News

Chester BOE hears 'school snapshot'

Posted March 20, 2015 11:00 pm

By Pete Spitler The Herald Tribune

CHESTER -- As part of the Chester District 139 Board of Education meeting on Thursday, Chester High School Vice Principal and Curriculum Director Terri Franklin gave a "school snapshot" presentation to the board.

The presentation compared District 139 to the school districts of Sparta, Steeleville and Red Bud in several categories. The statistics were from the 2013-2014 school year.

Franklin said 96.3 percent of the students who were Chester High School freshmen in 2014 are on track to graduate, earning five full-year credits and no more than one "F" in a core class. That compares to 94 percent of Sparta students, 93 from Red Bud and 91 from Steeleville.

But the Chester High School graduation rate is only 83 percent, with Red Bud the highest at 92 percent. Steeleville has an 87 percent graduation rate, while Sparta's is 75 percent.

Forty-seven percent of CHS students were also classified as "Ready for College."

"We come from a town where a lot of parents didn't go to college and a lot of state jobs don't require college," Franklin said.

Under Student Characteristics, 38 percent of CHS's students are classified as "low-income," while 15 percent have learning disabilities and 6 percent are listed as "homeless."

Of the four high schools, Sparta was listed as having the most low-income students (56 percent) and the most students with learning disabilities (17 percent).

"When you have low-income and learning disabilities, that affects a classroom very much," Franklin said.

Franklin said attendance rates are good (95 percent), but student mobility remains a problem at 16 percent in the district. Student mobility refers to transfers in or out of the district during an academic year.

"Student mobility is a big problem in Chester and we can't wrap our heads around it," Franklin said.

Board of Education member Jess Cushman added that the mobility rate at Chester Grade School is 20 percent.

Chronic truancy, which is defined by state statute as a child who is absent without valid cause for 5 percent or more of a school's regular 180 attendance days, was listed at 8.4 percent at Chester High School. That is down from 11 percent in 2013.

Financially, Red Bud has the highest local funding for its school district at 83 percent, with the other three districts roughly half that with Steeleville (43 percent), Sparta (41 percent) and Chester (40 percent) far behind.

Operational expenses incurred at District 139 were the lowest compared to the three other districts.

In her presentation, Franklin identified truancy rate, graduation rate and the number of students going to college as all things to improve upon in the future.

To view a full copy of Chester High School's report card, visit http://tinyurl.com/qfqtx4z.

Roundup

At the conclusion of the meeting, District Superintendent Chris Diddlebock said new Board of Education members will be seated sometime between April 28 and May 5. Current board members Adam Gibbs, Christie Modglin, Cushman and President Micah Reiman are not seeking re-election.

Mitch Hammell, Dan Colvis, Tom Welge and Trent Vasquez are all running unopposed for those seats in the April 7 election.

Article Categories
News