The Haines Borough school board Tuesday established goals for the coming school year that include: improving reading capabilities for kindergarten through third graders, engaging all parents, centralizing a communication platform and developing a plan to improve attendance and graduation rates.

In a workshop on Tuesday, superintendent Roy Getchell said the Haines Borough School District’s most immediate need is to improve reading levels for third-grade students.

To address the need, Getchell proposed the school board develop key academic indicators for each grade level to ensure 80 percent of students meet or exceed performance goals, with a primary focus on third-grade reading levels. 

“We need to do this,” Getchell said. “I got our assessment results back today, and we’ve got some really amazing bright spots but we got some areas to work on and I think we’ve identified them—it’s early reading.”

Getchell said results from last year’s Performance Evaluation for Alaska’s Schools (PEAKS) test scores are not yet public.

Board member Michael Wald asked how the goal would ensure that all students progress, not just the average.

“If we’re doing these data teams, there should be individual attention for every student as we monitor them through the year,” Getchell said. 

Getchell proposed the school district host parent-teacher conferences, family nights, and parent workshops to target 100 percent of teacher and parent participation.

For the last several years, participation on the School Advisory Council (SAC) that strives to engage families in education has dwindled, according to board members.

Board president Ann Marie Palmieri suggested including more parents on the School Advisory Council. “Sometimes SAC has an undefined focus,” she said. “Perhaps the lack of a defined mission has impacted participation because the people that want one thing are not so interested in coming to a meeting where they talk about another.”

A third goal would create and distribute a parental survey to identify best ways to communicate with parents.

Getchell suggested exploring a communication app “Bloomz” to connect parents, teachers and administrators in a monitored platform.

Board member Sara Chapell supported a centralized communication plan and said consistency would help parents stay informed, but she suggested guidelines on how to use it.

“For instance, if an email goes out from the office, it should also be on the Haines Glacier Bear Facebook page, and you should be able to find it on the website. If it’s important enough to send out to everybody in an email, then it should be in all of the places,” Chapell said.

Last, Getchell suggested increasing school climate and connectedness through target goals for attendance and graduation rates.

“That will be an academic indicator,” Getchell said. “The more successful students are in the classroom, the more likely they are to graduate and attend school.”

A school-wide safety audit is also listed as an area of focus to improve school climate.

Getchell recommends school security professional Larry Borland for the job. Bordland works as a national trainer for the U.S. Department of Education in emergency response consulting services for schools in Colorado.

“At a recent board meeting, there was a conversation about working to have someone come in that’s an expert in the field with school and law enforcement to give us some options how to best keep our students safe,” Getchell said. He said he expects to potentially have a proposal from Borland at the Aug. 6 school board meeting.

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