Latest news with #ECASD
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
ECASD looks at how declining enrollment affects district staffing
EAU CLAIRE — During a period of declining enrollment, the Eau Claire Area School District is looking at how fewer students can have an impact on staffing levels. ECASD is not alone in facing declining enrollment, as it has become common issue across many other school districts. Michelle Golden, the executive director of human resources, stated that maintaining a balance between staff and students requires consistent monitoring as their students progress through grade levels in the school district. 'As we have navigated through this period of budget deficits and declining enrollment rates, it has become necessary to make some very difficult decisions regarding staffing reductions,' she said at a meeting on Monday night. 'These decisions are never easy, but they are crucial for the long term financial sustainability of our district. Our foremost priority remains maintaining a high quality of education that we provide and honor our results policies despite these challenges.' In talking with members of the board, information provided serves as a means to update them on the process of staffing in the district. 'Instead of 60 kids coming into kindergarten, you have now 50,' she said. 'Instead of having three classrooms of 20, you have two of 25. 'We have a reduction in staff because of the staff student ratio. We just have to keep monitoring all of the time to see where our class sizes are at so we can either decrease or increase based on the numbers we have on hand.' It can be a complex thing because looking at some data regarding district staffing may only give point-in-time information. It also does not mean that the district is letting people go or that people are losing their jobs; rather, it indicates that the district may have to reevaluate their class sizes and student staff ratios to stay on budget. Currently, the student staff ratios of the elementary school are one teacher to every 22 students, give or take three students, for grades K-3 and one teacher to every 25 students, give or take four students, for grades 4-5. In middle school those ratios are one teacher to every 27 students, give or take five students, and in high school it is one teacher to every 30 students, give or take six students. Board member Stephanie Farrar said, 'That 25 in kindergarten is a tricky number, and I just wonder if there are opportunities to add support staff to assist teachers in those classrooms.' Golden said it is something that they do monitor. But they do try to staff within those numbers fairly strictly, specifically because of the budget. Board member Erica Zerr also asked about evaluating the needs of each school, or if there is a way to be more equitable with staffing at schools. On top of looking at how those ratios would effect grade sizes, Golden said, 'Principals, we are allowing them to say, 'we have a high number of behaviors, or special education, or ELL (English language learners) in this grade, so I am going to decrease the staffing here and increase it here because I know this is where the needs are.''
Yahoo
04-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
SDMA incumbents reelected to school board as other school elections finish this spring
CHIPPEWA VALLEY — With the election wrapping up on Tuesday night, unofficial results show what school board candidates will be serving their districts starting this school year. In one contested race, the School District of the Menomonie Area saw three incumbents seeking reelection were voted back onto the school board, with Dunn County's unofficial results showing Abe Smith with 5,050 votes, Rachel Henderson with 5,209 votes and Dominique Stewart with 4,623 votes. The results also show the number of votes for the two challengers, with Josie Pillman receiving 3,168 votes and Joyce Uhlir receiving 2,825. 'Today I feel so grateful to the voters of Menomonie, and for all of the support I've received over these last few weeks,' said Henderson on Wednesday. 'A school board that works together to address the challenges facing the district is what's best for kids. I am proud of the work that we've done over the last three years together. Yesterday, I believe voters recognized that our board is well equipped to do the best we can to align our resources to meet the needs of all students. There were a lot of things driving people to the polls this year, and I know that Menomonie was paying attention to our school board race, even as other races took center stage. We had a great show of engagement, and I appreciate the confidence of our community!' Smith said, 'This April school board election was intense, especially with national attention on the simultaneous Wisconsin Supreme Court race. Turnout was about twice as high as my prior election in 2022.' Giving a larger overview of the election as a whole, Smith said that he saw a lot of criticism regarding the large amounts of spending and cynical advertising during the election, with many worried about social division and economic stability. For a few other local elections like in the Osseo-Fairchild School District, Eleva-Strum School District and School District of Altoona, many races were uncontested on the April 1 ballot with incumbents voted to serve another term. This includes the Eau Claire Area School District, where two incumbents, Stephanie Farrar and Board President Tim Nordin, and a newcomer, Jasmine Case, filled the three available seats during this election. 'On behalf of myself, Stephanie, and Jasmine, we are grateful to the ECASD community for their continued support of our schools,' said Nordin. 