Prevention and data collection addressed at recent meeting
By Cathy Kozlowicz
Correspondent
Among topics covered at a recent Delavan-Darien School District board meeting was a discussion on school dropout including data collection and prevention.
At the Jan. 13 meeting, representatives of the Girls and Boys Club of Dane County announced changes to the after-school program offered at the junior high school levels.
Because of low attendance at the current after-school programs and the need to address high school dropout prevention, the Girls and Boys Club representatives said they will implement a new program.
“It is a research-based program,” said Megan Murphy, assistant vice-president of the Girls and Boys Club of Dane County. She also said the program features a graduation specialist who provides oversight to the program.
“This (program) is used for youth who have potential barriers toward graduation. It is more of an intervention focus,” Murphy explained.
She said the associate club director will be working out of Phoenix Middle School – to help kids be more connected in an effort to capture then early on.
Other board news
- Budget Administrator Anthony Klein told the board the east gymnasium roof at Delavan-Darien High School will be replaced out of the maintenance budget at an estimated price of $286,591.
“It will come out of the maintenance budget, and the district will not have to go to referendum,” Klein said, adding that it’ll show the district is being responsible with the tax dollars as well as with budgeting.
- District Administrator Jill Sorbie explained to the board about the District Improvement Process and the school improvement plans.
The DIP is looking at English Language Arts, graduate rate and attendance to provide clean, accurate data, she explained.
“We will work as a large team and see what our data tells us,” she said.
Sorbie also said it will drive what kind of professional development should be done at the schools, based on the data.
The SIPs are addressing and evaluating each school’s process in terms of math, literacy, behavior and attendance. There will be benchmarks determined and each school will evaluate if those are met, said Sorbie.
- The district will be hosting two parent education workshops – one this week, the other in early February.
A workshop on cyber safety will be Thursday, Jan. 23 from 6:30 to 7:45 p.m. at the district office.
The second workshop, Sorbie explained, will be geared toward parents for younger children. Power to the Parent, will be from 5:30 to 7 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 6 and will also be held at the district office.
“It will be able establishing a routine with the children, reading to them and you name it,” Sorbie of the Power to the Parent event.
