Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
The superintendent of Logan Municipal Schools during a school board meeting last week reported significantly lower failure rates among its students compared to a year ago.
Superintendent Dennis Roch said during the board’s Jan. 10 meeting, which was streamed live on the internet, that 15% of Logan’s middle school students were failing at least one class.
He deemed that number as “still too high” but was considerably better than the 34% failure rate one year ago.
Roch said in the high school, 6.8% of its students were failing at least one class, compared to 23% one year ago. He said high-schoolers had credit-recovery options if they fell behind academically.
He primarily attributed the improvement to the resumption of in-person classes in February 2021. Classes were held remotely on the internet starting in early 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Roch said students’ learning suffered during the remote-learning environment.
In other board business:
• District Judge Albert Mitchell Jr. administered the oath of office to Toby Jon Willis, who defeated incumbent Tom Humble in the November election for the board’s Position 5.
In one motion, the board approved new officers Laurie Strebeck as president, Willis as vice president and Kene Terry as secretary. Outgoing president Scott Osborn nominated Strebeck as his successor.
Willis and Terry will serve on the finance subcommittee, and Terry and Osborn are on the audit subcommittee.
• The board approved a solicitation of sealed bids for the district’s 2008 Ford Edge activity vehicle, with a minimum bid of $3,500. Roch said the vehicle had 175,000 miles and was “showing its age.” He said proceeds from the sale will be used to help purchase a full-size SUV.
• The board approved a salary schedule revision for non-certified employees. Roch said he was prompted to recommend the change because of an increase in the minimum wage and pay differentials in maintenance and custodian workers that caused “morale issues.” He said in at least one case, a supervisor earned less money than an employee with more experience.
• Roch reported the district’s total enrollment stood at 282 students, with 57 receiving online instruction. Those were similar numbers to two months ago.
• Roch said he was exploring the possibility of using Local Government Road Funds to resurface a road on the school grounds’ south side by fall.