Beech Tree News Network

The Butler County Board of Education met in regular session on Tuesday, Oct. 22, at North Butler Elementary School.

The meeting began with special recognitions and presentations.

Special education teachers spoke on the importance of sign language education in the schools and talked about the use of their program. Students who have been learning their signs preformed a song in sign language for those in attendance.

Becky Bratcher, Special Education teacher at North Butler, gave a presentation on the use of Zoo-phonics, a literacy education program that is being used as an educational tool in schools. Bratcher spoke on the importance of the program and the success that she has seen since she first started using it in the classroom last year. Bratcher said she first heard about the program from a parent whose child used it at another school. After research and speaking with the principle, Bratcher and Principal Belcher decided to use it for a group of students at the school. Bratcher proceeded to share data of students that were formally struggling with reading. Her research showed that more than half of the time, the use of Zoo-phonics increased reading rates of her struggling second year students and first year Kindergarten students by the end of the year.

Following the presentation, Bratcher and her students presented how the program works with exercises that they do everyday in the classroom from letters A to Z.

A parent of one of Bratcher’s previous students was present at the meeting and provided a testimony of how the program worked for her son and how thankful she was to have Zoo-phonics used with her son.

Zoo-phonics is a multisensory program that associates animals and sounds with letters of the alphabet. 

“Without this program, the progress that I’ve seen with these kids would not have been possible…it’s been a life changer,” said Bratcher. 

Chad Flener, District Assessment Coordinator of Butler County Schools, presented the district’s Assessment and Accountability Report and provided a general overview of the school ratings and new star rating system. Individual schools for each grade level are assigned yearly as well as achievement gaps to show areas of improvement.

The star rating program shows that Butler County High School is now an ATSI (additional targeted support and improvement) school. Flener said that last year, the high school was identified as a TSI school and the reason for the change in rating is due to the English Learning population in the area. TSI schools were not recognized this year according to Flener and he said that the school has until the year 2021 to improve the issues and rating in the school before it will permanently be recognized as a CSI (Comprehensive Support and Improvement) school.  Schools showed that individually, most students scored in the proficient range, however the gap groups including Hispanic and Latino population, English learners, free and reduced and disability scored lower on average among all schools and levels.

Principals from each individual school in the district will present their own reports later throughout the year at the upcoming board meetings on how they plan to improve their ratings and address issues.

Beginning next school year, students will take a mix of paper and pencil and online tests. The high school recently began their full set of testing online.

“As a district, it’s time to realize that there is a huge hurtle we face with the ESL population,” said board member Aimee Sanders.

She discussed the difficulty for English learning students to receive an education when they are put into classrooms with teachers and students that don’t understand each other. Board members talked about the issue of getting more native speaking educators into the area and how to

Board member Amy Hood suggested reaching out to businesses and areas in the community to recruit resources such as translators to assist with education, especially in the elementary schools. Hood also discussed the possibility of using the Head Start program as an option. Elms said that it was insisted that members attend WIDA training in November as well.

 The board said that until something else is done, the problem will only continue to grow.

The district facility plan has been approved. Superintendent Scott Howard gave an update on the new metal detectors at the schools and said that that they seem to be working well and he is glad that they had the oversight to purchase them.

Some concern was discussed regarding the calendar committee for the Fiscal Year of 2021 being made up of educators. Elms said that his concern lies with the fact that some community or parent members did not attend meetings and were not active and that the training required for the position may present a learning curve among the members. Hood said that while it may be easier to choose members such as those being considered, it will best benefit the community to choose a more diverse group. A motion was made to table the decision of committee members until the November meeting.

Howard discussed the school nurse meeting that was held recently and said that he wants to keep the four nurses employed that they currently have and to work with their schedules. He said that Butler County is currently one of the only districts in the area who is employing their own nurses and said that he is excited to be able to do that.

A lease agreement was made for continued use of the extension office facility for the archery program. Howard met with the third region superintendents in Owensboro to discuss the legislative agenda including hosting a press conference in Bowling Green. He discussed one specific priority which will be addressed including full funding for Kindergarten. Students took a field trip to Delta Faucet on Friday Oct. 23 to tour the facility and educate students on the process of manufacturing and employment at factories. The Southcentral Workforce Development Board Meeting took place on Thursday, Oct. 24. Howard also represented the school system at the Boy’s and Girl’s Club Annual Appreciation Dinner on Saturday, Oct. 26 and met with Tim Huddleson at an Educational Recovery Meeting with focus on improvement for education at the high school on Monday, Oct. 28.

The following items were approved:

BCHS Students Out-of-State and Overnight Trip Request to Washington, DC on May 27-31.

2020 BCHS FFA Out-of-State and Overnight Trip Request to Attend the National FFA Convention in Indianapolis, Indiana on October 30th – November 2nd, 2019

FY 20 Day Treatment Services Memorandum of agreement

Trip to Nashville Zoo for five students and two adults on November 1

FY 20 school’s facility construction first offer of assistance in the amount of $17, 941

FY 20 Professional Development Plans for Individual Schools

Approval of members of the FY 21 Calendar Committee

Approval of four school nurse positions no later than January 1, 2020