By Alex Brooks
At the New Lebanon School Board meeting on September 20, Walter B Howard Elementary School (WBH) Principal Andrew Kourt reported that enrollment at WBH is up by 25 students over last year, which was a welcome change.
The long term trend has been a slow decline in enrollment. The high school remains at about the same enrollment as last year. The enrollment bump this year may be an anomaly, but at least for this year, the trend is reversed.
Athletic Director Josh Noble, however, is continuing to have trouble with low numbers on some of the sports teams.
The Girls Modified Volleyball team had to be cancelled because there were not enough players. He said Girls Soccer also had a low turnout.
The varsity has been able to play its games, but the Girls Modified Soccer Team has been asking some of its opponents to play 8 v 8 or 9 v 9 for some of its games. Noble said opposing teams have been very cooperative in such situations.
MIndfulness Initiative
Kourt also reported that WBH has begun a mindfulness program. The main component so far is a 3 minute “community breath” each morning.
Early Intervention
Amy Gravina and Michelle Bruns made a presentation about the work they do in remedial reading and math. They showed some of the word game and phonics sets that they use in their work with the young children.
They said when they started they were assigned to do remedial teaching for first grade through sixth grade, but Superintendent Leslie Whitcomb moved them to a focus on K through fourth grade, because early intervention is so important for kids who are having trouble with basic subjects like reading and math.
When kids arrive in kindergarten with varying backgrounds and abilities, it is important to get help to those who are having trouble before they get discouraged. Whitcomb said, “it’s hard to succeed if you don’t feel smart. Amy and Michelle get them feeling smart.”
Bruns said if the children don’t get help and are continuing to struggle for several years, they start to lose interest. It’s important to get the kids up to speed as early as possible.
Walter B Howard Elementary Principal Andrew Kourt said there have been “so many gains in K-1” recently because of the work of Amy and Michelle. He called them “The dynamic duo.”
Test Results
New Lebanon Schools Superintendent Leslie Whitcomb made a presentation to the Board on recent test results. She said grades 3 and 4 posted good results, but there was a dip in 5th grade. Grades 4 through 6 all improved in relation to the state average, but results dropped off in 7th and 8th grade.
Whitcomb did not have a ready answer for why the 7th and 8th grade results went down, but she said she and her team are studying it. However, she said the students are apparently recovering by the time they get to high school, because test results from the Regents are good. She described the high school results as “outstanding.”
Fuel Tank Issue
Business Manager Michael Los said they received one response to an RFP the District put out for an “Energy Performance Contract.”He said the proposal was very high cost and did not provide details about a fuel tank that the District is concerned about, so he is not going to pursue that.
The issue with the fuel tank remains – a fuel tank that was formerly rated as 9,900 gallon capacity was inspected in June of this year and reclassified as a 10,000 gallon tank, which means it must have a “tertiary containment system” installed. Los said it is a 17 year old tank and it may not be cost-effective to install such a system.
The District is considering converting the heating system to propane instead. Propane tanks do not have such stringent requirements because in the event of a leak, the propane dissipates and does not soak into the ground.
At the end of the meeting, the Board went into an Executive Session.