WAYNE – Two conversations took up majority of the Wayne Community Schools Board of Education regularly scheduled meeting Monday evening.
From the Wayne Jr/Sr high school conference room (Room 202), Language Learner teachers Mallorie Koch and Laura Hochstein spoke to the board about the EL Program.
Superintendent of WCS, Dr. Mark Lenihan said their program has grown quite a bit over the past couple of years.
“So, we wanted the teachers to come and talk to the board about some things they’re doing to help our students who come to us with English language learning needs,” said Dr. Lenihan.
Several students that come to the U.S. in Wayne need some assistance in learning the English language. The EL Program has expanded to where Mallorie Koch is in the 7-12 building and Laura Hochstein works with k-6. Between the language learner program and migrant education program, about 10% of the student body (100 of 980) are students that have additional learning needs for the English language.
ACT results for the current 2019 Wayne seniors were then brought up. During their junior year last spring, the students were tested on one day and the district composite score was again higher than the state (20.5 compared to 19.3).
The state accountability system is called AQuESTT (Accountability for Quality Education System Today & Tomorrow).
Dr. Lenihan added the board had a lengthy discussion on the Nebraska Education Profile which is a place where people can go to look at the school’s accountability results.
“We talked a lot more about just what exactly is the state accountability law and what’s the federal accountability law,” Dr. Lenihan added. “So, we report to our state department of education and basically the department of education then reports to the federal department of education.”
Visit nep.education.ne.gov and search Wayne Community Schools to find their Nebraska Education Profile. Information was based on numbers from last October. The federal accountability is now called ‘Every Student Succeeds Act’ which replaced ‘No Child Left Behind’.
The lone action item was to approve the Refuse Bid from Gill Hauling. The annual bid did go up $20 per month to $575 a month which will begin November 1, 2019 and end October 31, 2020.
A couple ribbon cuttings are scheduled later this month for the ‘Bank in School Program’ on Thursday, October 24 at 8 a.m. in the elementary school and on Tuesday, October 29 at 4 p.m. for Northeast Nebraska Education Compact in the Ag wing of the high school.
The next regularly scheduled Wayne Community Schools Board of Education meeting will be held on Monday, November 11 at 5:30 p.m.