Superintendent Joe Tieman said Gillespie CUSD 7 fares very well on school report cards when compared with schools in the region with similar enrollments.

Members of the Community Unit School District 7 Board of Education on Monday night set the time and date for a Truth in Taxation hearing regarding this year’s property tax levy and took routine actions on personnel, but the meeting was dominated by an hour-long, wide-ranging discussion of this year’s school report card recently released by the Illinois State Board of Education.

The annual report, which tracks student performance on state-mandated academic tests and reports on other data, generally shows that district students performed above the state average in English and language arts but lagged behind in math. For English and language arts, 42 percent of CUSD 7 students met or exceeded state standards, compared with a statewide average of 38 percent. In math, 25 percent of students met or exceeded state standards—seven points behind the statewide average of 32 percent.

The deficit in math proficiency was especially pronounced at the Middle School level where the percentage of students meeting or exceeding state standards dropped from 27 the previous year to 20 percent this year. The statewide average was 32 percent which is still short of the state’s “goal” of having at least 42 percent of students meeting or exceeding state expectations.

Gillespie Middle School Principal Jill Rosentreter said this is the second year GMS was identified as underperforming in math proficiency. While recognizing the deficiency, Rosentreter noted the data is somewhat skewed by the state’s assessment of math proficiency among GMS students with disabilities, with individualized education plans and who are homeless. Scoring for each of those groups was zero.

“When you multiply anything by zero, you get zero,” Rosentreter said, adding that the scores for those groups disproportionately affect the total proficiency score because they comprise 25 percent of the formula.

Persons who want to review details of the school report card can access the document, as well as report cards for other school districts, can visit the Illinois State Board of Education’s website.

Supt. Joe Tieman said the document is useful in that it helps administrators identify strengths and weaknesses, and make adjustments to curriculum and teaching strategies accordingly. “There are always some areas where we need to improve,” he said, and those concerns are discussed and addressed during meetings of staff leadership teams and administrator meetings.

“One of the things I like to do is see how we compare with some of the surrounding districts,” Tieman said. For that analysis, he said he included other school districts in Macoupin County, school districts within the South Central athletic conference, and districts within Educational Service Region 40—a total of 19 school districts, including CUSD 7. When compared with schools in the region with similar enrollments, Tieman said CUSD 7 fares very well.

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Tieman told the board that 42 percent of elementary and middle school students who took the Illinois Assessment for Readiness standardized test met or exceeded state standards, compared with 38 percent statewide. “That puts us sixth out of the 19 school districts in our area,” he said.

In mathematics, 20 percent of local middle school students met or exceeded state standards—well below the state average of 32 percent. But that number was still good enough to rank Gillespie Middle School tenth out of 19 area districts, according to Tieman.

A total of 37 percent of Gillespie High School students who took the SAT assessment exam met or exceeded expectations for English and language arts. That compares with a statewide average of 31 percent and puts the school eighth out of 19 among area school districts. In math, 35 percent of local high school students met or exceeded standards, which tied with another school for third place in the region. The high school ranked seventh in the area in science with 49 percent of students meeting or exceeding standards—just shy of the statewide average of 51 percent.

The one area where CUSD 7 ranked first among the 19 school districts Tieman analyzed was in the percentage of students who come from low-income families. The poverty rate for CUSD 7 was 77 percent, compared with a statewide average of 49 percent.

“Lets put that all in perspective,” Tieman said. “Given all the negatives that come with poverty, what our kids, our classroom teachers, our administrators and our community at large have been able to do is really pretty impressive. When you consider what we’re asking our teachers to do—we’re asking them to teach, we’re asking them to be social workers, we’re asking them to be psychologists, sometimes we’re asking them to be parents, we’re asking them to teach at multiple levels—when you consider all that, these numbers just jump off the chart.”

Tieman acknowledged that having 42 percent of students meeting or exceeding standards means that a majority of students are not meeting the standards.

“That’s not acceptable,” he said. “We want those students to move forward and see that number improve.”

Other data from the report card documents that the district’s total enrollment is stable at about 1,200 students. The district’s graduation rate is 11 percent above the state average and the average class size is a few students smaller than the statewide average. The per-student direct instructional cost is slightly more than $5,300, compared with a statewide average of more than $8,000; and per student operational costs hover around $9,000 compared with nearly $14,000 statewide.

