Monday's School Board Notes And Articles

Earlier this week Ellen Brown posted notes yesterday from Monday evening's School Board meeting on her Octorara Report Blog here.

Aside from the usual resignations and hirings, topics discussed during the board meeting include:

• Group purchasing opportunities
• PSSA test results
• Cell phone policy pilot
• The 2011-2012 budget calendar
• Time change for the High School Dedication (moved to 2:00 PM)
• A new monthly Superintendent's Advisory Meeting open to the public

In addition to Ellen's blog, local journalist Debbie Wygent weighed in with a good article on My Octorara News about the PSSA test results as reported by Assistannt Superintendent Nancy Bishop Monday evening.

The first three paragraphs of Debbie's story read as follows:

Students in the Octorara Area School District earned strong SAT scores compared with other students statewide, but three of the district's five schools did not make adequate yearly progress on 2011 PSSA tests, Assistant Superintendent Nancy Bishop told the school board Monday night.

As a district, Octorara did show improvement on PSSA tests.  Seventy-two percent of all district students were proficient in reading — up from 63 percent in years 2008-10 — and district students scored 67 percent proficient in math, which is up from 56 percent in the years 2008-10. 
   
However, both the high school and intermediate school did not make AYP in either reading or math because of scores from their special education, or IEP, subgroups.  The elementary school missed AYP in reading because of scores from its IEP and economically disadvantaged subgroups, but met all performance targets in math.  The Primary Learning Center and middle school made AYP in both subjects.

Read Debbie's entire test scores article here.