BOE Briefed on Achievement, Discipline and Attendance at Marlinton Middle School

At the October 28^th special Pocahontas County BOE meeting, Nebraska Scotchie, the Principal of Marlinton Middle School briefed the board members on the Strategic Goals and improvements at the school this year.

Scotchie said the school’s LSIC has identified some needs, including the need for new lockers, additional playground equipment, new picnic tables for outdoor lunches, repairing the chain link fence, and getting their School Counselor, Ms. Hill, back full time. They currently only have a counselor 3 days a week.

She said their strategic goals this year are based on Achievement, Attendance and Discipline.

Regarding Achievement, she said their goal is to have 75% of their students meeting academic standards. According to last school year’s testing, the school is above both county and state proficiency in Math, ELA, and Science. She said they are utilizing co-teaching models in some classes to help achieve greater achievement.

Regarding Attendance, Scotchie said they have set a goal of increasing the attendance rate school-wide by 10%, and have been working to achieve this through the use of positive reinforcements for good attendance, and employing cooperation, responsibility, and a winning attitude. She said this year they have been posting “thermometers” in the hallways that reflect attendance records of both student s and staff, and now students are eager to have good attendance recognized.

Regarding Discipline, Scotchie said they deliberately over-document infractions, which better enables them to address the issues. So far this year, they have documented 78 infractions, but 40 of them are handled by simple conferences, while the other 38 involve more serious consequences such as noon detention, in-school or out-of-school suspensions.  She said that last year during their Special Education Audit at the school, the state officials remarked that the school’s approach was punitive rather than positive, and they are correcting that this year.

Scotchie added that this year they are also concentration of getting community involvement in the school. An example of this is that various community groups provide a staff “pick-me-up” once a month, such as a coffee bar or pizza for the staff, which helps keep up staff morale.

Also, during the meeting, Superintendent Dr. Williams told the members that the Pocahontas County Schools were selected by disability advocacy group for a Disability Rights Review, and she is confident that it will show a 180-degree improvement in out disability services for students over last year.

The members voted to approve the financial reports, and the 1^st, and 2^nd readings of a number of policy revisions. Regarding which Dr. Williams said that there were no public comments offered about any of those.

The members also voted to finalize the conveying of the deed for a lot in Marlinton to the town, provided the town obtains the grant to build their trailhead within 2 years, and still allows students and staff to park on it.

They also approved the following:

• The posting of a $1 Assistant Basketball coach position for the Green Bank School.
• The use banked time to schedule two 3-hour early outs, which are intended to support activities related to the Special Education Special Review Report.
• An upgrade on Data Analysis and “Bubble” Students.
• The purchase of a new diesel powered 77 passenger conventional school bus.