Grand Island School Board: Social worker program proving successful; school lunch costs to go up

The K-5 social worker program appears to be accomplishing its objectives of expanding elementary school counseling services while improving student academic performance.

Independent evaluator Joyce Schmeeckle of Schmeeckle Research in Lincoln said that in the first nine-month school year of the three-year grant, there were 1,657 referrals to the five social workers hired by the Grand Island school district.

That increased to 1,658 referrals in seven months of the grant's second year (results of the final two months of the 2007-08 school year have not yet been calculated).

The most common reasons for referring a student to a social worker was that his or her family needed assistance, there was some other basic need that had to be addressed and student behavior. Poor attendance was a close fourth.

In the grant's first year, there were 614 students and/or families who received interventions. In the first seven months of the second year, there were 1,062 students and/or families who received interventions.

Interventions included acting as resources to families, collateral contact, parent coaching and community referral.

In the first-nine month school year, there were 1,147 disciplinary referrals for an average of 127 per month. In the first seven months of the second school year, there were 728 disciplinary referrals for an average of 81 per month.

Student academic performance on the Iowa Test of Basic Skills improved during the first year of the grant, compared to the previous year's baseline results, Schmeeckle said. During the second year, there was a slight decline compared to the first year, but still a marked improvement compared to the baseline year.

Schmeeckle gave a brief report on a three-year grant for the TeamMates mentoring program. Because that program is still in its first year, it is only possible to gather baseline data at this point. However, mentor and middle school student matches have been made at Barr, Walnut and Central Catholic.

Twenty-two students visited Central Community College and 22 students also visited local businesses to learn about careers. A first-year survey indicated students believe they are benefiting from the TeamMates program.

In other action, the board raised school meal prices to meal prices $1.25 for elementary breakfast and $1.75 for elementary lunch; $1.30 for middle school breakfast and $1.95 for middle school lunch; $1.30 for the Senior High breakfast and $2.05 for Senior High lunch.

Business manager Virgil Harden said it has been customary to raise the cost of school meals by a nickel each school year. However, the rising cost of fuel to transport student meals required a 10-cent increase for all student meals for the coming school year.

Board members heard Dan Petsch, director of operations and maintenance, say that cold winter weather followed by rainy weather this spring and summer has put work on the two additions at Engleman Elementary about 30 days behind schedule.

After the meeting, Petsch said he hopes that improving weather will allow construction crews to catch back up to the original timetable, which called for a completion date of mid-October. However, if the weather does not improve, the primary goal will remain to get the work done properly, not done quickly, he said.

Rainy weather also has caused problems at Barr Middle School, where it has caused a basement floor to heave in a room that holds the school's mechanical systems, Petsch said. The rise in the floor caused a break in a sprinkler line and also caused the air conditioning to not work in some parts of the building.

After the meeting, Petsch said the basement floor rose about 8 inches. Because of continued high groundwater, it is not possible to repair the school's mechanical systems at this time.

The board accepted a recommendation from the May meeting and voted to name the administration building the Dr. Michael S. Kneale Administration Building. Kneale is a former superintendent of schools for the district.

 In other action, the board accepted recommendations on extra standard pay for coaching and other extra activities that teachers perform. Those recommendations include:

n Raising the salary for varsity coaches in football, boys and girls basketball, and volleyball to $6,372 for the coming school year. The change is proposed to keep pace with varsity coaches' pay in other districts.

n Increasing the number of elementary instrumental music extra standard positions from four to six to increase instructional contact time for students while simultaneously ending the practice of pulling students from academic classes.

n Adding the position of Character Education Coordinator at Senior High for a new freshman curriculum.

n Adding a second assistant swim coach to allow coaches to specialize on specific swim events with athletes.

n Adding a varsity assistant soccer coach to both the boys and girls program to keep the student-coach ratios at 15-to-1.