The Wayne Trace Local School District Board of Education met in regular session at 7:30 p.m. on Monday July14, 2008 in the Lecture Room at Wayne Trace High School.

            Pledge of Allegiance was led by Les Hockenberry.

            Roll Call

                        Mrs. McClure, Mr. Stoller, Mr. Sinn, Mr. Baumle, Mr. Hockenberry – all present

            Correspondence, Recognition of Guests, Hearing of the Public

NONE

The introduction by Mr. Wilson of Heather Hatcher, the new High School Science teacher.  Mrs. Hatcher gave a short background on herself and the board welcomed her to Wayne Trace.

Report of the Treasurer

OSBA Capital Conference is set for Nov. 9-12, please mark calendars if you plan on attending.

Cafeteria finished the year at break even.

07-01-08

On a motion by Dale Stoller one resolution passed by the Board to approve the following consent agenda items:

to approve the minutes of the June 9, 2008 and June 30, 2008 Board Meetings;

to approve the investment report and payment of bills as presented by the treasurer;

to enter into a purchase agreement with Briceton Gas Service for the purchase of Propane at the Wayne Trace Grover Hill Elementary building for the 2008/2009 year at a cost of $2.09 per gallon for up to 13,000 gallons;

to approve First Financial Bank as a qualified depository for district funds for the period beginning 8/23/2008 to 8/23/2013;

to approve a Community Reinvestment Area Exemption Agreement with the village of Payne and Foxbury Apartments for 10 years at 100%.

“Before we pass the consent resolution, are there any items you would like to move from the consent agenda to the discussion agenda for further discussion and/or for separate voting purposes?” NONE

                        Seconded by Lisa McClure

                        Roll Call Vote:

                                    Stoller, McClure, Sinn, Baumle, Hockenberry – all aye

                                    Motion passed

Vantage Report

            Toured the new Van Wert High School.

            Looking to move ahead with OSFC project, possibly on fall ballot.

Report of the Building Principals

            Ms. Deatrick and Mr. Wilson covered preliminary OAT and OGT scores.  They have found some errors and are working to correct them.

Committee Reports

Mr. Sinn reported that the busses are nearing readiness for inspection and all should be ready.

Superintendent’s Report

A.     The 2008-2009 Wayne Trace Local School District Goals will be given to the Board for preview and input.  The Board will have 30 days to preview the district goals with formal approval to occur the August BOE meeting.

B.     The Wayne Trace Board of Education will be updated on summer maintenance projects from WTHS, WTGH, and WTPE.

Consent Agenda Items

07-02-08

On a motion by Pat Baumle one resolution passed by the Board to approve the following consent agenda items:

A.     to approve participation in the Federal Free and Reduced Price Lunch and Breakfast Programs for the 2008-2009 school year;

B.   as recommended by the Superintendent and Food Service Director, to set the following lunch and breakfast prices for the 2008-2009 school year (these are the same prices as last school year):

            Lunch Prices                                         Breakfast Prices

            Grades PK-6 = $1.90                          Grades PK-6 = $1.10

            Reduced Price = .40¢                           All Other = $1.25

                                                                        All Reduced = .30¢

            Grades 7-12 = $2.10

             Reduced Price = .40¢

            Adult = $2.85

            and ala carte item prices as approved by the Foods Service Director;

C. as recommended by the Superintendent and Food Services Director, to award bakery bids to Interstate Brands Corp. (Brown’s Bakery) for the 2008-2009 school year and dairy bids to Arps Dairy for the 2008-2009 school year;

D.     to accept the resignation of Tom Schaper as High School English Teacher effective August 15, 2008;

 E.      upon the recommendation of the Superintendent, to offer Chelsea Scarbrough a 1-year limited contract as elementary teacher for the 2008-2009 school year with placement on salary schedule based on verification of years of teacher experience and education.

  “Before we pass the consent resolution, are there any items you would like to move from the consent agenda to the discussion agenda for further discussion and/or for separate voting purposes?”  NONE

Seconded by Perry Sinn.

Roll Call

            Baumle, Sinn, McClure, Stoller, Hockenberry – all aye

            Motion Passed

07-03-08

On a motion by Pat Baumle a resolution to go into executive session to discuss personnel issues.

Seconded by Les Hockenberry

Roll Call

            Baumle, Hockenberry, McClure, Stoller, Sinn – all aye

            Motion Passed

            New Business

Mrs. McClure requested that Mr. Gerber look into a playground issue at WTGH and report back to the board.

