Beech Tree News Network

The Butler County Board of Education met in regular session on Tuesday, December 12^th, 2017 at 6:30 p.m. at the Butler County Education Complex. Board members Amy Hood, Debbie Hammers, Aimee Sanders, and Ryan Daugherty were in attendance; Delbert Johnson was unable to attend.

District Finance Officer Eric Elms gave his monthly treasurer’s report. The balance for the beginning of November was $905,443.54.  The end-of-the-month balance was $2,465,883.35. The drastic increase in revenue was due to $1,159,611.19 being collected in property taxes in October.

 Jimmy Arnold, Certified Energy Manager for Butler County Schools, presented Butler County High School, Butler County Middle School, Morgantown Elementary, and North Butler Elementary principals with plagues in recognition of being Energy Star Schools.   Energy Star is the national certification for energy efficiency grading system for school buildings.  Schools must be at 75 to be named an Energy Star School.  According to Arnold, the high school is at 89, middle school at 87, Morgantown Elementary is 91, and North Butler is 92. He informed the board that “our energy usage is 1/3 of what it once was.” Mr. Arnold said, “Our goal is to be as efficient as our systems will allow while being as transparent as possible to our school’s staff and students.  The next step in this process is upgrading our lighting to LED and to look for renewable energy solutions to help off-set our after-hours energy load.”  Superintendent Howard thanked Arnold for his work and dedication to help make the district energy efficient and said, “Congratulations to all the schools. I am very proud of our district for being one of the few districts that has total Energy Star ratings.”

CLICK HERE FOR ENERGY REPORT:Butler County 2017 Energy usage report.pdf

 Superintendent Scott Howard gave his monthly report.  He told the board about attending the following: SOKY Jobs meeting, Early Childhood Council Meeting, Superintendent’s Advisory Council meeting, GRREC Board of Directors’ meeting, CDIP meeting, Calendar Committee meeting, and Kentucky Association of School Superintendents’ Association meeting.

 Shannon West, accountant with Carr, Riggs, and Ingram CPAs and Advisors, presented the Butler County Schools audit report for the 2017 fiscal year. West told the board, “You received an unqualified opinion, which is the best opinion you can receive.”

 Director of Butler County Alternative Learning Center Ryan Emmick reported to the board on his school.  Emmick told the board he volunteered his school to have a site visit by the Kentucky Department of Education to see how they could continue to make improvements.  Emmick said, “The site visit by the Kentucky Department of Education Alternative Schools Division was a great opportunity for us to take a look at our program and judge how we were doing.  To find out that we are very close to having the type of program to meet the requirements to be a School of Distinction makes me very proud.  We have implemented a tremendous amount of change over the past few years and the buy in from the staff, support from the central office, and hard work by the students are all beginning to pay off.  We have much to improve upon to become the school that I know we can be, but at the same time, the report from the KDE visit was tremendous and lets us all know we are on the right path to becoming a great school.”

CLICK HERE FOR LEARNING CENTER PRESENTATION:BUTLER COUNTY LEARNING CENTER KDE VISIT RESULTS.pdf

 Morgantown Elementary School Principal Chad Flener presented his school’s test scores from last school year and their plan for closing the gap that they have already begun to implement.  Mr. Flener said, “As we began to develop a plan to increase student’s scores on K-Prep, while decreasing the number of students who scored novice, we quickly realized that even though these scores were important and they would be used to judge our school, our teachers, and our students, we can never forget about the whole child and individual needs. We must keep our eyes on our vision; to empower our students within a safe and loving environment with the tools they need to become an effective leader today and beyond. If we do that, a natural result will be an increase in K-Prep scores.”  According to Flener, the school decreased 2.4 points in proficient and distinguished from 2016 to 2017 overall and 11.3 points from 2015 to 2017.  Flener said his school is 21.5 points below the state average as of last year and 3.8 points below the district average. The school’s reading and math scores went down, but increased over 10 points in social studies, over 8 points in writing, and over 6 points in language mechanics. Flener told the board they have been working to create a plan to increase test scores since August.  He said, “We realize that we need to change. Some of the reasons that we realized that we were going to have to change were not only the scores but the demographics, the makeup of our school, has changed dramatically. We are now up to 17% minorities, and we have 10% English Language Learners. We knew we were going to have to look at what we are doing.  We decided to do three major things. We did a data retreat through GRREC and came up with a plan. We decided we were going to do writing training with Abell & Atherton, and we signed on with ABRI, which is a grant through the University of Louisville. They are coming down and helping us with our academic and behavior RTI.”   Flener told the board he and a team of 10 teachers spent three days of intense data disaggregation with the help of consultants from GRREC and developed a plan for the school.  He said, “We found that no matter what school improvement guru you read or school improvement workshop you go to or novice reduction workshop, with our scores, the one thing we have to look at first is instruction. Before we start looking at the English language factor or the students with disabilities factor, we have to look at instruction. We have to make sure we are teaching to the standards and to the rigor of the standards. So, one of the recommendations from GRREC was to deconstruct the standards. . . We did that in November, and that was one of the best P.D. days we have had in several years.  Mrs. Embry led it, and we were able to take the standards and go through and have deep conversation about those, not only with teachers who teach the same subject area but vertically as well. So, second grade teachers were able to have conversations with 1^st and 3^rd grade teachers.” Flener explained other changes that are taking place in school.  He said, “We know our scores are not where we want them to be. It’s not something we’re proud of . . . but a score is a score, and it doesn’t define who we are as a school.  Mr. Howard is big on opportunities.  We still provide opportunities for our students whether it be shooting arrows in archery and going to state and nationals or whether it is a production at SKyPAC, or academic team. . . Our faculty and staff decided at the beginning of the year that we are going to do whatever it takes.  We realize that we need to change some things, but they have been so dedicated thus far in putting in the extra work and changing things and looking at the way they are teaching in a different light.”  Superintendent Howard commended Mr. Flener and his faculty and staff for developing a comprehensive plan to make improvements. Howard said, “I want the parents to know we are working hard to make the changes we need to make, not just at MES but across the whole district. Academics is the most important thing we do, there is no doubt about that. We want kids to be able to be successful either in a career field or post-secondary . . . we want kids to be successful and have opportunities.  Ultimately, that helps Butler County. What we hope happens is kids get out of school, and they are career ready and life ready and they end up living in Butler County.”

 CLICK HERE FOR MES PRESENTATION: Board Presentation.pdf

The board approved the following:

·       FY 17 Butler County Schools Audit Report from Carr, Riggs and Ingram CPAs

·       District-Wide Special Needs Students Trip Request to Visit Opry Mills Mall in Nashville, Tennessee, on December 8^th, 2017

·       BCHS Cheerleaders Overnight Trip Request to Attend State Competition in Lexington, Kentucky, on December 7^th – 8^th, 2017

·       Addition of BCHS Dance Coach Stipend to FY 18 Salary Schedule

·       FY 19 Out-of-District Contracts with Surrounding School Systems