The Trenton R-9 Board of Education on February 14th approved requesting bank depository services bids for the 2023-2024 school year. The bids will be due March 7th at 10 o’clock in the morning. A recommendation will be brought to the board at the March meeting.
The board approved Library Media Specialist Alicyn Studyvin applying for a GEC Grant. Studyvin is applying for a grant for $470 to purchase the 2023-2024 Mark Twain, Truman, and Gateway awards nominees and also replace some books in the media center.
Budget amendments were approved. The changes involved revenues.
Superintendent Daniel Gott reported one change involved $143,600 being added for food service because students are paying for lunch this year. Students previously received free lunch because of a program implemented during the pandemic. There were $1,201.62 added for supplies for the 2021-2022 school year. Gott noted the supplies were planned to come last school year, but they came this year.
There were $32,675 transferred from being used for transportation to update the fire system at Rissler Elementary School. It was reported last month that the fire alarm panel at Rissler is obsolete. Materials to replace the panel are to cost $19,255.93, and labor is to cost $20,479.47. The work was expected to be completed between the last day of school and the first day of summer school.
There were also changes involving grants and project codes.
Spring parent-teacher conferences for Trenton R-9 will be March 9th, and school will be dismissed early that day. There will not be school March 10th or 13th.
Gott noted buildings will release more information about conferences in the next few weeks.
Information was shared on potentially adding a school resource officer. Gott reported school board members talked previously about having a SRO.
He talked to other districts and Chillicothe School Resource Officer Mike Lewis. Lewis would be willing to speak to the Trenton School Board about the matter.
Gott said there would be one SRO for Trenton, and it would be a nine-month position. There are multiple qualifications someone in the position would need.
A job description Gott provided to board members said the goal of the position would be to provide “proactive crime prevention.” The SRO would investigate crimes on the school campus and provide supervision of activities on campus sites.
Gott reported most of the schools that have a SRO are bigger than Trenton R-9. However, he thinks every school in the country would have one if they could, and he believes Trenton R-9 is a safe district.
Gott also reported that adding this position would cost almost $50,000 for this year’s salary schedule. Approving a SRO would be adding a position and affect the budget.
Principals discussed state testing data and attendance.
Rissler Principal Susan Gott reported on the district’s third and fourth grade performance on Missouri Assessment Program tests in math as well as English Language Arts and reading and how it compared with the state.
She said students were “pretty comparable” to the state for third grade math. Fewer Rissler third graders scored at or below basic in math than the state average, and more Rissler third graders scored at proficient or advanced in the subject.
The school is looking to grow in fourth grade math, as more Rissler students scored at or below basic than the state average.
Fourth grade ELA and reading results were almost identical to the state average.
Gott reported a goal is to increase the percentage of students scoring proficient or advanced on the MAP by two to three percent. There are multiple action steps to meet the goal, and she said teachers are doing a lot of work to align the program.
She explained teachers were focused more on ELA last year and more on math this year.
Rissler’s proportional attendance was 87.5% last year, and the state’s was 76.2%. Gott said even though Rissler’s attendance was above the state average, the school is looking at ways to increase attendance.
Trenton Middle School Principal Mike Hostetter reported the middle school was “neck and neck” with the state, but he would like to see it score higher than the state. He wants more students to score at proficient or advanced and fewer at or below basic.
Hostetter said a reading interventionist will be around for another year. He commented that one of the biggest changes he has planned for next school year is that he wants to separate reading and writing classes for the fifth and sixth grades to see the gap close.
Hostetter reported attendance for TMS was 80.2% last year, and he wants it to be above 90%. He thinks to raise attendance, the school would have to reward students and train parents.
Trenton High School Principal Chris Hodge reported there were four testing areas for End of Course assessments.
He thought there was a lot of room for improvement for algebra. He believes making sure students are placed correctly will help them succeed in the subject.
Hodge thought THS did well with biology.
No one was below basic for government, but no one scored advanced, either. He said that was basically in line with the state, and it was similar for ELA.
Hodge reported attendance last year at THS was 75.7%. That was below the state average, and he called it “horrific.” He noted that there has been about 90% attendance most months this school year.
Superintendent Gott mentioned that when it came to last year’s attendance, people were still being told to stay home even at the slightest sign they could be sick because of the pandemic.
Hodge presented the Vocational Program Evaluation. He reported Trenton R-9’s numbers are good and continue to rise for ag sciences and family and consumer sciences. Enrollment in business classes has stayed about the same. There is no Future Business Leaders of America program this year for the district.
Hodge noted agriculture education includes FFA, and Trenton graduate Colton Roy was elected to serve as the Missouri State FFA president for 2022-2023. Roy gave spoke to the Missouri General Assembly last week about state FFA activities.
Gott recognized Roy and said he was very proud of him.
Hodge reported Trenton FFA is also a national three-star rated FFA chapter, which is the highest level.
The board entered into a closed session to discuss personnel.
