The Lowell Area Schools Board of Education met Monday evening for their regular monthly meeting. Absent from the meeting was member Tom Kaywood. All other board members were present.
Student Council Report
Student Council President Antonio Casarez said that high school students are a month into their second trimester and that sports competitions and meets are well under way. The high school’s recent play, Dear Mrs. Claus, took place last weekend.
Casarez said that later this week, the National Honor Society will be decorating cookies and making gingerbread houses for the residents of Maple Ridge Manor.
High School Report
Lowell High School Principal Steve Gough was at the meeting to present a report to the board. Gough said that one year ago, he gave the board a presentation about a pilot program at LHS called “flex time.” Flex time arose from a need to give extra support to students during class time as opposed to providing it before or after school or during the lunch hour. Transportation for students to come before or after school for help can be a problem as well as interfere with extracurricular activities.
When the program piloted last year, many tweaks to the daily schedule occurred to try to find the best fit for a half hour of extra help. The schedule that seemed to work best was to have the flex time two days a week immediately following lunch, and that’s how the schedule has remained going into this year.
Jennifer Manion, Freshman Center Coordinator at LHS, was there to speak more about flex time and another program, the freshman advantage program, which was created to help students transitioning from 8th to 9th grade.
The freshman advantage program is a two-day program that takes place prior to the start of the school year. Students are recommended for the program by school counselors, and they learn skills to help them get a head start in transitioning from middle to high school. Manion works closely with the students from the freshman advantage program to ensure that they are utilizing their flex time to its highest benefit.
LHS Interventionist Dayna Crumback was at the meeting as well to speak to the board about her role in flex time. Crumback said that she may move students around depending on where they need the most improvement. For students who are doing very well in school and may not need extra help, the focus is on creating opportunities for student enrichment and making sure those students are doing something that is valuable to them.
Crumback went on to say that in the library, two programs take place during flex time: silent reading and a homework hall for students to complete assignments during school hours. For students that need it, Crumback offers help with things like goal-setting or organization, and tutors in various subjects from Sylvan Learning are also available.
Gough said that though it’s very early in the flex time program, there are already some positive indicators. Looking at grade proficiency data at the end of the first trimester, grade proficiency was at 76%, which Gough said was pretty average for this time of the year. The failure rate, though, was at a record low of 2.63%. That’s the lowest he’s seen since he started tracking that number 16 years ago. Though he doesn’t know for certain that the low failure rate is a direct result of the program, “… something has occurred to reduce the failure rate in the high school.”
In another positive from fall to winter this year, there were zero athletes declared ineligible for sports for academic reasons. All of the athletes met eligibility requirements and were able to participate in sports for the winter. Gough said, “I don’t know that that’s ever happened in any school that I’ve been at from one season to the next, and I think that is specifically related to the flex time.”
Looking at a student perception study done after the first trimester this year, 75% of students rated the quality of overall teaching as “good or excellent” while 85% said that the challenge rating of their classwork was “just right or too easy.” Sixty-eight percent said their level of support was “good or excellent”.
Gough said programs targeting enrichment for students include a course in American Sign Language, peer tutoring and a series of career speakers that is being planned for the near future.
Superintendent’s Evaluation
Board Secretary Pat Nugent presented the annual evaluation for the district’s superintendent, Nate Fowler. The board is required to rank the superintendent’s effectiveness in a number of areas, including community relations, board communication, staff relations, business and finance and instructional leadership. The rating scale goes from 1 to 4, with 4 being the highest score and meaning highly effective.
For the areas listed above, as well as in the areas of student growth and school improvement, Fowler was given an overall score of 92%, up from last year’s score of 86%. That places him in the “highly effective” category.
In their final comments of the report, the board stated, in part:
“The board does find Mr. Fowler to be a highly effective superintendent. He’s been in his current role as superintendent for two full years. We have seen steady growth in many areas. It is a challenging time to be a school leader, but Mr. Fowler and the district are meeting the challenge…the board looks forward to continuing to work with Mr. Fowler to provide excellent academic opportunities and a safe and positive learning environment for all of the children of Lowell Area Schools.”
Human Resources Report
Director of Human Resources Dustin Cichocki thanked Director of Security Matt Dood for taking over the role of making sure that all buildings are conserving energy over breaks. Cichocki said that before each break, Dood has been going across the district and making sure all lights are off, all technology is turned off, and appliances are unplugged to ensure that the district isn’t wasting energy or losing money.