07-04-08

A motion by Perry Sinn for adjournment

Seconded by Lisa McClure

Roll Call

            Sinn, McClure, Stoller, Baumle, Hockenberry – all aye

            Motion passed.

The next Board meeting will be held August 11, 2008.

___________________________________              ______________________________________

Les Hockenberry, President                                          Robert Wannemacher, Treasurer

Report to the Wayne Trace Board of Education

Monday, July 14, 2008

Wayne Trace Grover Hill Elementary – Alan Lautzenheiser, Principal

1.  Ohio Achievement Test – We have received the results of the Ohio Achievement Tests that were given in May. There are areas at WTGH to target for improvement, there are areas to celebrate, and there are areas that I feel the sates should compute differently.

Wayne Trace Grover Hill Elementary met or exceeded the state standard on the subject area tests in all but 3 areas. This is an improvement over previous years. We did not make the state goals in Fourth and Fifth grade math, and in fifth grade social studies. The third and sixth grades met or exceeded the state’s requirements in all tests taken for the second straight year. The fifth grade class also scored an 83% passing rate in science which is a significant improvement over the previous year’s scores. While WTGH did not meet the state requirements for students passing the fifth grade social studies achievement test, we did see significant improvement in the scores. I believe that we are moving in the right direction in this subject area and need to continue to intensify our efforts to meet the state’s targeted goal.

The math scores at fourth and fifth grades concern me and we are analyzing the results to identify areas in the curriculum at these grade levels to target to bring about the improvement that we want in the scores. I have already met with Mrs. Beining to begin this process. As I look at the state’s averages in these areas it becomes plain that for some reason, the fifth grade math test seems to be an area that student’s scores dip statewide. This year’s sixth grade students saw their math OAT passing rate drop by double digits from fourth to fifth grade. Those scores went back up by double digits in sixth grade. I believe this shows that are students are learning the required state standards in fourth and fifth grades that are needed for the foundation to build sixth grade standards but we need to do a better job at fourth and fifth grades. The item analysis of released questions is just becoming available on the ODE’s Success Website. We will be analyzing this data for individual strengths and weaknesses at these grade levels in order to target areas to concentrate on.

I have created an OAT Prep class period in the 4-6 class schedule for the 2008-09 school year. This will be a period of around 20 minutes, daily, where teachers will be able to focus on specific test taking strategies targeted at areas of need that we identify from the item analysis and individual classroom observation. This will be above and beyond what is done in the regular curriculum areas. For example, our students seem to always have difficulty with the short answer and extended response questions. Many years, a 1 or 1.5 point improvement on these questions could make the difference between meeting the state’s goals or not. This class time will give teachers and students targeted time to work on specific test strategies and areas. Carol Swary and I will be meeting with teachers throughout the school year to provide assistance in these areas.

We also plan to target areas in need of improvement with our math intervention program. The Cooper Grant I received a year ago should enable me to continue the program this year. We will specifically target those students who had difficulty on the math OAT with in class and one-on-one intervention.

Overall, WTGH met 9 of 12 state indicators on the State Report Card. While this is an improvement for the building, we are certainly not satisfied with it. We have received an Effective state rating for the third straight year but a rating of Excellent is still our goal and I believe it is achievable.

One area that I don’t quite understand how the state comes up with their rating is in the area of AYP. Wayne Trace Grover Hill Elementary met AYP in the area of all students and in every other sub-group for all subjects considered except in the area of math for the sub-group of economically disadvantaged. I have difficulty understanding how one area in a long list of groups and sub-groups can have this impact, but it does and we will address it.

Our scores for Wayne Trace Grover Hill Elementary on the 2008-09 OAT’s are:

I realize this has been lengthy, but I wanted to cover as much as I could since I knew I would be unable to attend the meeting. I could go into more detail and I would be happy to meet with any of you at your convenience.

2. Summer Maintenance – Ray is moving along in preparing the building for the opening of the school year. Richland has completed the insulation work above the ceiling in the new wing. This should help us lower energy costs for the building. They will be returning soon to complete roof repairs on the original wing above the cafeteria.

3. Hopefully, we will have a recommendation for the position of third grade teacher at WTGH. I removed myself from the interview process because of the reasons that Brian informed you of, but I am confident in the abilities of all of the finalists interviewed to do a great job with our students at Wayne Trace Grover Hill Elementary.