Older grades saw summer slide improvements

Cadott School Board

By Julia Wolf

The cold weather didn’t stop the Cadott School Board from discussing the district’s summer school program, during a regular meeting Nov. 11.

Jenny Starck, district administrator, said the full-time equivalent (FTE), for summer 2019, remained the same as the previous year, but the district spent less money on the program for 2019.

“We did not provide transportation, which we did in the prior year,” said Starck.

Starck said there were also fewer days of the program, which helped with staffing costs.

Rod Tegels, board president, asked if the administration had time to analyze this year’s summer slide, and if improvements over previous years were made.

“We had nice improvement in our upper grades, that they actually came in in the fall with stronger reading scores,” said Terri Goettl, elementary principal, adding 60 percent maintained or made gains over the summer.

Goettl said the younger grades did not see the same improvements. She says the district is focusing on literacy and the foundational reading skills.

“So, keep doing what we are doing for the upper level, and then dig down and figure out what we need to do differently for the littles,” said Goettl.

Board members also heard an update on parent/teacher conference participation numbers. Starck said the numbers are an indication of parent participation.

“We’ve started to have some discussion at the secondary level about a different type of format,” said Starck. “Parents generally don’t come the same way they do for elementary.”

Starck says an open-house format was one idea discussed, where parents could visit teachers in courses. She also said parents tend to monitor Skyward more, the older the students.

“If there’s an issue, it’s talked about right away, not in October and March,” said Starck.

Classes and individual students were recognized for reaching all-time bests. The recognition will become a monthly event.

In the business portion of the meeting, members looked at policy updates. Members approved a second reading of the entrance age policy, which would remove language stating a student can only do 4K once. The board also looked at the first reading of updates to policies, including one on graduation requirements to increase the number of credits needed from 24 to 25.5, beginning with the class of 2022-23.

The board also accepted a donation for students in poverty, from Stephan Vuchetich and Jane Koehne.

Members also approved the hire of Julie Mathieson, parttime custodian, and Lane Genrich, dance coach.