Rainier Lions Club Minutes for February 11, 2013

Members in attendance:  Linda Lazelle, Shirley Gibson, Evan Burnett, George Johnson, Linda Johnson, Brenda Flaherty, Art Runyan, Bernice Beck, Ron Lind, Rodney Mitchell, Kay Bryant

Guests in attendance:  Tim Garchow (Superintendent of Rainier Public Schools), Jerry Sproffski (President of School Board for Rainier Public Schools), Julia & Bud (Gracie & Damion) Green (Boy Scouts), Randy S (Mayor of Rainier), Kelly (Cub Scouts)

George went over the items on our agenda while we were eating dinner.  Bernice Beck handed out flyers with information on the results of our Texas Ruby Red grapefruit sales this year.

We said the pledge of allegiance, sang America and George said a prayer.

George introduced all of our guests.  Tim went into great detail about the progress our schools have made in their 5 year program.  He's excited about the progress of the staff and students.  If you get a chance to hear him speak, I encourage you to attend.  He's a very enthusiastic and inspiring speaker.

The notes from Tim's speech have corrections that he made, now.  Notes below:

Tim Garchow: 

·         Rainier Elementary School has started offering full day kindergarten to all families. 

·         All of the funds lost during the economic melt-down have been pretty much recovered.  The Rainier School District has added an instructional coach and some new staff.  Rita Meldrum is there to help support teachers in the work they have to do.

·         They’ve been able to expand positions. 

·         Expanded programs:   Expanded offerings to kids.  Tim credits the staff with their help in working with the budget and costs. 

Teacher evaluation system:  Passed through house and senate.  Rainier is one of a handful of school districts in the State that are piloting this new evaluation system.  It is a joint venture with the teachers union.  We are partnering on this.  Evaluations are no longer a satisfactory, or unsatisfactory.  It is objective, rather than subjective.  It is a 4 tier program with clearly laid out rubrics.  Rainier has adopted the Five Dimensions of Teaching and Learning as our instructional framework. 

Research based instructional strategies:  teachers are always training.  Children deserve the best trained teachers possible.  Teach the teachers the new system.  (Professional development  side of things.) 

Textbook cycles:  Switching to the common core – doesn’t make sense to buy new books that may not be acceptable to the new standards, so they are waiting to buy new textbooks as they are aligned with the new standards.  The basics are still there, but it’s a matter of what is being taught at what year.

Treats and gifts come out of the teachers pockets.  The teachers get about $350 per year for these expenses. 

Teachers wanted iPads, so they could do a better job with their students.  Teachers wanted to give back their $350 and forego submitting receipts, so they could get iPads.  Now students need iPads.  The cutting edge textbooks are automatically updated when electronic books are used.  The kids can take their own notes, using an iPad.  They weigh much less than conventional textbooks and don’t wear out, or become outdated. 

When children become excited about learning, it changes their life.

Formative assessments:  We do not test our kids to death.  They have charts when they give tests to their kids.  Less than 10 days out of 180 for the HS students struggling to finish their senior year of HS. 

·         Sticky notes:  Green – 0.K.  Red – need help

·         Khan academy – shows several different ways to solve a math problem.

·         State & Federal required testing. (7% school revenue is Federal funding.)

·         USA is one only a handful of countries who try to educate 100% of their citizens.  (under 18)

·         Our focus is on the question … Did our kids make greater than one year’s educational growth?

·         Part of the new teacher evaluation is based on whether or not students are making academic growth.  The solution is to come up with multiple measures of student growth.  Pre-test and post-test for a subject.  What do we have that can demonstrate student growth?

Collaboration Successes:  Strong.  The Rainier Schools are ahead of schedule on the 5 year program. 

1. ·         83% of third graders made predicted growth in math. 
2. ·         84% of fourth graders. 
3. ·         80% of fifth graders. 
4. ·         69% of sixth graders were increasing reading scores. 
5. ·         # of students who improved in writing was 35% in seventh graders.  (The last time they took a writing test was in fourth grade.) 

·         Eight grade science (last test 5^th grade) Made 44% jump in their knowledge base. 

·         There has been a phenomenal jump in growth for all of these students.

ESD out of 44 school districts – there are 6 that are using variations of our district’s school house program.  The Rainier School teachers are sharing the “Read Write” program with other teachers.  It is a difficult job. 

Paulette is teaching others how to evaluate teachers in the new state program.  (She does this in her spare time.) 

Rainier has a new online high school called RVL.  It was started to assist students who have fallen behind in credits required for graduation.  (This online school was started by our high school counselor and administrators.)  One example of courses available to students is that there are 40 different languages online that the students can learn.  They can take all kinds of classes that they can’t get in regular classes – by going to school online.  (Classes are taken during school time.  There are adults in the classroom to help the students with questions.) 

Online teaching is one of 3 programs that they’ve started. 

1.    Full day kindergarten.

2.    More elective choices in Middle School.

3.    Effective means of addressing missing credits for HS students.

This has helped increase the enrollment in the schools.  Now there are more kids enrolling in kindergarten then graduating from HS.

There is a lot of hard work left.  There are definitely results for their efforts. 

Our “School House” model is based on The Four Questions:  Richard DuFore –

• 1.    What do we want students to learn?
• 2.    How do we know they learned it?
• 3.    What do we do if they did?
• 4.    What do we do if they didn't?

One additional program that is being looked at is called  “After the Bell”.  When it starts, the computer lab will be open in the evenings so that Rainier citizens can come in and work toward earning an associate’s degree online.  The cost is projected to be about 60 cents on the dollar for the classes, as opposed to the cost of attending one of the local community colleges in our area.

WE ARE WORKING TOGETHER TO DO GOOD THINGS FOR OUR KIDS.