By Fiona Morgan

fiona@amnews.com

The Boyle County Board of Education heard a presentation on Boyle County Middle School’s Big 5 goals for this school year at their meeting on Jan. 18.

BCMS Principal Brian Wheeler talked about what they’ve done in these areas and what they’ll continue to do.

The Big 5 goals are safety, assessment, co-teaching, PBIS, and blueprint teaching.

 

1. School Safety

The school has a camera system with an improved user interface this year. Camera feeds are available on mobile devices, and available to first responders.

Door alarms are enabled. Administrators get texts whenever a door is accessed from the outside in, and from the inside out. Everyone must use a badge to leave the building.

Front office staff regularly runs visitor protocol, and monitors exterior cameras.

The middle school created homeroom time, when each grade goes separately to their halls. “It’s been a really big addition we felt like to the safety of our morning and knowing where kids are; plus we tied it to connectivity with students,” Wheeler said.

 

2. Assessment

Administrators created, revised, and reviewed common assessments during summer PD. They utilize a reflection tool to review student achievement results.

Formative assessments were also refined during summer PD, and results were shared during department meetings and data conferences. Wheeler said they use data to inform flashbacks, and use exit slip data to inform teaching.

The school is using IReady for the first time this year, and Wheeler said it’s gone very well and been a valuable tool. Some of what it’s used for is to make groups and scheduling decisions for Advanced classes, and intervention groups.

 

3. Co-Teaching

The school offers co-teaching in Language Arts and Math by having Special Education teachers specialize in the content. Wheeler said their focus this year is having specially-designed instruction, and the co-teachers have been specifically trained.

Language Arts, Math, and Special Education Teachers have daily common planning, and they allocate staff to allow for a 10:1 student to teacher ratio in those classes.

There is systematic, consistent intervention built within each co-teaching class period that includes intentionally forming groups for intervention and enrichment.

 

4. PBIS

The school’s PBIS Team meets monthly, where they set expectations, review data, identify areas of need, and make recommendations.

There are student expectation meetings every nine weeks, as needed based on data.

PBIS focuses on positive student recognition. Wheeler said their recognition programs have grown and continue to grow.

“We post on our social media outlets all the time, plus we have prize carts where you can get tickets for doing great things, like passing IReady lessons, and students can pick out prizes,” Wheeler said.

 

5. Blueprint Teaching

Teachers use flashbacks, engagement, and regularly review structures to help student progress. They have daily Learning Targets that are congruent with standards.

Teachers use daily formative assessments to check for understanding of those learning targets. They use Kagan and other cooperative learning structures for increased student engagement, and consistently use ThinkMap strategies throughout the building.

 

Wellness Report

The board also heard the 2023-2024 Wellness Report presentation, given by Cheyenne Barsotti, Nichole Brown, and Deanna Padgett.

The presentation covered what each school level is doing to promote physical activity.

At the elementary level, physical activity is integrated into a typical school day for about 30 minutes. Dance is included in 5th grade semester rotations.

FitnessGram Testing is administered twice per year, but is also incorporated into stations and games. There’s also a newly added Pre-K physical education class.

At the Middle School, all students get one 30 minute break each week. Dance class is offered, but not required.

After school sports/activities include basketball, football, volleyball, golf, wrestling, soccer, cross country, track, softball, baseball, cheer, dance, bowling, archery, tennis, swim/dive, fishing and marching band.

At the High School, each student is required to take a Wellness course; nine weeks of health education; and nine weeks of physical education. Weightlifting and Dance courses are offered, but not required.

After school sports/activities offered are the same list as the middle school, in addition to clubs like yoga.

The district’s Wellness policy states, “Teachers will make all reasonable efforts to avoid periods of more than 30 minutes when students are physically inactive. When possible, physical activity will be integrated into learning activities. When that is not possible, students will be given periodic breaks during which they are encouraged to stand and move in some form.”

 

Student health

This school year there are 1,717 active health conditions in the district.

Brown said the health conditions among students have continued to increase this year. They’ve specifically noticed an increase in ADHD and other mental health / behavioral disorders.

They have 274 students with hyperactivity disorders, and 163 with mental health / behavioral disorders.

Padgett said this increase is consistent with increases in mental health disorders across society in general.

To address mental health, the district has partnered with Children and Family Counseling Associates for full time availability at elementary schools, and are currently working on transitioning case loads. Their caseloads for regular services can average around 30 students at both BCHS and BCMS.

The district also offers different groups to address mental health. The middle school offers BWell (substance use diversion), anger management, and Grief & Loss groups. The high school offers BWell, Focus for ADHD groups, and Grief & Loss groups.

 

Food

The summer food program almost doubled the number of meals served from the previous year. A new federal guideline allows the program to be in place indefinitely. Workers put together bulk meal kits, which allow them to reach more kids.

The district received a Local Food for Schools grant this year, so the district is looking to expand local partnerships. They are currently working with Kentucky Fresh Harvest, located in Stanford, for all grape tomatoes at all schools.

They also get ground beef, brisket and roast from Circle G Farm in Danville. They buy from Taylor Belle’s ice cream, located in Anderson County.

The presenters talked about their recommendations for the district. Their recommendations from the presentation are below.

For Nutrition Services, they believe the schools should explore options for:

• Utilizing food vendors for classroom education/demonstrations.

• Offering “second chance” breakfast at BCHS and/or BCMS.

• Adjusting Try It! Fridays to include new or interesting fruits and vegetables for tasting.

For Health and Physical Education, they believe more strategic planning would be a benefit.

• Elementary schools could consider adding PD for classroom teachers on integrating physical activity in the classroom. Teachers are already incorporating physical activity, but are not necessarily formally trained.

• BCHS: Goal of having all teachers CPR certified during summer 2024 PD window.

• WES: PE teacher to educate students in CPR – date TBD in spring 2024.

 

In other business:

• The board approved the purchase of two International buses that seat 72 passengers. The total amount for the buses is $318,726.

• The board approved a change order for Brett Construction Company for the Boyle County High School Softball Construction Project, in the Increased amount of $8,625.

• The district received the 2022 – 2023 Audit Report, which they will go over in a future meeting and post on their website at a later date.