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“We’re actually getting a pretty good bang for our buck,” Tieman said.

Board member Weye Schmidt disputed the state’s determination of the district’s poverty rate, noting the report card identifies 98 percent of BenGil Elementary School students as low income. The low-income rate for both Gillespie High School and Middle School is 59 percent. Schmidt said it made no sense to see a 98 percent rate of poverty at the elementary level and only 59 percent at the middle school level.

“A lot of people in the community will view that number negatively,” he said. “It needs to be explained that the elementary number skews it.”

Tieman researched the issue while the discussion continued and later reported that the State Board of Education’s formula for determining poverty rates relies largely on the number of students eligible to participate in free or reduced-price breakfast and lunch programs. At BenGil Elementary school, all students are eligible for free breakfast and lunch under the auspices of a grant-funded program to provide meals regardless of income levels. That means a number of students who are not low income were included in the poverty rate determination.

“I’m surprised it’s not 100 percent because of that,” Tieman said, adding that next year, he hopes to expand the program to include middle school students. “It’s a good program. We actually make a little bit of money from it.”

Rosentreter assured the board she and the Gillespie Middle School math department are working toward improving student performance on the math portion of the standardized assessment test. When GMS was identified as an underperforming school last year, the school was able to apply for and receive grant funding to address the lackluster math scores.

Even though GMS students performed at a level significantly lower than the statewide average in math, Rosentreter said the school ranked fourth among the 19 schools selected for comparison in Tieman’s model. GMS students also were in fourth place for English and language arts proficiency and second place for science.

“Math is where our major, major weakness is,” Rosentreter said. She said the school is working with the American Institute of Research to consult with teaching staff on improving math proficiency. Earlier in the meeting, the board unanimously approved a state-mandated school improvement plan and rubric for the middle school which focuses on improving math proficiency. Rosentreter said the school’s leadership team is meeting every four weeks to assess student performance and, if students are meeting established goals, they reset the goals at a higher level. The board tabled action on hiring a provider to consult with the middle school staff on implementing school improvement plans because Rosentreter said the contract is still being revised. The board is expected to act on the contract during its Dec. 16 meeting.

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“What are we doing now?” Rosentreter asked rhetorically. “We have school-wide competitions and students are showing a lot of growth in basic math skills.” A school leadership team has been established and a third resource teacher has been hired. She said the American Research Institute also will have a role in helping the district choose a new math curriculum for both the BenGil Elementary School and Gillespie Middle School.

“We’re basically changing the entire culture and improving instruction in our math department,” she said. “I’m very, very confident we’re going to start seeing improvement in these numbers this spring.”

Responding to a board member question, Rosentreter acknowledged that the current math curriculum, which has been in place for the past five years, did not emphasize basic math facts. “That’s the reason this was overlooked for so long,” she said.

An impassioned Angela Sandretto, BenGil Elementary Principal, said the school report card does not provide insights into how much students have improved.

“We can’t expect kids to go from ‘did not meet’ to ‘meets or exceeds’ overnight,” Sandretto said. “There are students who ‘approach’ or ‘did not meet’ who work extremely hard on the test. They might still fall into those categories but they made huge strides. What we need to look at is growth. If they are not making progress, that’s a concern, but if they’re working hard and making gains, that is a success. Our job is to take kids from where they are and move them forward.”

Sandretto agreed that part of the issue is rooted in the current curriculum’s indifference toward basic math facts. Essentially, students were expected to learn multiplication tables and other facts on their own outside the classroom. Teachers discovered, however, that students were not learning those facts independently and that lack of knowledge hindered their ability to progress.

“We determined that if they’re not doing that, we need to bring it back into the school,” Sandretto said. She said she mandated that teachers set aside time for students to memorize math facts in the classroom. “We’ve made that change and I’m hoping that over time, they (Middle School leaders) are going to see the results of that. It’s a progression. It’s not going to happen in a short period of time.”

Sandretto said she also is working with Rosentreter to ensure that elementary students are exposed to material that prepares them for the middle school math regimen.

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High school principal Shane Owsley said his goal in the high school is to be the top school not only in the county but also the South Central Conference and ROE 40.

