Board of Ed discusses CMT results

SALISBURY — The Board of Education received the results of last year’s Connecticut Mastery Tests (CMT), heard about the prospect of establishing a middle-school athletic director position for  the Region One elementary schools and decided to remove a swing set from the lower building grounds, all during the regular monthly meeting Monday, Sept. 26.

Salisbury Central School Principal Chris Butwill went through the CMT results.

“We’re pleased with these numbers,” he said.

He also cautioned that with small statistical samples, one student can change the results by 3 to 5 percentage points.

The scores provide two numbers for each content area. The areas are reading, writing and math, and science for grades five and eight.

One number indicates the number of students at or above goal; the other the number of students at or above “proficient.” Students at goal are achieving at a higher level than students at the proficient level.

Butwill noted that Salisbury Central had 100 percent of students at or above proficient in reading in grades four and eight, writing (grade four) and math (grade three).

There was a drop in middle-school writing scores, with grades six and seven having 69.4 and 65.6 percent at goal, respectively. The two classes were, however, at 93.9 and 81.3 percent at the proficient level.

Butwill said the teachers can get the actual writing samples in order to assist the students who need additional instruction.

“If some scores are lower than we’d like, we’re not going to panic,” said Butwill. “We’re going to go back and take a look.”

Butwill said there are a lot of variables in standardized testing, including something as simple as whether or not an individual is feeling well that day.

Using the results, the school will next target the students at the proficient level and move them to the goal level; look for trends of success or difficulty among students; use specific data from the tests to identify individual student’s strengths and weaknesses; and focus instruction accordingly.

CMT scores can be found  online at https://solutions1.emetric.net/cmtpublic/Index.aspx. Individual assessments will be shared with parents.

Athletic director

Kent recreation director Lesley Ferris and Salisbury  recreation director Lisa McAuliffe made a pitch for establishing a new position of middle-school athletic director.

McAuliffe said that, currently, administrative tasks fall to the principals and the coaches (who are often faculty members). Between flooded fields, finding referees, scheduling games,  etc., it can be a very time-consuming business.

A single person in charge would be much more efficient, she said, and a person with a background in education and athletics would be better able to handle the load, rather than “a grab bag of people.”

McAuliffe also mentioned the possibility of creating co-op teams between smaller schools who don’t have enough students for, say, a middle-school girls basketball squad.

Some schools allow younger students to play on the same teams as older children. “There are a lot of physical differences” between a fifth- and seventh-grade athlete, McAuliffe said.

Board of Education Chairman Roger Rawlings said there are several steps to go with the proposal, but expressed some doubt that there would be much enthusiasm for spending additional money on a new athletic director position.

Swing set safety

And then there was the matter of a four-swing set on the grounds of the lower building. Butwill said the swing set “is significantly below the safety code” and fixing it up would be expensive.

Asked if the set gets a lot of use, Butwill replied, “There is no middle-school recess.”

He said he had an estimate of $1,800 to bring the swings up to code. “But I don’t think that includes wood chips.”

He added, “I would not want to use that much real estate for four swings.”

The board voted to remove the swing set. Rawlings, who is retiring from the board, said, “There’s your headline.”

Other business

• Rawlings said that the board had neglected to reappoint Paul Henrici as the alternate member of the Region One Board of education, although he has been acting in that capacity anyway.

He proposed appointing Henrici through Nov. 12, when the new board can decide (after the Nov. 8 municipal elections), but had no takers for a second to the motion.

• The board approved a motion to transfer any 2010-11 budget surplus up to $70,000 to the school’s capital reserve fund, and anything over that amount to be returned to the town’s general fund. Between a budget surplus and tuition reimbursements the board anticipates a surplus of between $65,000 and $70,000.