Loyal board talks survey, ways to improve district environment
By Cheyenne Thomas The Loyal Board of Education held its regular meeting Dec. 20. During the meeting, the board discussed the results of a recent High Reliability School (HRS) survey, as well as began preparations to release a community survey on its collaboration efforts with Greenwood after its joint board meeting with Greenwood.
A total of 49 Loyal School District staff, 207 students and 122 parents took the HRS survey. The purpose of the survey, said Principal Doug Dieckman and District Administrator Chris Lindner, was to assess where the school district’s areas of strength were and what areas needed improvement.
“This is the start of a three-year journey on this process,” said Dieckman. “In year one, we’re talking about safety of the school building, school culture and climate.”
According to the results of the survey, a majority of respondents agreed the school environment at Loyal was safe, supportive and orderly. Dieckman said some areas identified as needing improvement from the results of the survey were the amount of involvement teachers had in the decision-making process with school initiatives; curriculum assessment, instruction and achievement; and people having a say on improvements and functioning of the school.
With the results of the HRS survey, Dieckman said the next stage of the process is to have the guiding coalition team go through the results and find ways to improve areas where the district has been found lacking. Already, Dieckman said, they have been able to make some changes in response to feedback from the survey, such as making adjustments to the school’s fire drill to make sure students are both safe and accounted for.
“We have 11 people in this group that is working on the survey,” he said. “We’re also trying to put together a website or page so people can see the data themselves every year and see what the school is doing to improve each area.”
The board also briefly discussed plans for a community survey to be released sometime in the next month. The survey is expected to be a three-question survey for both Loyal and Greenwood School District residents, with the actual questions to be finalized and released following a meeting of the joint board on Jan. 10 at 7 p.m. in Greenwood.
In other action taken by the board at its meeting, the board listened to a presentation by Loyal School District instructional coach Amy Humke. Humke has been working as an instructional coach at the district since the start of the 2023-24 school year. She gave a report on what her duties are and how it helps both educators and students at the district.
“This year, we’re working on creating a culture of learning,” she said. “Next year, we’re going to be working on effective teaching in the classroom… The more effective your teachers are, the more student growth you will have. By having an instructional coach, you give teachers support. An avenue that is reliable, because you don’t have to rely on administration to try to help because they also have other jobs they need to take care of.”
During the past few months, Humke said she has been working with teachers at the district in different ways to help them improve. For some teachers, she said, that help comes through discussions with each other. For others, she watches the teacher teach and provides feedback. It is all based on what the teacher needs and wants to do.
“I’m here every day,” she said. “I have been working with 10 teachers closely on instructional coaching, and there have been some teachers who have struggling students. I have two or three teachers that I meet with weekly or go to supervise a classroom for a teacher. I provide input. It’s not about what is wrong in the classroom, but rather it’s about growing through our strengths to become better educators. Help teachers through self reflection and find areas of growth. My job is to help teachers be the best they can be. If we can do that, then our students, as a result, become better.”
The board was also given a report on the school district’s School Report Card ratings for the past year from the Department of Public Instruction. The elementary school received a 63 out of 100, or “meeting expectations.” The middle school received a 64.8 out of 100, also “meeting expectations.” The high school had a score of 56.6 out of 100, receiving a ranking of “meets few expectations.” The total district score was a 61.3 out of 100, which placed Loyal in the “meets expectations” category. Lindner said the score was lower than in years past, and stated that a likely cause was continued repercussions from school shutdowns caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
