JACKSON – An auditor said the school district’s finances were in good shape during a recent Board of Education meeting.
John Swisher of the auditing firm of Suplee, Clooney & Company told the board “the best you could receive is an unmodified opinion which is what you got this year.”
“That basically means the finance department of the Business Administrator’s office can provide records that we can put into a format that can be easily understood and you can rely upon them,” Swisher said.
He noted that the audit also covered internal controls within the school district and its compliance with various rules and regulations of the state. “That is clean as well.”
A single audit was performed where the firm looks at various programs including the CARES Act program which Swisher described as a “game changer but the district did a good job with that as well. We did not find any material problems so that was clean to.”
“We got great support from your administration they are doing a fine job,” he added.
In related news, Assistant Superintendent Robert Rotante reported on the results of the state Start Strong testing program within the school district. He said data from those tests taken by students last October would be used to find areas that require attention.
“This was one additional piece available to the district to provide this information. The assessment included areas of English, mathematics and sciences in various grades,” he said.
A summary of the district would state if there was strong support needed, some support needed or less support needed for each subject. Each student also got an individual break down on how many questions they got correct, he said.
In literacy the majority of students showed that less support was needed. “Math showed a slightly different picture. Math definitely showed there was more support needed in the area of mathematics, specifically in grades 4 and 5,” Rotante said.
“This assessment was done entirely on the computer. The math was 20 questions.” He noted that special education students and ELL (English Language Learners) students “will always need the most support. The Strong Start Assessment hasn’t been proven; this is the first time it has been given.”
He said other assessments were “tried and true and we’ve been able to get very good data from those assessments. Our goal is to always see progress in our students.”
Rotante noted that among those students that were not meeting grade level standards, “we have moved kids who are not meeting standards to partially meeting standards and students that are approaching standards to meeting or exceeding standards. Our goal is to constantly move kids up on the continuum with the data we are using.”
He said another program the school district has been using is IXL which is an individualized program that “addresses each student’s needs with questions based on their level as they get questions right, they get harder when they get questions wrong, they get more remedial questions to re-enforce things.”
Rotante said that students have the chance to do this in the classroom “as well as independently at home. Typically, a student doing questions 15 a day will outperform their peers, will move up the continuum and will show growth. Our students through K-8th are averaging 63 questions a week. We are very proud of what they are doing and it is really showing in how they are doing in the classrooms.”
“We can’t run every program (used to gauge student academic growth) every day, “Rotante said. He mentioned after school programs that were available to help students meet literary and math standards as well as other programs that “we want to enhance our student environment for our students and increase their appreciation for being in the school setting.”
