Woodward, Okla. — Woodward Board of Education members heard a report and discussed the state's new A-F grading on school report cards during their meeting on Monday.

The school district has received a preliminary grade to review and the state will release the grades to the public in early October, said Superintendent Tim Merchant.

Merchant said that they are not totally disappointed in the grade the school has received, just some of the discrepancies in the state's data versus the school district's data.

"The biggest issue we have is how it was sold to us by the state department," Merchant said. "They said it would be a very transparent and an easy to understand accountability tool for the parents, when even educators that have been in the business for many, many years are having trouble interpreting what these grades exactly mean."

The other issues stem from the grade system itself and discrepancies between the numbers that Woodward has come up with and the numbers the state department has given local officials.

During the meeting Merchant had Susan Viles, district testing coordinator, go over the report card with the board to show where the discrepancies were and how the state came up with these numbers.

It appeared confusing to board members and Merchant says that once the public sees the report there will be even more confusion.

"Everyone has in mind what the letter grades are in a classroom setting, but to truly understand what these grades are as an overall accountability in the schools is very confusing," Merchant said.

He said that the public needs to understand that in this report card an "A" is not the same as an "A" in the classroom and the same with all of the other letter grades.

It will be virtually impossible for schools to achieve the letter grade of "A" with the rules set forth by the State Department of Education (SDE), according to Merchant.

"In order for a school to be awarded a letter grade of "A", 75 percent of the student population has to be enrolled in advanced placement or gifted classes," Merchant said. "This will never happen because when there is 10 percent of the student body in the gifted program there is a red flag thrown by the same agency that is wanting the 75 percent to be in the gifted programs."

The SDE is making it very difficult for schools to make the letter grade of "A" and there are people there that are even having trouble understanding the system, Merchant said.

"We have called to verify information and have gotten several different answers from the state or no answers at all," Merchant said.

The school is appealing their grade for two reasons, the superintendent said.

"The first is the discrepancies that were found in our numbers versus their numbers and second the timing of the testing these are partially based on," Merchant said.

The superintendent said the tests that are part of the school's grade is based on were taken during the weeks after the April 15 tornado. Some students had lost everything and were displaced during that time frame.

To learn more about the A-F report card system visit the SDE website at ok.gov/sde/.



Long Range Planning

Another topic that drew a long discussion was long range plans for Woodward Public Schools.

One of the top concerns is that the Early Childhood Center (ECC)is already at capacity and they are looking to add one more Pre-K class to help with the overcrowding of the other classrooms.

"There are currently 756 students at the ECC, with a max capacity of the building set at 750. When you add in all the staff we are well over 800 people in that building," Merchant said.

Merchant gave examples of sample bonds for possible expansion of the schools, and wants to keep the taxes at the same level they are now.

"The ideal bond issue to fix everything that we need would be around $22,285,000, but that is a big dream for us," Merchant said.

"Right now we are taking an exhausted list of needs and prioritizing them and from there will take a recommendation to the board for future bonding projects," he said.

These sample bonds would include grade level learning centers, adding a wing to each elementary school and possibly a new middle school, according to Merchant.

"We can't do what we've always done, have to think differently and have to teach differently or we will never get anywhere," Doris Ames, board of education member, said about expanding the schools.

New Teachers

The board also discussed during executive session the hiring of several more staff members for the district.

After nearly an hour in executive session, the board reconvened and voted to approve the hiring of the following staff:

Lesa Semmel, Cedar Heights 2nd grade

Sara Avila, Cedar Heights cafeteria worker

Sara Saffell, WECC 1st grade teacher

Connie Means, WECC P.E teacher

Shannon Gravit, WECC Kindergarten teacher

Sharon Lambert, WECC 1st grade teacher

Manuela Marquez, WECC custodian

Jacqui Huddleston, WECC Pre-K teacher

Misty Mihelich, Highland Park Music teacher

Linda Huff, Highland Park 5th grade teacher

Brandy Perceful, High School English



All other items on the agenda were approved by the board and the next meeting will be held on Monday, Oct. 8 at 6 p.m. at the school administration building.