Columbia Board of Education reviews attendance reports, survey results
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
Columbia's Board of Education held a work session Thursday going over data reports, survey results collected throughout the district and more.
The meeting was at 7:30 a.m. at the Aslin Administration building.
Dr. Helen Porter led the presentation of principal data reports from Battle Elementary School, West Boulevard Elementary School and Hickman High School.
Principals from their respective schools showed the board data collected about students' performance in reading, math, science writing and attendance. Those statistics showed attendance in Columbia Public Schools is mostly lower compared to last year.
Hickman High School Principal Mary Grupe presented data that showed attendance for Black, IEP, and Multi-Race students have lower attendance rates this year.
Eliot Battle Elementary School's principal said overall attendance is better this year, but has decreased for Black and Asian students.
White, Hispanic, and Multi-Race students showed an increase in attendance at Battle Elementary.
West Boulevard Elementary School saw less than a 1% decrease in attendance for this year.
Grupe said that each student is different, so there are different ways to approach students about increasing attendance.
"We have students who are at 88% attendance and their grades are C, the intervention they might need to get to 90% and bump their grade up could be, and most likely will be, very different intervention from a person who has 40% attendance and has a B,” said Grupe.
A brief Q&A followed each school's presentation.
Following the data reports, the presentation of the professional development survey results for the fall of 2023 was given.
The survey was completed by 702 staff members, covering topics like years of teaching experience, grade level taught, and questions regarding conference days they have attended.
Those reports showed teachers would like to have plans ahead of time and separate sessions dedicated to specific needs.
Teachers also asked for future sessions to have more math support and more training on technology and behavior management.
Those responses will be used to help the board get an idea of what the teaching experience has been like and what could be improved on for future conference events.
Chief Operations Officer Randall Gooch presented the board with the details on the consideration of Columbia Area Career Center Addition, which cannot exceed $22.6 million.
The construction costs will be covered by bond funds in the construction budget.
The board voted to go through with the project.
