The Emporia board of education kept a capital-outlay tradition Wednesday night when it voted 6-0 to hold the fund’s annual mill levy at 4 mills.
Board member Mike Crouch was absent from the meeting, held in the Mary Herbert Education Center.
Assistant Superintendent of Business Rob Scheib told the board in a memorandum that a resolution passed in 2004 had committed the board to holding the capital-outlay mill levy to a maximum of 4 mills for five years.
School boards are allowed to levy up to 8 mills for the capital outlay fund, Superintendent John Heim said. He added that the board would not be obligated to include the full 4 mills in next year’s budget.
“We’ve always done four with our maximum resolution, and that’s what we’re asking for again,” Heim said.
The money could be used for property acquisition, construction, remodeling, furnishing and equipping buildings, architectural expenses, asbestos control and purchases of school buses or other equipment.
It could not be used for other types of needs, such as textbooks or equipment repairs.
The proposed mill levy will be published in The Gazette’s legals section twice before it can take effect 40 days later.
When the board works on the district’s budget, it will then factor in the capital outlay levy.
The board also heard curriculum reports about mathematics interventions in grades kindergarten through 12 and a report on results of summer school sessions.
Teachers from Walnut elementary school, Emporia Middle School and Emporia High School gave board members an overview of the Response to Intervention (RtI) approach to mathematics used at all levels in the district.
The RtI couples both data and assessments with teaching and learning math skills, with the latter geared toward individual student needs.
Both aspects need to be part of the process to try to ensure students understand concepts and have the skills necessary — the learning that is retained — to apply the concepts broadly, in addition to being able to pass the tests.
“You think about the old farmers, and what they say. ‘You don’t fatten cattle by weighing them.’ That’s true,” said Walnut principal Ben Coltrane, drawing an analogy between the math RtI and raising cattle.
Through data analysis translated into charts, teachers identify students’ strengths and weaknesses in math, then “feed” them by teaching the skills they need in a way each can best understand. The data analysis also shows teachers where they need to change strategies for teaching topics that showed low scores overall after testing.
The charts identified teachers who were more successful in teaching certain math skills, and allowed the Professional Learning Communities to discuss techniques those teachers used to help students succeed.
Those exchanges have helped the teachers improve their own teaching skills, as well as the students’ learning, several in the group said.
Brian Jordan, director of data and assessment for the district, reported to the board on results from summer school classes.
Head counts for the non-enrichment summer school classes were: kindergarten through third grade, 229, 80 percent attendance rate; grades four through six, 220, 70 percent attendance; seventh and eighth grades (June classes), 106, 990 percent attendance; seventh and eighth grades (July classes), 81, 87 percent attendance; grades nine through 12, 211, attendance rates vary according to subject offered.
Summer school enrollment figures were up by 50 students at the elementary level to 468 students, and down 62 at the secondary level, with 398 students.
American government and consumer education were popular summer courses, as seniors sought to complete the mandatory classes early. Credit recovery courses that allow students to re-take a course for a passing grade also were well-attended.
Driver’s education, usually a popular course, saw a significant decrease in students.
EHS Assistant Principal Amy McAnarney said the fee increase instituted in the 2008 summer session likely was responsible for the change, from more than 90 students in 2007 to 37 this summer. The board had voted earlier to charge a fee approximately the same as the cost of the course.
“We dropped about 40 percent of our students,” she said. “... We even dropped one of our sessions in July because we didn’t have enough numbers to have it.”
The cost of certified teachers and classified staff for summer school was $369,734.72. Other expenditures — teaching supplies and transportation — totaled $40,338.11, according to figures provided in the report.
The board approved the consent agenda, which included formal acceptance of a Kansas Lions Club donation of a SureSight Vision Screener for the Flint Hills Special Education Cooperative. The screener will allow staff to screen children’s vision and will be helpful particularly for children with limited verbal skills. The equipment is valued at $4,603.