Tieman added that math scores also have suffered because the curriculum was geared toward preparing students for the PARCC test that the state has since abandoned in favor of the Illinois Assessment of Readiness (IAR) standardized test.

“I think the moral of the story tonight is that everything on here (school report cards) is skewed,” school board member Jenni Alepra commented. “Rather than spend all this time on test scores every year, I would like to know how kids are improving.”

Tieman said the MAP assessment program the district adopted last year should provide the board with a clearer picture of student progress. He said a MAP report should be on the board’s February or March agenda.

He took issue with Sandretto’s focus on the school’s substandard math scores. The school’s score for English and language arts, he said, exceeded the state average by seven percentage points and the math score was just two points below the state average. “For this particular school in this particular year, that looks pretty good to me,” he said.

Sandretto said students living in dysfunctional family situations due to poverty also has an impact. Such trauma, she said, has been shown to affect student performance.

“We have so many of our kids who are living with trauma,” she said. “That’s why we need to celebrate a student who lives in trauma and ‘did not meet’ but still gained 20 points. That student worked really hard.”

High School Principal Shane Owsley said the school report card paints a fairly positive picture for the school’s performance but that he intends to continue to push for improvement. The high school was tied for first within the county for the percentage of students meeting or exceeding standards in math.

“According to our math department, that has never happened before. They were pretty excited when they found that out,” Owsley said. “At the same time, though, our percentage was less than it was last year.”

The high school was No. 1 in the county for English and language arts last year but dropped to fourth place this year. A total of 32 percent of high school students met or exceeded state standards, compared with a statewide average of 37 percent. The proficiency rate for science was 38 percent, which also lagged behind the state average but put the school third among schools in Macoupin County.

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“That speaks highly of our students and speaks highly of our teachers, but whenever we don’t reach those state averages we are not entirely pleased,” Owsley said. “We want to be the top school not only in the county but also the South Central Conference and ROE 40. That’s going to be our goal.”

TAX LEVY HEARING SET

On a motion by Board President Mark Hayes, seconded by Becky Hatlee, the board voted unanimously to set a public Truth in Taxation hearing regarding this year’s property tax levy at 6 p.m., Monday, Dec. 16, prior to the board regular monthly meeting.

Tieman told the board the district is subject to restrictions imposed by the Property Tax Extension Limitation Law (PTELL) limits taxing bodies to increasing the annual tax levy to no more than five percent or the rate of inflation (whichever is less) over the previous year’s levy. If the taxing body seeks to exceed those limits, a public hearing is required. In recent years, the district has proposed levies that are within the limits set by PTELL but scheduled a public hearing anyway. This year, however, Tieman said the proposed levy is 9.5 percent greater than the last year’s levy.

Ostensibly, the county clerk would reduce the levy to fall within the restrictions set by PTELL when he sets the property tax rates for the district. The exception is when the district’s total equalized assessed valuation declines from the previous year. In that case, Tieman said, the district could request an increase without taking a referendum to voters.

Under the proposed levy, the district is seeking a total levy of $2,350,840, compared with last year’s extension of $2,147.304. The additional $250,000 requires the district to conduct a public hearing.

The proposed levy does not include $917,151 the district requires for bond and interest payments.

HIGH SCHOOL SCIENCE LABS

Tieman reported to the board that administrators and high school science teachers are in the process of evaluating the high school needs for either new science labs or renovations to current labs. He said he may return to the board at a later date with a request to contract with the school architect to develop plans and bidding specifications for such a project. In addition, he said he would be responsible for identifying funds to pay for the project.

“At a minimum, we are at least 18 months away from that,” he said. “I’ve asked them (teachers) to think outside the box. I don’t have a clue what the price tag might be but we’re going to find out.”

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Tieman also advised the board that administrators will approach them soon to approve a new math curriculum program for the elementary and middle school levels.

PERSONNEL

In the area of personnel, the board hired Jake Killebrew as a volunteer boys basketball coach and accepted “with regrets” the resignation of Tim Hilyard as a district custodian, effective May 11, 2020.

“Tim has been in the district for more than 30 years,” President Hayes commented. “He’s been a very valuable employee and he will be greatly missed.”

The board also voted unanimously to post a vacancy for an assistant coach position for middle school track.

Because of the Christmas holiday, the board will meet one week earlier than usual in December.

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