The Trenton R-9 Board of Education approved an adjustment to after-school tutoring pay on October 12, 2021. The pay rate was changed from $25 to $30 to match the quarantine tutoring program.
Trenton Middle School Principal Daniel Gott said teachers select students to be tutored in the after-school program.
Superintendent Mike Stegman reported there were 228 students enrolled in summer school. He explained numbers were down due this year due to the pandemic and eliminating outside districts that were not feeder districts. Summer school ended a week early due to high quarantine numbers. Stegman reported 125 students had perfect attendance for summer school. He noted if a student was out on quarantine, it did not count against their attendance record. Thirty-six parent surveys were returned, and Stegman noted they were mostly good.
There was a net gain of $16,202 from summer school, which the superintendent thought was good. He also thought Luke Lewis did a good job running this year’s program.
Stegman said Trenton R-9 will start again soon selecting items for next summer.
Board President Dorothy Taul said she thinks it is important to have summer school.
Stegman reported Trenton R-9 received notice October 12th that its Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief 3 budget was approved. The district’s ESSER 3 amount is $2,638,446.
Items the district has purchased and/or is planning to purchase to minimize learning loss include COVID-19 quarantine tutoring, counseling programs, and learning loss programming. Stegman said the training is ongoing for the learning loss programming.
He reported the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and Department of Health and Senior Services released information on a Test to Stay program that would let a COVID-19 close contact continue to participate in school activities. However, it would involve testing multiple times to stay.
Stegman said the board members had voiced opinions in the past that they were not interested in having COVID-19 testing done at schools. He commented that, based on that information, he did not think Trenton R-9 was interested in the Test to Stay program at this time.
He reported there were four students at Rissler Elementary School in quarantine or isolation, and the students were exposed outside of school. There were also two students each from Trenton Middle School and Trenton High School who were in quarantine or isolation.
Stegman said staff members are doing the best they can to minimize the number of quarantines.
DESE has also released information on a counseling program called the Missouri Postsecondary Advising Initiative. Stegman explained the program would provide extra counseling for students after graduation to help them achieve success. He said the program would help students find a way of life after high school, which does not necessarily mean going to college.
Stegman noted only a certain number of schools qualify, and Trenton does. He said DESE would give the district some funding to help the district with the program.
The wiring for the SafeDefend project is complete. The rest of the project has an anticipated date of November if the parts arrive at the company.
Stegman reported district buildings performed fire, lockdown, and tornado drills in the last month. An earthquake drill is scheduled for October 21st.
Director of Special Education Tara Hoffman presented the Special Education and Assessment program reports.
She said 186 students in preschool through 12th grade are enrolled in the Special Education Program. A kitchen was added for the THS Special Education Department, and it is used for the Black and Gold Coffee Shop.
Hoffman commented not much had changed with the Assessment Program. She reported iReady is a district-wide assessment in English Language Arts and Math for kindergarten through eighth grade. It is designed to address every student’s learning needs, accelerate growth, and enable students to access grade-level learning. All juniors will be provided the ACT.
Instructional Coach Doctor Jill Watkins gave an update on activities. She reported that she spent 32.4% of her time on coaching cycles and feedback on August 30th and October 1st. She spent 17.8% on collaborative planning, 13.5% on curriculum work, and 10.8% on modeling instruction and behavior intervention support. Watkins spent 2.7% of her time from 7:30 in the morning to 3:45 in the afternoon on planning. She noted additional planning time is used beyond workday hours to adequately prepare for instructional coaching duties.
The board entered into a closed session for personnel.
