The Delaware City Schools Board of Education discussed state report cards and construction projects at their work session Monday night.
At the work session board members received an update from Mike Hilton, a project manager at Turner Construction Company, on the various construction projects throughout the district. Hilton said Smith Elementary, Woodward Elementary and Hayes High School.
“All three projects are going really well,” Hilton said. Hilton said all the projects are meeting the schedule expectations.
Woodward and Smith are receiving a new gym and new classroom areas. Hayes is receiving a new wing of science classrooms, an expansion to the performing arts area and renovations to classrooms on the south side of the building.
Hilton focused primarily on Hayes during his presentation and explained that the fair weather over the summer has put them on an accelerated schedule. Hilton said the structure will be completed before winter when the work will move indoors and focus on painting and installing the electrical system.
After the presentation from Hilton, Delaware Superintendent Paul Craft addressed the school board and discussed the recently released State Report Cards.
Craft said Delaware City Schools received the following grades on the state report cards:
• Achievement (number of students who passed state tests and how well they performed on them) – C
• Gap closing (how well schools are meeting state performance expectations for English, language arts, math and graduation) – F
• K-3 literacy (how successfully a district is at getting struggling readers on track to proficiency in third grade) – C
• Progress (how well students grow based on past performance) – A
• Graduation rate (what percentage of students who successfully finish high school with a diploma in four or five years) – B
• Prepared for success (how well prepared students are for work or college) – C
Craft said this year’s criteria is different than previous years, making it impractical to compare this report to previous ones.
“They changed criteria so getting “Cs” is pretty darn good,” Craft said.
Craft addressed the district’s “F” grade in the “gap closing” category and said that only .30 percent of schools got an “A” and said a little more than 13% got higher than an “F.”
Apart from that grade, Craft said Delaware is doing better than most districts in Ohio. Craft said Delaware was outperformed by only 12 percent of districts in the achievement category, by only 4 percent in the K-3 literacy category and by 7.7 percent in the prepared for success category.
“We’ll use this information the best we can to improve,” Craft told the board. “It’s hard to be upset when we find ourselves ahead or with 87 percent of Ohio schools.”
The meeting began at 5:30 p.m. and was held in the new board meeting room at Willis Educational Center.
