Nettle Creek students beat state averages on ILEARN, PSAT

Nettle Creek School District continues working to meet student needs in a variety of forms. According to a report from superintendent Emily Schaeffer at the district’s Nov. 12 board meeting, it has distributed over 152 bags of food over the course of five weeks as part of the weekend backpack program, which works to ensure students and families have enough to eat. It’s up to distributing 45 bags per week district wide, supported by community donations.

The district is also still working with the Wayne County Health Department to ensure that students are up to date on vaccinations. The department has been willing to meet with individual families in the Hagerstown area if transportation is a challenge.

The board celebrated the results of recent PSAT and ILEARN testing. At the elementary level, ILEARN Checkpoint 1 testing saw all four grades testing above the state average. At the junior high level, both grades were also above state averages. For PSAT testing, all sophomores are finished with the test and 51% met or exceeded national benchmarks for reading and writing, and 32 students met or exceeded both benchmarks.

The district has reached an agreement for contract renewal with the teacher’s association. Schaeffer said everything in the proposed agreement is pretty much staying the same, with the addition of an early retirement buyout incentive for two certified teaching positions in the elementary school and two at the high school. Schaeffer said that with decreased enrollment the district needs to reduce costs. The package includes a $10,000 base offer and $256 per year for each year of service at Nettle Creek Schools. There was no public comment. The agreement was to be approved in its final form during a special Nov. 17 meeting.

In other business

• The board standardized the pay rate for nursing staff to $123 per day instead of different rates for positions with only slightly different qualifications.
• The board approved restoring site coordinators from Communities in Schools, one at each school, to provide supportive resources. The coordinators will be paid from Title IV funds earmarked for creating safe and healthy schools.
• Reviewed updated school policies on second reading.
• Heard from Schaeffer that the estimated revenue from state funds will be $8.9 million based on enrollment, below the originally expected $9 million.
• Heard that rainy day funds originally used to pay the upfront costs of a recent bond issued to support technology purchases have been fully repaid now that bond proceeds have arrived.

The district’s next regularly scheduled board meeting is Dec. 10 at 6:30 p.m. in the elementary school’s LGI room. The public may attend.