'We are each excited to keep moving our District forward, ensuring that each student receives the support they need to succeed, and achieving strong results for our kids and the future of Eau Claire. We could not be happier to continue this work for our community.' Throughout the state, voters also had a chance to vote for state superintendent between Jill Underly, who was generally backed by Democrats, and Brittany Kinser, who was generally backed by Republicans. According to an article from the AP about Underly's reelection, Underly won with almost 53% of the vote as 85% were counted statewide. In part of a statement released after unofficial results showed her winning the election, Underly said, 'Tonight, we celebrate a victory not just for our campaign, but for every educator, family — and most importantly, kids — across our great state. I am deeply honored and humbled by the trust you've placed in me to continue serving as your State Superintendent of Public Instruction. Victory belongs to all of us who believe in the power of public education. It's a testament to our shared commitment to ensuring that every child in Wisconsin has access to a high-quality education, regardless of their zip code. Together, we've championed the belief that public dollars should fund public schools, and tonight, that belief has been reaffirmed.' Also after results started coming in Tuesday night, Kinser released a statement saying, 'Over the last few months, I have been honored to campaign across the state on behalf of our kids. While this is not the outcome I had hoped for, I hope that my candidacy has inspired conversations about the importance of restoring high standards and ensuring every child can read, write, and do math well, so they have the opportunity to go to college, secure a meaningful job, or master a trade. We know that our children meet expectations when standards are set high.' When asked to comment about the results of the statewide election for state superintendent, Nordin said they were heartened and glad for Underly's reelection. 'Dr. Underly has been a tireless advocate for public schools, students, and teachers, as well as an outspoken champion for fixing the state's broken formula for funding public schools,' he said. 'She has worked hand-in-hand with the ECASD to support our students' needs and has also worked with ECASD staff to share our stories and experiences at the national level, increasing our connections to best practice for kids across the country. We look forward to four more productive years with her leadership at the DPI.'
Yahoo
19-02-2025
- General
- Yahoo
ECASD looks at middle school math performance, improvement plans in the district
EAU CLAIRE — For the Eau Claire Area School District, a focus has been on middle school math and continuing challenges with respect to recent state data. As district administration had a chance to present on what their research tells them about Eau Claire's middle schools to the board, Director of Secondary Programming and Post Secondary Readiness Michelle Radtke said there is a positive trend in relation to state data. 'We are seeing an upward trend in middle school math and we are performing above the state,' she said, as data from the forward exam for Wisconsin middle schools showed ECASD performing with 57.5% of students meeting set benchmarks for the 2023-24 school year, compared to 54.3% at the state level. But that does not necessarily paint the whole picture, as disaggregated data does show challenges with student groups within the ECASD. A good example of this is students with disabilities; the ECASD results of the forward exam showed roughly 10.1% meeting benchmarks for the 2023-24 school year, compared with an overall 15.0% for the state. 'While the state percentage shows a general upward trend for students with disabilities, ECASD middle schools have experienced some challenges with a declining trend in proficiency percentages,' said Radtke. 'The gap between the district and the state is widening negatively, with the state having a higher percentage of students meeting the benchmark over time.' That challenge extends to visible gaps in the performance of Asian populations and White populations with performance. Identifying an underlying cause, Radtke said students facing economic disadvantages may have an impact on all demographics of students' performance in math. 'One of the things that we highlighted here is that economic status plays a huge role in a student's outcome in their ability to be successful in math,' she said. 'So what we have to do is figure out the root cause of what resources or tools they need to be successful if they come from a background of economically disadvantaged.' A major part of that is working on the system as a whole, said Executive Director of Teaching and Learning Mandy Van Vleet. 'As I think about specifically middle school, we need to engage learners at that adolescent level to keep wanting to learn more and engage in math practice,' she said. 'It is kind of a critical age where kids either like math or they don't, and I think the student reps spoke to that. When students get disengaged in middle school, getting them through high school Algebra 1 and Geometry is really challenging. Particularly it is really important for our students to develop good math practice in elementary and also middle school.' South Middle School Principal Caleb Hundt spoke to work that is being done at one of the district's schools. While South performed with a 61.1% overall on the forward exam, data still showed that the school faced similar challenges that the district as a whole faced when looking at student populations. 'We want to work together to engage kids, we want to ask better questions and we also want to have more teaching and also more learning in more classrooms — more of the time,' said Hundt. With that focus, Hundt said there are five pillars adopted at South: shared leadership, the art and science of teaching, implementation of avid and PBIS structures (Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports), putting in building thinking classrooms, which is a math focus but has been a process for all teachers; and also something called a walkthrough triad where they get to see three other teachers and meet them during their prep time. For the district as a whole, Radtke said there are three areas which they are focusing on for improvement in regards to middle school math. 'The three areas that we are focusing on as a district for our teachers is creating a guaranteed and viable curriculum, so no matter who teaches it, students have the same outcomes of that curriculum,' she said. 'The second one would be instructional delivery, which is teachers using strategies to effectively create effective environments for our students to learn in for math. And professional learning would be that third one, we keep providing that professional development and collaboration around math for our teachers. 'Our goal is to have all of our systems that support, in this case, a strong math program in place,' said Van Vleet. 'That is what we have been building over the last few years, are systems that support those structures. Whether that is the resources and materials that our teachers are using, improving their practices as instructors in the classroom, providing them with professional learning, providing them opportunities to collaborate with one another and learn from each other, layering on the additional supports like interventions when students are not hitting benchmarks — all of those pieces are part of creating a strong system. That is what we have been working on hard these last few years, is putting those systems in place.'