A new state law requires that all new teachers who have not already been CPR certified must complete CPR training, including an online portion and an in-person training with the district nurses. That training is currently ongoing.
Budget Report
Chief Financial Officer Sonia Hodge had a packet of information for the board on grants that LAS will receive this year. There are a total of 30 grants, including the following:
- 4 grants for health/mental health totaling just over $1 million
- 4 grants for school security totaling $842,000
- 11 grants for learning loss and intervention supports at almost $2 million
- 3 Special Education grants totaled at $800,000
- 3 ESSER grants totaling $1.6 million
- 6 miscellaneous grants totaling $164,000
Hodge also explained that in June when the finance team was projecting a budget for LAS, they still didn’t know what the fall enrollment count would be and the budget is highly dependent on that number. The fall count was approximately 3,449 full-time students. In June, the proposed budget was made for 3,475 students so that the actual numbers were down 26 students. That translates to a shortfall of $250,000 in the budget. Luckily, this year, the state released a new funding program — the “enrollment stabilization fund” — which would give LAS $248,000 to help offset that cost.
Based on a five-year study in enrollment, the finance team is projecting a decline in enrollment for next year of 43 students. The study also looked at some of the reasons for the decline in enrollment, including charter schools, homeschools, online learning programs and declining birth rates across Kent County.
Hodge went on to say that in a recent article in Bridge Michigan about school choice, she read that the total number of students enrolled in Lowell Area Schools exceeds the number of students that live in the district by 170 students. The article found that LAS has 525 students coming into the district from other districts and 341 leaving the district for various other programs.
She added that 10 years ago, there were 3,650 students living in the district and now there are 3,315 students living in the LAS district. She said that though it may feel as though the community of Lowell is growing exponentially, it doesn’t always mean that more families with children are moving to the area.
Curriculum Report
As part of a social emotional learning goal, a recent survey was sent out to all LAS students in grades 3-12 to ask them to rank their level of agreement with the statement, “I feel like I belong at my school”. The rating system was a continuum rating of 1 through 5 with 5 being “strongly agree” with the statement.
The results were that 65% of students say they strongly agree, 22% scored the statement as a 3 or 4, and 13% rated a one or two. Director of Curriculum Dan Vandermeulen said that there was still work to be done in making sure that all LAS students feel that they belong in their school. The feeling of belonging has been directly correlated to better learning overall.
Public Comment
School of choice parent Stefanie Boone said that she appreciated the transparency of the board going over the superintendent’s evaluation with the public. She said that she was surprised that Fowler’s lowest rating was in the area of communications because whenever she reached out to him, Fowler always immediately replied. However, her attempts to contact the board weren’t always as successful.
Boone also asked about the packets of information the board had received during the meeting with budget and other information and wanted that information to be made available to the public. “It’s only fair,” she said.
In her public comments, longtime Lowell resident Kim Lum said that in 1983, a chemical called TCE was found in the ground at 1000 Foreman Road near Lowell Middle School. She said that LAS was aware of the situation and monitored the situation for the safety of students. Now, she said, the chemical PFAS has been found in the former Lowell dump on Ware Road.
Lum read the names of former and current Lowell students that she said were currently fighting or had fought cancer: “…Shelby, Kate, Abby, Megan, Josh…”. Lum said that there was no proof that the incidences of cancer were related to the contamination sites in Lowell, but she said, “We have a challenge here in Lowell. Not just the schools, not just the city, but all of Lowell. We need to collaborate and communicate with each other and figure out how to help this situation.”
Superintendent’s Report
Fowler said LAS had recently received a rebate from Lowell Light and Power of $5,000 because of the energy efficient lighting installed in the parking lot and the stadium at the high school.
Of the May bond proposal, he said that the community had recently been surveyed about what they would like to see improved in the district. They will take the feedback into consideration, and in January, the plan is to come to the board to approve ballot language for the proposal.
Fowler congratulated the middle school robotics team, which formed last year, on their recent competition in Big Rapids. Though the team didn’t win the competition overall, he said they showed a tremendous amount of growth in just one year and won several other awards.
Board Communications
Nugent answered to the public comment made about handouts given to the board. He said there had been a request 4 to 6 months ago for that information to be made available so at that time, it began to be added to an appendix in the meeting minutes that are posted online and could be found there.
The meeting adjourned at 8:34 pm. There is no second meeting in December due to the holiday break, and the next meeting will be held on Monday, January 8 at 7 pm.
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