School Board looks at NBES test results and athletic concerns

Thu, 10/19/2017 - 1:02pm — Paige McKinney

NBES Principal Josh Belcher presenting testing results to the board.

The Butler County Board of Education met in regular session on Tuesday, October 17^th at 6:30 p.m. at North Butler Elementary School. All board members were in attendance.

Superintendent Scott Howard addressed the crowd regarding the recent announcement that no more high school football games would be played at home this season due to the condition of the field:

“We’ve been looking at the crown of the football field for a couple of years now. We knew it needed to be redone, but we had good grass and thought we could get through another year with the crown. The crown is not a safety issue. But then we had a real wet year, and we got infested with moles. As soon as we found out about the moles we started treating them and sprayed for grub worms. We got rid of the moles, and then we had nine or ten skunks that started digging on the field. I guess it was a perfect storm-bad case after bad case. My goal was to get through this season, and then go to work on the field. But the timing was bad, and I apologize for that. When we started looking at ankle injuries and knee injuries, I had to look at what was the best for kids. . . It was me who made the decision. We had three games left-one away and two at home. I realize homecoming and senior night was a part of that. It never was my intention to cancel either one of those. We were going to have those. I was trying to find the best way to have those. . . I am about solutions. I’m about finding something to resolve a problem, so that is what we’ve been working on. It basically comes down to this- there are some facility issues. We need tennis courts. We haven’t had any for a long time . . . We’re not able to host a track meet. We need to be able to host track meets at our school. Soccer is an issue. This is my 10^th year as superintendent. Every year I have worked with the city to try to improve the facilities at the city park, but I am limited. I can’t put a bunch of school money into property that we don’t own. . . So what is the solution? The solution is to find a way to do it ourselves and get it on our property. When I say things like tennis courts, track refurbishing, the football field so that it can host band and soccer . . . you are talking about a situation that requires a construction loan because we don’t have the general fund assets to do all that. So, we have two options, and this is what I am presenting to the board tonight . . .”

Plan A: build tennis courts on school property, refurbish track, redo football field with artificial turf

Plan B: refurbish track, rebuild crown on football field and sew it down with Bermuda grass

Howard said he proposes the board choose Option A. When discussing the two options, he said, “My issue with Option B is with the amount of traffic we have on that field, it is tough to make any kind of grass hold up. The other thing that is wrong with Plan B is it doesn’t do anything for tennis. So, you can see why I am leaning more toward Plan A.” He said he will go to Frankfort and see if they will give the district a construction loan.

Superintendent Howard asked for questions and comments from the crowd. Joey Franzell said, “I know this is important and we do need to fix the field, but I want to make education and teachers a priority. I don’t want to see one aide cut . . . I am here for the teachers.”

Mr. Howard said, “Joey is exactly right, and I appreciate him saying that. That’s why I’m talking about construction money that couldn’t be used for anything else. I wouldn’t even suggest doing that if I thought it would lead to people losing their job. I couldn’t sleep at night if that happened.”

Felicia Franzell said, “I think your plans are very reasonable. However, don’t raise taxes to pay for it.”

Kimberlea Embry also addressed the board and Superintendent Howard. Embry said, “I like plan A the best obviously because we would get tennis courts. We haven’t had tennis courts in five years. My daughter has never played a home tennis match. What makes this player more important than this player? If you’re going to do these amazing improvements so we can host these functions, the bathrooms are going to have to be improved.”

During the discussion on improving facilities, Dr. Amy Hood, Chairman of the board, said, “We are here for opportunities for all children. I don’t think you’ll find an area that has more people who work from the heart. Education is important. Sports are important. Band, music, and art are important . . . When we think about other school districts . . . some of those schools that are at the top of the list that have great test scores, that is awesome, but what kinds of things have they cut out of the curriculum? Often times, there are not art and music classes in their schools. They cut those out because they weren’t a tested subject. I just have to say to our staff in our schools that I am so glad our children have all of those opportunities. People in Butler County have fought for that- to give children multiple opportunities.”

Superintendent Howard gave his monthly report on meetings and events he has attended. He informed the board that he had the opportunity to participate in Butler County High School’s NJROTC Inspection. Howard said, “I was really proud of our kids. Thanks go to Major Redmond and Chief Melton. It is imperative that we never lose that program. It involves a lot of kids.” Howard also attended the WKU Top Scholar Luncheon, GRREC Legislative Meeting, Ag Safety Day with 4^th Grade at the City Park, Chamber Luncheon, Boys’ and Girls’ Club Annual Dinner, and a Family Resource Center Advisory Council Meeting.

Assistant Superintendent Robert Tuck informed the board of the new school calendar committee requirements. He also gave reports on Butler County High School, Butler County Middle School, Sunset Academy, and the Virtual Program. He told the board about some of the programs the schools are using to close gaps and work toward novice reduction.

District Finance Officer Eric Elms gave the financial report for September. The beginning balance was $1,861,961.76. The end-of-the-month balance was $1,439,975.06.

North Butler Elementary School Principal Josh Belcher gave the school’s test score report. According to Belcher, “Let me say that first and foremost, I am very proud of the passion, fortitude, and love that the staff at North shows kids each and every day. We had many results come back to be excited about, but at the same time there was a few tidbits of data that must be resolved. I am extremely excited about the results that we got in the area of novice reduction- which in layman terms that is taking students that are below grade level and providing them with the supports and remediation to get them back to grade level performance. School wide, we essentially took 10% of our novice struggling learners and advanced them back to grade level performance; that is an exceptional feat. In certain groups, such as special education, those percentages were as high as 16%. By doing that we scored a perfect 100 from the state assessment in novice reduction. We did this through a process of identifying individual barriers to success, continuous data analysis and quite honestly just flat out hard work.

Our staff just does not accept students to work below their capabilities. I am also very satisfied that our academic growth numbers and our math curriculum assessment results have trended upward 3 years in a row. Without a doubt, I believe our rising academic growth numbers are in large part because of our RTI Enrichment and Remediation class period added 4 years ago. Since adding that, we have been a proficient/progressing school 3 out of the last 4 years and selected by the KDE as honorable mention for TELL Kentucky Winners’ Circle (Awarded by Kentucky Dept. of Education to the top 66 schools in academics and school environment) during that time frame. What caught me off guard was how our departing 5^th graders performed on writing. We had a drastic drop in writing scores, as well as 2% increase in novice in 5^th grade reading. That is just unacceptable. I accept full responsibility and many changes are going to be made to ensure that our students leave North Butler with the writing skills they need to be successful. I think there are many things to be looked at to improve our writing such as perseverance, cross-curriculum integration of writing, and most importantly holding students accountable or developing self-accountability for good writing.

We have great students, loving parents and caring teachers. I know there are still areas of concern, and as the principal, it is my responsibility to ensure that we do everything we can do for kids and resolve that. However, at the end of the day, I am proud of North Butler Elementary and the community we represent.”

CLICK HERE FOR MR. BELCHER's Complete Presentation: https://docs.google.com/a/butler.kyschools.us/presentation/d/1gT_972X_y0...

The board approved the following: