Board OKs budget, discusses school AYP

 District 4 students excel in reading; fall short in math skills testing

  In what turned out to be a full evening for the Libby School Board, members began with tours of its two newly renovated schools and capped the night off four hours later with a budget approval, discussing Adequate Yearly Progress reports, the future of Asa Wood and approved a food-service contract with two local suppliers.

  Board members, superintendent K.W. Maki, District Clerk Leslie Forster and four others began the evening at 5:30 p.m. with a tour of Libby High School led by Principal Rik Rewerts. About 40 minutes later, the board toured the Libby Elementary School, again led by that building’s principal, Ron Goodman.

  While most of the inside construction of the buildings appears complete, there is much work to do inside both buildings before the start of school Sept. 6, the day after the Labor Day weekend.

  “We’ll be ready. Our people are very dedicated toward reaching this goal,” Maki said, reassuring the group that three weeks is enough time.

   At the high school, there was less renovation, and it underwent the least of the two contracts awarded to Meredith Construction of Kallispell. There is much that is shiny and new, and restrooms are nearly perfect, just lacking the completion of stall walls.

   “This is the $38,000 restroom,” Maki told the group.

   At Libby Elementary, which had undergone the lion’s share of the renovation dollars, students will be neatly segregated by the school’s pod-format. Kindergarten students will be in the brown pod; first-graders in the orange pod; second- and third-graders will be in the blue area; fourth- and fifth-graders in the yellow, and sixth-graders will have the green pod all to themselves.

   Goodman, the elementary school principal, explained he and staff gave considerable thought to assigning grades to specific pods, going so far to say that the kindergarten students were assigned to the brown pod because a larger number of parents will escort those students into the building as compared to sixth-graders, as the brown pod has more-ready access to a drop-off area.

   “It meant a lot more work (moving), but it makes better sense. Certainly, there will be a lot more kindergarten parents seeking access than sixth-grade (parents),” Goodman told the group of 13.

   Generally, the buildings appear in shape, although there still is much that needs to done, including installing some lockers, replacing fallen ceiling tiles, completing Ethernet connections, bathroom stall walls and overall prepping floors and classrooms.

   “I’ve never seen this kind of commitment before,” Rewerts told the board during its meeting. “Teachers have been in, spending their own time like I’ve never seen before preparing their classrooms.”

   Concerning the district’s Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) report card, which considers three factors — reading and math scores and graduation rates — District 1 students met two of the three requirements, coming up short in the math percentile.

   The mandated proficient Reading percentile is 83, and Libby students scored 85. In the more difficult to attain math percentile, which mandates a 68 percent proficiency, Libby students scored a 65 percent score, coming up three percent shy of the goal.

   In the graduation percentile, Libby High School managed to graduate 85 percent of its students, which exactly matched the mandated proficiency percentile.

   “We were right there, with all the other school districts,” Maki said. “I feel like our teachers are doing a good job, but we can do more. We just need to continue to show progress.”

   Students also are measured in their science skills, but those scores are not used to compute the AYP.

   Board members also agreed to invite Mike Cirian, the environmental engineer for the local office of the Environmental Protection Agency, to a subsequent board meeting.

   The board made the request as they began to delve into the future of the recently closed Asa Wood Elementary School. Recently, Maki, the superintendent, said the school’s location makes it a great location for a community center. While board members and agree the site is a central location in Libby, they seemed to agree that they would favor that plan if such a community center could be self-sufficient.

    Goodman, the elementary school principal, openly admitted he might be taking flak for making the statement, but he preferred the district’s tight budget dollars be utilized for supporting the two remaining campuses and not supporting a building the district has voted to close. That sentiment also was echoed by Rewerts, the high school principal.

    However, board member Lee Disney said the savings to the district is more than the estimated $25,000 it might take to keep the building open for heat and electricity as a community center.

   “There is a tremendous savings to the district when you consider the staff reductions that resulted from closing the school,” Disney said. “It’s more than just heating and electricity expenses a year.”

   Cirian was asked to attend a future board meeting to help the board assess the amount of environmental hazards that may exist, all of which may be demolished if the building is considered for future use. Maki previously stated he anticipates as much as 50 percent of the building contains asbestos materials.

   After a preliminary meeting Monday, the board on Tuesday approved its budget for 2011-’12 of $7.655 million or about $251,000 less than last year. Overall, the budget still reflects a shortfall of $750,322.

   In one of the board’s final moves of the evening, it approved food-service vendor contracts with Henry’s Restaurant, Inc., and Kootenai Catering and Sunshine Food Service, Inc. Henry’s and Kootenai provide K-8 breakfasts and lunches for the district. The price Henry’s charges for each breakfast was increased two cents from $1.15 to $1.17 and the lunches increased from $2.20 to $2.27.

   The Sunshine contract raised the price the food service provider can charge the district for free breakfasts for students in grades 9-12 from $1.30 to $1.32 and reduced breakfasts from $1 to $1.02.

   The new contract allows Sunshine to charge the district $2.82 for the free-lunch program for 9-12 students, which is up from $2.75. Sunshine now will charge District 4 $2.42 — up from $2.35 — for the reduced lunch program for students 9 to 12.

    The district’s next board meeting is 4:30 p.m. Sept. 12 for a special agenda gathering, which will be followed by its next regular meeting at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 20.