New student outcome goals passed
Aside from an intense public forum on the Dike solar farm, the rest of the Sulphur Bluff ISD board meeting was relatively quiet as members discussed yearly goals and reports.
The district’s Texas Academics Performance Report was largely unchanged from last year, superintendent Dustin Carr said, due to the STAAR testing cancellation last year. Attendance was reported at 96% for last year, and 10 out of the 26 graduating seniors chose to attend post-secondary education.
“I thought it was a little bit low. Normally we’re about 50%,” Carr said. “Good years we’re at 60%.”
In the elementary report from principal Amy Daniel, five students are currently remote learning, and she was pleased with benchmark test scores overall, given the five-month gap in 2020.
“I’m sure you’ve heard in the Dallas news about how much decline the students have done, and I was dreading to see what our scores were going to be,” Daniel said. “I did stress when we were out in March [2020] that we were going to continue learning new skills.”
Secondary principal Marshall Moore delivered his report, detailing the district’s college, career and military readiness goals for graduating students. As of the 2018- 2018 school year, 78% of graduates were ready for entering college, starting a career or entered the military, and the state standard is 60%.
“Right now, the one industry-based certification they can get before they graduate is in welding,” Moore said, adding the district is working toward more dual-credit opportunities for students.
In Carr’s report, he listed enrollment at 219 students with a 96.1% attendance rate. The average daily attendance, which is what a district’s state funds are based on, was 204.5, a little lower than what was expected. Carr said the district budgeted for 210.
“I went a little bit on the lower side even on that,” Carr said and added the attendance rate included remote learning students.
In action items, the board approved the extension of COVID-19-related leave benefits for staff through the end of the school year. The extension comes after the federal program Families First Coronavirus Response Act expired Dec. 31, 2020.
“I know they’re going through a lot right now,” board president Donnie Powers said. “Anything like this we can do to help-I know it isn’t much-but it’ll help them.”
Board goals were revisited for the first time since October 2019, and the board approved the goals set for test scores and student outcomes.