A memorial wall will soon be constructed at West Liberty-Salem Schools.
During a Tuesday evening regular board of education meeting, the board approved the $13,000 construction to be performed by Link Construction.
The construction is funded through donations of $3,575 and the balance will be paid using the district’s permanent improvement account.
Any future donations for the Memorial Wall will reimburse the permanent improvement account.
Another construction project in progress is the cooling tower.
Superintendent Kraig Hissong told the board Tuesday that its design is to be complete by the end of January which is when it should go out to bid. The construction is to begin in March and will be complete by the end of June 2020.
Hissong also gave a brief overview of the state report card results.
The district scored an overall C grade on the report card.
“The biggest impact as to why we were a C this year is our Progress Component (grade) which is a D,” HIssong explained. “(The Progress Component grade) looks at how kids performed based on where they were projected to perform.
In the past we had A’s — A’s on the past three years … I really don’t know exactly how they calculated it. My two-cents is I’m not sure how we can go from an A to an F that quickly and have it make a whole lot of sense. It frustrates us a little bit.”
Another area the district didn’t score well in is Improving At-Risk K-3 readers — the district scored a D.
“That’s maybe not reflective of how we are really doing,” Hissing said.
Aaron Hollar, elementary principal, agreed.
“That’s an indicator of how kids are going to do on the Third-Grade Reading Guarantee,” Hollar said. “(Despite the score) in six or seven years we’ve never had to retain a kid. They have all made their mark to get to the fourth grade.”
The full report card can be found at https://reportcard.education.ohio.gov/ .
Chelsea Baldwin, treasurer, presented the board with the latest five-year forecast which revealed that at the end of five years the district will still have a positive cash flow with $2 million.
“That’s obviously a good thing,” Baldwin said. “But it’s not 60 days worth (of cash).”