of opportunity for the students on both campuses to have access to the computer lab that has always been shared by the two campuses, need for use of additional progress monitoring software without machines being available for either campus as needed, administrative meetings, and inability to address the district’s technology initiatives, it was decided to provide an additional computer lab for those campuses. The original lab is housed in the intermediate area of the building, so a newly purchased lab will be placed in the primary area of the building. The machines in the current lab computers are five years old and in need of repair and replacement in some cases. Since the same machines are no longer available and it is preferable to have the same computers in a lab for elementary students, the decision was made to purchase MAC Notebooks to replace the original lab’s machines.
- IDEA – White Oak ISD’s portion of the IDEA stimulus funds that will flow through the Gregg County Cooperative totals $204,117.00. The cooperative’s director, Sherry Clark, and the Superintendents who make up that Board of Directors, have conducted a needs assessment and the plans are to:
- Purchase a Special Needs Bus
- Hire a Response to Intervention (RtI) specialist who will work with each district in the cooperative to enhance communication and ensure that districts have consistent forms and processes in place.
- Retain Special Education paraprofessionals in the district (payroll).
- SFSF – $407,781.00 is available to the district through the grant application process. At this time, the Needs Assessment is being compiled with EIC member input, surveys, and restrictions based on our currently adopted budget. It appears that Gregg County Cooperative fees and some salaries will be paid with these funds. White Oak ISD is the only Recognized district (two students in one group away from Exemplary) in Gregg County with two Exemplary and two Recognized campuses. This success comes directly from the programs and staff that are in place. The district plans to utilize these funds in such a way that these programs and positions can remain in place to assure continued student success.
State Accountability and AYP Report:
Marsha Watson reported that all campuses and White Oak ISD made Average Yearly Progress (AYP through NCLB) based on the 2008-09 data. The team received the State Accountability Report for the campuses and district. As stated above, the district received a Recognized rating, the high school and middle school were rated Recognized and the intermediate and primary campuses received an Exemplary rating.
Other Business:
The Nature Center with the outdoor project supports the findings that science at all levels and for all groups must be addressed. The Steering Committee has some confirmed plans including the planting of a wildflower garden by fourth grade (Mr. Thomas and Billy McBride are preparing the area), the work day for clearing trails is scheduled for Saturday, October 24, 2009 from 9:00 a.m. until noon. Community volunteers will have the opportunity to sign up for specific jobs through the district’s webpage.
