MEEKER I The new school year is just around the corner, and once again the employees of the Meeker School District will embrace the unparalleled privilege of being a positive influence in the lives of children and of promoting high levels of learning for all students.
As we look forward to the new school year, I would like to take a brief look back at 2014-15 to highlight a couple positives from the previous school year.
With the implementation of a four-day school week in 2014-2015, the school district has realized significant financial savings.
Spending in the operation and maintenance of plant services was $107,239.62 under budget, and spending in student transportation services was $85,257.77 under budget. Thus, these two areas realized a net savings of $192,497.39 from the budgeted amount.
Because we only have data from one budget cycle and because difficulty often exists in quantifying the exact savings from a four-day week, future budget years will help us determine if these savings can be realized on an annual basis.
Nevertheless, these two areas of savings have a strong correlation to areas of anticipated savings when the district moved to a four-day week.
Another highlight from the 2014-15 school year recently made available was our students’ performance on the science and social studies CMAS assessments.
Our primary goal as a public school is to ensure high levels of student learning. While it is common knowledge that students in Colorado are subject to an overwhelming number of state level assessments, the results from these tests provide useful information regarding student learning. Students in 4th and 7th grade took the social studies tests, and students in 5th and 8th grade took the science tests for a total of four tests.
Students scoring in the “strong command” or “distinguished command” categories are those students who have been deemed to have mastered the skills assessed with these tests. In three of the four tests, the percentage of students scoring in the “strong” and “distinguished” command categories for the Meeker School District was greater than the percentage of students in these categories throughout the state.
On the one test below the state average percentage, the Meeker School District was only 0.6 percent below the state average percentage.
The highlight was clearly on the 8th grade science test. The Meeker School District was 16.4 percent higher than the state average in terms of the percentage of students scoring “strong” and “distinguished” command.
As we move forward into the 2015-16 school year, I am greatly enthused by the wonderful opportunity we have in the Meeker School District to positively impact the lives of students.
Furthermore, I have been greatly encouraged by the willingness of many community members and organizations to support the schools in Meeker and by the strong professionalism of school district staff.
As such, I can genuinely say that I am already proud to be a Meeker Cowboy!
By Chris Selle
Meeker School District Superintendent
