The Winslow Unified School District governing board met last week when the board heard presentations from Winslow Junior High and Winslow High School principals on the achievements of students during the recent NWEA (formerly known as the Northwest Evaluation Association) testing phase. The assessment is a research-based kindergarten through 12th grade test that measures individual student growth.
WJHS Principal Deb Lopez said, “We like the data this testing provides us because we are able to see each student where they are. We do have some improvements to make and we have a plan of action to do that. First, each student met individually with their math and English Language Arts (ELA) instructors and they made individual plans to focus where they need to. That’s what the NWEA does, it shows us the individual student. Second, we are going to continue our targeted interventions and promote a test culture at our school. Test culture is where the students know that every test counts, whether it’s a math quiz or these big assessment tests.”
High School Principal Sal Hernandez shared similar sentiments regarding high school students. He also mentioned that the NWEA test is a good indicator of how students will perform on ACT (American College Testing) assessments later in the year. He said, “We are using the data we got from the NWEA to figure out what we need to focus on to get these kids ready to take and score well on the ACT.”
In other business, the governing board:
* Accepted a donation in the amount of $1,872 from the Arizona State Prison Complex Winslow from an inmate fundraising program. The monies will be evenly distributed between all five school sites.
* Approved the hiring of Casey Ambrose as a WHS special education teacher, Christine Honyouti as an emergency substitute, and Vera Ruiz and Kasye Reynolds as paraprofessionals.
* Accepted the resignation of Kala Fischer effective Sept. 26 and Kathi Chischolm effective Oct. 28.
* Approved extra duty stipends for WJHS volleyball coaches Darrin Mitchell and Tonette Nez-Benally and wrestling coaches Quentin Begody and Bryan Larsen.
* Approved student activity fundraisers.
* Adopted updated Arizona School Board Association (ASBA) Policy Advisories 716 and 717-736. The board previously heard a reading of the new policies and most pertained to COVID protocols including vaccination requirements.
* Approved the Proposition 301 plan for teachers, health technicians and counselors district wide. The plan includes an additional $500 per school year to the pay for each position.
* Approved a motion by the ASBA to override the aggregate expenditure limit. The Arizona State Legislature must approve the limit before March 2023. This motion allows WUSD to override the limit regardless of legislative outcomes. A failure to garner 2/3 vote in the session will cause school districts state wide to lose millions of dollars in funding beginning next school year.
* Scheduled a board work session for 1 p.m. on Friday, Nov.18 to be held at the La Posada Hotel, located at 303 E. Second St.
The next meeting of the Winslow Unified School District governing board will be held at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 19 in the board meeting room, located at 800 N. Apache Ave.