Yahoo
30-01-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Message from ECASD, MASD discusses current policy in wake of ICE concerns
CHIPPEWA VALLEY — Despite Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations in Eau Claire seeming to be just a rumor, local school districts are taking recent federal discussion and potential ICE operation seriously. On Monday, the Eau Claire Area School District sent a message out to families and staff regarding the impact that several recent executive orders would have on schools nationwide. In the letter, the ECASD stated that they have operated under a ratified 'Non-Discrimination for Immigration Status' policy which was formed in 2017, and these are their guidelines for protecting student rights and their policy for if an immigration agent were to come to a school. Furthermore, the district said that they will stand consistent with established protocol, as visitors to schools must be directed to the office and government agencies or law enforcement must first meet with the principal to determine their intent at the school. A letter from the Menomonie Area School District shared with families last week details a lot of similar information in regards to state and national policy on top of additional legal advice. Their Superintendent, Joe Zydowsky, said the current situation is something they would continue to observe and did not have any further comments at this time. In regards to ECASD's communication, Superintendent Mike Johnson said the main reason for sending out a memo to families and staff was because of questions asked of their district in light of the federal orders and discussion on the topic of removing the designation of schools as 'sensitive areas.' 'When there gets to be that tipping point of, 'I think it is very appropriate, and I think it is very timely,'' he said. 'We reached out to those individuals last week individually. In consultation with Dang [Yang], and our executive team as well as our school board, I thought it was the right thing to do to share that information with families.' Beyond that, Dang Yang, director of equity, diversity and inclusion at ECASD, said the conversations in regards to what district operating procedure is have been communicated with principals at the schools. He said the conversations are part of normal operating procedures, in which this case touches on a timely topic. Continuing, Johnson said, 'I am very appreciative, and I think that the community is as well, that in 2017, our board and administration had developed policy on this issue. Ultimately, in reviewing these policies over the past few weeks, there is nothing that has changed… I am proud that the communication that we had shared on Monday with our staff and our families is consistent with what our district legal counsel had stated as well as a statewide webinar from another law firm.' Just the other day, rumors also spread regarding operations taking place at ECASD schools like Putnam Heights. The district said these rumors are not true and understand the heightened anxiety families are experiencing at this time. According to the Department of Public Instruction, an ICE warrant is not supported by the Fourth Amendment since they do not require proof of a criminal offence or authorization from a judge or U.S. magistrate. Therefore, schools are not required to comply with an ICE warrant. With note from further obtained legal guidance on ICE warrants, the ECASD's letter to staff and families stated, 'This is in alignment with our district's guidelines. Not granting access in these circumstances is a matter of preventing the school from becoming a law enforcement zone and thus disrupting the educational environment. ICE agents, like other law enforcement agents, have the capability of enforcing warrants elsewhere.' Furthermore, other information provided by the DPI and outlined in the ECASD's letter state that personally identifiable information cannot be turned over to authorities without written consent or a subpoena identifying individuals by name. As it stands, the discussion on schools, immigration policy and enforcement are a national topic at many school districts, including those local. Johnson said their ultimate priority is to provide a safe and secure learning environment for their students. In the ECASD and the Menomonie Area School District's letters, they said the current situation is something they will continue to monitor. 'The thing that I have learned in the last five years, but ultimately in my entire administrative career, is that the one thing that we can bank on is that there will always be change,' said Johnson. 'We will always be flexible with our response after gaining the necessary information, and I think the key is to communicate with our staff, with our families and the community at large when there are those types of changes.'
