Education Committee Minutes 12/12/05

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Proceedings of the Education Committee

School District No.2, Yellowstone County

High School District No. 2, Yellowstone County

Billings, Montana

 

December 12, 2005

 

 

Call to Order

 

The Education Committee Meeting of School District No. 2, Yellowstone County, Montana, and the High School District, Yellowstone County, Montana was duly held at The Lincoln Center, 415 North 30th Street, Billings, Montana, Monday, December 12, 2005 at 5:30 p.m.

 

Chairman Conrad Stroebe presided.

 

Roll Call

 

The following were present at the meeting: Conrad Stroebe, Dave Williams, Dave Cobb, Ann Barlow, Seth Hirschkorn, Kathy Olson, Karen Ziegler, Patty Fain, Anne Barlow, Kyle Colling, Karen Rice, Malcolm Goodrich.

 

Minutes of October 10th and November 14th Education Committee

 

Margaret Aukshum moved to approve the Education Committee minutes of October 10th and November 14th as presented. Karen Rice seconded the motion, and it passed unanimously.

 

MHSA Eligibility for Participation for Crossroad students

Dave Williams, Athletic Director for School District #2, gave a summary of Montana High School Association eligibility requirements for students to participate in school activities:

 

1) The student must be enrolled for 20 hours per week and have a passing grade in at least 4 of the 6 classes.

 

2) A student is ineligible for 90 schools days if they transfer schools within the same district.

 

3) Exceptions to the transfer rules can be made for students who are wards of the State.

 

4) Students who move to Billings from another town are eligible immediately. They are not required to wait 90 days.

 

The cost to the district for all activities is $7000/high school, which is approximately $220 per activity. Activities can include non-athletics (i.e. Music, forensics) as well as athletics. Students who request to participate in activities not offered by their high school are usually declined this request. Their participation would take a spot away from a student enrolled in the school. Dave Williams will provide an attachment for the next Education Committee packet from the MHSA.

 

Billings’ students compete for the Montana Power Academic Excellence Award. Qualifications for this award are based on the GPA of the athletes and averaged by the number of participants compared with other AA schools. Billings has won this award several times.

 

Billings Public Schools High School Completer and Dropout Information

 

Dropout information was presented. The type of dropout information is defined by the state. Information on students includes the number of students who drop out and the number of students who enter Billings Public Schools.

 

Generally students who drop out of school tend to drop out because work is too hard, they transfer to another school or they bump up against the 10-day absence rule. Currently the 10-day rule only applies to students in grades 7-12. Because of the coding system and how it is used by the attendance clerks, information may be reported in a slightly different manner. The codes used to identify the reasons students drop out are set by the state.

 

In most cases students are dropped after they miss 10 days of school. Dave Cobb shared that schools do all they can to try to encourage students to stay in school. If a student is bumping up against the 10-day rule, letters will go to the student’s family at 6 days and again at 8 days. If a student hits the 10-day rule or more and is passing his/her classes, an appeal to the 10-day rule can be made, allowing the student to possibly receive credit.

 

Conrad asked where to the kids go when they drop out of school. Dave Cobb shared that we don’t always know because they don’t always tell us, and some of them are transient. Administration usually checks with Adult Ed to see if a student has enrolled to obtain a GED. If a student, after leaving BPS, enrolls in a school anywhere in the country, a request for records form will be completed and sent to the student’s prior school. This allows us to identify the population of students who leave Billings and enroll in another school. If no request for records is received, the assumption is made that the student dropped out of school.

 

The Truancy Center has been instrumental in helping K-12 students attend school. Sometimes parental support for school attendance is lacking. A pattern for truancy and dropouts is set as early as second grade.

Prevention of dropouts is a discussion that should take place in the early elementary years. Patty Fain commented that dropout prevention is a community issue not just a school issue.

 

We currently have some excellent programs in place to try to prevent students from dropping out of school. Reading Recovery, Read 180, Language!, after school and lunch study programs and math intervention classes are but a few of the interventions being provided to BPS students. The Small Learning Community grants at the high schools are providing funding to study different models that will hopefully prove successful in keeping students in school.

 

Malcolm Goodrich requested data on dropouts. He also requested recommendations from schools of programs and interventions that perhaps could be put in place or have been successful and their approximate costs. He requested this information come forward at the next Education Committee meeting. Ann Barlow seconded this recommendation.

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Seventh and Eight Grade Social Studies Curriculum Adoption

The motion was made by Malcolm Goodrich and seconded by Kyle Colling to recommend adoption of the 7th and 8th Grade Social Studies Curriculum.

 

The motion passed unanimously.

 

Enclosures and Monthly Update of Smaller Learning Communities Grant

No discussion was held.

 

The meeting was adjourned at 6:50 p.m.

 

 

 

 

Conrad Stroebe, Chairman

 

 

 

Vickie Schultz, Recorder