Instructors Respond To ‘Inaccurate’ Comments Made In Previous Board Meeting

By Eduardo Zamarripa, CRI Weekly News

Oskaloosa, Iowa – On Tuesday night, the Oskaloosa School Board received two public comments by instructors in regards to the comments made by the board in its last meeting.

In its previous meeting on Oct. 29, the board discussed test scores and said scores are too low. The board questioned the approachability of school administrators, and questioned the current teaching methods. Board member Neal Hadden said in that meeting that phonics were not being taught at the elementary school.

Oskaloosa Elementary School (OES) instructional coach Jennifer Groenenboom spoke first.

“In any organization, whom do you mostly hear from? Whose voice is the loudest? Those that are happy or those who are not? We would ask you when thinking about your own workplace, would you say you hear more from, disgruntled employees or customers, or happy ones? Groenenboom says. “It is a misconception that administration is not approachable, that they are intimidating, and that they utilize, as suggested at the last board meeting, the ‘my way or the highway’ approach. This also is not true. Teachers are a part of the decision-making process at OES.”

The board then listened to OES kindergarten to second grade instructional coach Stephanie Edgren.

“It is a misconception that phonics is not taught, or not taught well, at OES. In fact, phonics is taught in K-2 (kindergarten to second grade) classrooms in OES,” Edgren says. “To make a statement that phonics is not being taught is completely inaccurate, and whoever is saying so has obviously not been in K-2 classrooms.”

The board thanked Groenenboom and Edgren for their comments.

In addition to that, having two School Board meetings a month, instead of one, prompted some discussion.

“Our administration is already in too many meetings every week and my concern is that preparing for an additional board meeting, later in the month, for a second time in the month, is going to be taking time from their schedule, which I’d rather see dedicated to educating our students,” says board member Tom Richardson.

Richardson suggested having special session meetings at the end of each month as needed, rather than to change board policy to bi-monthly meetings.

“I think the education of kids in Oskaloosa is a vital part and that’s what this board is responsible for,” says President Carl Drost. “I think we have enough needs in this district to have two meetings a month, and if we need to have a special meeting, we can always change that second meeting date.”

The board passed the first reading of revised board policy change (Board Policy 210.2) with a 4-3 vote. Richardson and board members Nik Rule and Charlie Comfort voted “no.” The board will now meet on the second Tuesday and fourth Monday of each month.

The board also received presentations from the District Leadership Team and from the Professional Learning Community. In addition to that, the board unanimously approved the following items on the agenda:

• Approval of district advisory council members
• Approval of physical education course and grade level benchmarks
• Approval of a calendar waiver request for an innovative calendar for the 2014-2015 school year (The waiver allows the district to use a minimum ‘hour’ requirement for classes on a calendar year, instead of a minimum ‘day’ requirement, but the district doesn’t have to use it if it chooses not to. It just leaves that option open.)
• Application for the School Budget Review Committee for modified allowable growth for increasing enrollment in the amount of $233,210
• Application for the School Budget Review Committee for modified allowable growth for limited English proficiency program in the amount of $2,693
• First reading of revised Board Policy Series 400

The next School Board meeting is on Nov. 25 at 7 p.m.