School district seeks higher performance ratings

The Franklin County School District is making a renewed commitment toward internal academic improvements in the wake of recently released accountability ratings from the Mississippi Department of Education that gave the local public school system a C letter grade.

At the end of the school board’s hour-long monthly business session held on Tuesday, Oct. 18, Superintendent of Education Chris Kent provided historic and current accountability data for members to review and digest.

“The 2018-2019 term was the last year prior to COVID-19 where we tested and got a score for each of our buildings and the district,” Kent said. “In the 2020-2021 term, state testing was done to provide a baseline for the year when we tried to go (to school) with the virus. Some districts did not do well at all, but we did pretty well — not great, but pretty good.”

The 2018-2019 accountability report listed Franklin County as a B district based on measures including student proficiency in reading, mathematics, history and science; reading and mathematics growth; English learner progress; acceleration; college and career readiness; and graduation rate.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, public schools did not administer state assessments for the 2019-2020 academic term.

No letter grades were issued for the 2020-2021 baseline testing, but scoring tallies were provided in reading, mathematics, history and science proficiency; acceleration; college and career readiness; and graduation rate.

Kent confirmed the state’s 2022 measurements listed Franklin County as a C-rated district.

“After we received the results from last year’s testing, the comparisons show where our problems are — it was a lot in math, and not so much language arts,” he said.

Kent noted there was some improvements in results district-wide with the high school, in particular, seeing several of those — in fact, some areas, which he did not elaborate on, were significantly improved when compared with 2018-2019 assessment findings.

“We know there are some places to work on, but there’s no doubt in my mind that we will get to where we want to be,” he continued.

“There were some other positive numbers that we can build off of and we’re thankful for that.”

Kent went on to say he firmly believes “B” status for the school district is attainable based on what he has seen.

“We were a ‘C’ — a mid-range ‘C’ — for the district in 2021-2022, so I feel confident if the upper and middle schools get great growth this year, the high school continues its upward path and district-wide proficiency improves, we can see that ‘B’ soon,” he continued.

“Growth in some of the testing areas is really what killed us this past year.”  

During last month’s school board meeting, Kent said he and district administrators were tackling the post-coronavirus learning situation in local schools with a comprehensive plan addressing several fronts — working with external consultants like The Bailey Education Group, to provide boots-on-the-ground assistance in specific academic areas; improving proficiency and growth in areas such as reading and mathematics; and increasing high school graduation rates.

Another area of attention for Kent and his team is surpassing the state’s average when it comes to students’ ACT results, and working toward an average of 19 on the examination.

“Our ACT results for this past year upticked slightly — with a 17.6 average — while the state’s average was 17.3,” he noted during September’s board session.

“The state’s average results during that time decreased and ours increased. Even though we didn’t increase greatly, I am happy to see us moving in a positive direction.”

Kent praised current ACT prep efforts within the district that are helping students in reaching expectations.

As a whole, Kent said the district’s underlying policy henceforth will be one of no excuses.

“The way I see it, COVID-19 — for a little while — took our focus off education because we were more concerned about keeping our children safe and alive and not focused on English and math,” he added.

“Now, we can’t use coronavirus as a crutch and I’ve told everyone since the beginning of this school year that the crutch is gone. I don’t want to hear it anymore and we’ve got to get going.

“I’m not saying COVID-19 is not real, but we can’t lean on that particular excuse anymore and we have to get down to business for the future of our children.”

In other business during the October meeting, the Franklin County Board of Education considered these action items:

• Accepted a high bid from Good Hope Timber Co. — totaling $165,998 —  for the sale of school district timber resources on 73 acres in Section 30-Township 6 North-Range 2 East.

The other bid consider on the same parcel came from Landmax Timber Co., in the amount of $147,685.

• Allowed for advertising for a future timber sale in Section 16-Township 5 North-Range 2 East.

“We tried to sell this last year as a second thinning, and the bids were not as high as they had been,” Kent said. “So, we’re going to try that sale again and might try to do it as a pay-as-you-go clear cut because the property needs attention anyway.”

The superintendent said he hoped to have the timber on the parcel bidded out by December for cutting in the spring with revenue to be included as income in fiscal year 2023.

• Tremel Young, who serves as the school district’s business manager, reported the local school system’s maintenance fund balance stood at $1,011,332.86 as of the end of last month.

“Also, as of Sept. 30, we have completed 25 percent of our school year,” Young told the panel. “We have received 17 percent of our projected revenues and expended 19 percent of our projected expenditures.”

Additionally, Young reported on the district maintenance cash flow, which had a balance of $2,404,198.34 as of Sept. 30.

• Authorized revisions to the expenditure of federal funds involving the second round of Elementary and Secondary Schools Emergency Relief  (ESSER II) and fiscal year 2021 special education support.

 “The state finally approved the reallocation of ESSER II funds for the (asbestos flooring abatement) project at Franklin County Lower Elementary School,” Young said. 

“The special education funds had to be obligated before Sept. 30 and we utilized it for personnel costs in the program.” 

• Accepted a $6,000 contract with Bailey Education Group for use in professional development with the district’s special education program instructors.

Officials said that cost will be covered by existing special education funding.

• Allowed district leaders to seek a pre-kindergarten through third grade reading screener grant.

“We have to pay up front for the screener who works with our children, and we get reimbursed by the state per pupil participating,” Kent said.

He confirmed that reimbursement was around $9.50 per student, which would cover most of the cost for the screener’s services.

• Accepted a $10,000 contract for Progress Learning Education software for use in the district’s 21st Century program with those funds coming from existing grant support.

• Kent announced the resignation of Robert Smith as the district’s transportation director and announced plans in seeking a replacement 

The superintendent pointed out Smith would remain in his position as the district’s SRO — school resource officer — and would continue to train school bus drivers.

• Adopted the district’s 2022-2023 testing security plan along with district-wide and individual school’s safety and crisis plans.

• Allowed the Franklin County Career and Technical Center to apply for a $3,000 non-traditional student participant grant for fiscal year 2023.

• Approved travel for Franklin County Career and Technical Center Construction and Carpentry instructor Kristie Jones to attend the “Donors Choose” organization’s board of directors meeting in New York Oct. 25-26.

• Authorized a trip for Franklin County Lower Elementary School kindergarten students to visit Barnhill Reserve in Ethel, La., on Oct. 26 and for Franklin County High School seniors to visit Top Golf in Baton Rouge, La., during December.

No district funds were required for any of the travel requests.

The next school board meeting will be held at 4:30 p.m.,Tuesday, Nov. 15 in the superintendent’s office in Meadville.