February 11, 2020 Board Meeting - Rockford Public Schools

Meeting summary

Opening and public-comment guidelines

The meeting was called to order at 7:06 p.m. Seven members were reported present, establishing a quorum.

Public comment was limited to 30 minutes total, with up to two minutes per speaker. The board said it would not respond during the comment period, though staff might follow up.

Public comments

• Auburn High School choir: Principal Jenny Kaf(f)er introduced students who performed for the board. The students were raising money to help other Auburn choir students attend Carnegie Hall, donating their time and talent to support the trip. The board encouraged donations through the choir’s fundraising website.
• Early-childhood staff safety: Paraprofessionals Renee Anderson and Kristen Nichols described being hit, kicked, bitten, spat on, and verbally threatened by young students. They said staff need clearer safety procedures, more support and staffing, and consistently enforced consequences or interventions. Nichols also described a knee injury that limited her ability to do her job.
• CAPA program: CAPA teacher Sarah—identified inconsistently in the captions—urged the district to assess the program using relevant student-entry and growth data rather than assumptions about student demographics. She argued that improvement should focus on district systems and structures, rather than blaming special programs for achievement gaps students bring with them.
• Teacher retention: West Middle School teacher Jack Moore said teacher retention should be a district priority. He argued that student readiness cannot translate into achievement when classrooms lack a consistent certified teacher, and called for examining systemic causes rather than blaming individual teachers.
• Bus drivers and nutrition staff contracts: Union representative Sarah Turner asked the board to approve tentative agreements for bus drivers and nutrition-services workers. She described the employees’ contributions to students and said the agreements had been collaboratively negotiated and overwhelmingly ratified by the units.

Board members acknowledged the contributions of paraprofessionals, bus drivers, and nutrition staff. One member emphasized that the district must investigate why student outcomes lag, including possible systemic causes such as teacher retention.

Consent items and recruitment incentives

• The board approved the consent agenda, which included meeting records, financial and contract items, travel, the tentative agreements for bus drivers and nutrition staff, a family-attendance memorandum, and other routine matters.
• A recruitment-incentive item was considered separately and approved. A board member described it as approximately $200,000 in incentives addressing teacher recruitment and shortages, while noting that retention also needs attention.
• Closed-session consent items were approved, including HR matters and hearing-officer recommendations involving student discipline.

Charter-school performance report

Dr. Wolf presented FY19 results for the district’s three charter schools: Galapagos, Legacy, and Jackson. The presentation used each school’s charter-performance report, state report-card data, enrollment history, and measures specified in the charter agreements.

Measures and approach

• The report covered chronic absenteeism, proficiency in English language arts (ELA), math and science, student growth percentiles, student-group performance, mobility, enrollment, governance, and finance.
• Chronic absenteeism meant missing at least 10% of the school year, whether absences were excused or unexcused.
• Growth percentiles compare students with peers who began at similar achievement levels. The presentation treated the 50th percentile or higher as a useful benchmark and emphasized growth toward proficiency.
• Results for student groups were suppressed when fewer than 10 tested students were in a group, to protect privacy.
• Dr. Wolf said the district’s charter oversight was intended to preserve charter autonomy while strengthening accountability.

Findings and improvement areas

• All three charter schools improved ELA proficiency in 2019; two improved their growth percentiles, and two increased math proficiency.
• Galapagos led the charter group on several reported measures, including growth, and was described as having ELA and math results that in some years or measures met or exceeded district averages.
• Legacy showed improvement in its middle-school results after pursuing International Baccalaureate accreditation and was working to extend that program into lower grades.
• Jackson’s enrollment had declined substantially. Dr. Wolf attributed part of the decline to a decision to stop serving sixth and eighth grades, with additional losses linked to families moving. Jackson had also ended its relationship with CICS and was focusing more on local control and student-data review.
• Chronic absenteeism was a concern, particularly at Jackson; the presentation said it increased at two of the three schools. Jackson’s response included assigning staff to contact absent students’ families, identify barriers to attendance, and refer cases to more formal truancy processes when appropriate.
• Charter-school proficiency remained below state averages overall. Dr. Wolf also identified mobility and teacher turnover as risks; all three schools had teacher-retention rates below the district average, with Galapagos reported at 46%.

Accountability structure

The charter performance framework described in the presentation included:

• Student proficiency and growth, which together made up most of the score.
• Enrollment compared with the school’s contracted plan.
• Student voice and school culture measures.
• Financial oversight, governance, and compliance with requirements such as IEP and English-learner procedures.
• Renewal site visits, including classroom observations and stakeholder focus groups.
• Notice and intervention procedures, with shorter renewal periods available so the board could revisit performance sooner.

Board members debated how to interpret charter results. Some argued that district averages should not be the target when schools serve student populations that may differ from the district as a whole; others stressed that the same standards of accountability should apply across schools. Members also discussed charter-school mobility, demographics, the decline in Jackson enrollment, and what would be required for improvement. Dr. Wolf noted that Jackson had previously received a three-year renewal rather than a standard longer term, giving the board an earlier opportunity to reassess progress.

Action items and closing

The board approved:

• Public School Works state-mandated training.
• A Unified Talent contract.
• Housing for aspiring teachers.
• A speaker-bureau contract for the Teachers Institute Day speaker.
• National Geographic professional development for K–5 and grades 9–12 teachers.
• A package of board-policy revisions.

A proposed update to student medication policy 7.270 was introduced for a later vote. It would address procedures for students to use medically infused marijuana products under designated supervision. In response to a question, an administrator said the existing staff policy continued to prohibit use or impairment on school grounds, while reasonable accommodations could be made in other ways.

The meeting adjourned at 8:19 p.m.

Speakers and sources featured

• Board presiding officer and board members: The chair and trustees led the meeting, commented on public testimony, questioned the charter-school report, and voted on agenda items. Captions identify several members as Mr. Dixon, Mr. Allen, Mr. Scavo, Mrs. McCulloch, Mr. Connor, Miss Stanford, Mr. Rawlins, and Mr. Siegel; some names and vote captions are inconsistent.
• Dr. Jarrett: Superintendent, who introduced the charter-school report.
• Dr. Wolf: Presenter of the charter-school performance report.
• Jenny Kaf(f)er: Auburn High School principal, who introduced the choir and fundraising effort; the surname is uncertain in the captions.
• Auburn choir teacher: Identified in the captions as Mr. Ladd; the full name is unclear.
• Auburn High School choir students: Malachi, Noah, Robert, Jamia, and Lanisha, as captioned.
• Renee Anderson: Early-childhood paraprofessional.
• Sarah, a CAPA teacher: Introduced under the name Sarah Shearer; the captions do not reliably establish her full name.
• Jack Moore: West Middle School social studies teacher in the CAPA program.
• Kristen Nichols: Paraprofessional.
• Sarah Turner: Union representative for AFSCME Council 31; introduced under different names in parts of the captions.
• Other district administrators and staff: Spoke to agenda items and responded to board questions; their names are not consistently recoverable from the captions.