School Performance Profile-SPP-it's a big deal for Pennsylvania public schools. The SPP includes measures of student achievement, student academic growth, closing student achievement gaps, and other factors such as graduation or promotion rate and evidence of rigorous course offerings. SPP's are published annually by the PDE (PA Department of Education) to permit parents (and others) to gauge the academic quality of schools.
And judging by the SPP's recently released by PDE, parents of Susquehanna Community School District should be very pleased with the results. Superintendent Bronson Stone shared SPP scores for the District's Elementary and High School at SCSD's October work session and board meeting.
The District's Elementary results were impressive. The Elementary School received 100 percent of points in three areas; ranked third in SPP score out of seven elementary schools in the county; and finished very respectably as the 8th highest out of 42 Northeastern PA schools ranked in the "Scranton Times/Tribune."
Not to be out-done by the Elementary School, Susky High (grades 7-12) received an SPP score of 81.1. That placed Susky as the Number One high school in the county, as well as the Number One Junior/Senior High School (out of 13) ranked in the "Scranton Times/Tribune" newspaper. Susquehanna Community HS earned 100 percent points in four categories.
The SPP scores were the best of the good news at this month's meeting. Present for the 7 to 7:34 p.m. meeting on Wednesday, October 19, were the following board members: President Steven Stanford, Lori Canfield, Amanda Cook, Carol Jackson, Jamie Koziol, and Evelyn Cottrell. Board members Ashley Depew, Martha Stanford, and Clay Weaver were absent.
The other academic topic generating significant enthusiasm at the Board's meeting was "Odyssey of the Mind." Odyssey of the Mind is a problem-solving competition for elementary students in grades 4, 5, and 6. This year's competition will be the district's pilot program in participation. The program is designed to get teams of seven competing students to think outside of the box in devising solutions. The estimated cost of the program is $2,000 overall. Much of that is for travel. The teams' coaches and judges will be receiving training in Nazareth, PA, and competition for the teams is currently planned for March 2017 in the Pocono region. Action taken by the board at this meeting was to approve the elementary school's membership in the national and local organizations of Odyssey of the Mind for the 2016-2017 school year. National membership cost is $135.00, local membership $125.00.
The evening's bad news was delivered by Facilities Manager Kevin Price. The high school's back-up boiler has developed a crack in the first section by the burner. Because the primary boiler was just recently replaced the likelihood of problems with the primary is greatly reduced. However, should the primary boiler go down, the high school would have to limp along relying on the back-up until the primary could be repaired. Hopefully that situation will not arise. While immediate replacement of the boiler would be optimal, the job really is one for the summer since work cannot be completed in a weekend. Estimated replacement cost is $50K plus. Reasonable expectation is that the work will be completed in summer 2017.
Also occupying the board's attention at the October meeting is the state's reshuffling of classification of schools by (pupil) size for PIAA competition. Susquehanna Community is now reclassified as Class "A." Susquehanna is the only Class "A" school in the county and there are no others of the same classification in Northeastern PA that the school plays in athletic competition. None of this is a problem in and of itself, but. . .
A spin-off problem created by the school's reclassification is determination of what constitutes a successful season. Formerly, the school board had determined, by resolution, that a team finishing its season with a. .500 season or better record against similar class teams, or overall, constituted worthiness for playoff competition. The situation created by PIAA's expansion of school size classifications from four to six creates the possibility of some bizarre situations. Mr. Stone provided one example: the boys basketball team could theoretically go 0-21 for the season and still qualify for playoff competition. If the district permitted the winless team to participate in playoffs (against other same-class schools), and the team were to win even one game, it could theoretically claim a Basketball District championship with a record of only one win.
To preclude the possibility of some very absurd outcomes, the school board rescinded its "Playoff Resolution" of April 2011 as it relates to Susquehanna Community School District PIAA athletic teams. In its place the school board will make a determination as to what constitutes a successful season, and when Championship Jackets are appropriate. The definition of "Championship" will be formulated prior to each season based upon the number of teams in competition.
Other actions taken by the board included passage of a revision to policy 210, Use of Medications (See separate story.), and assorted personnel actions-See separate story.
As a postscript to this story, AP released a breaking story on Friday, October 21, "State Education Leaders Pull New Scores." The gist of the story is that since the release of SPP scores on October 13, educators have delved into the scores and discovered some academic data was missing. The story goes on to quote PDE spokeswoman, Casey Smith, "While it appears that a small number of schools will see a modest change on their overall (performance profile) scores, ensuring the accuracy of the data PDE shares with the public is paramount for the agency." The story also quotes Steve Robinson, a spokesman for the Pennsylvania School Boards Association: [he] said the misstep doesn't suggest there's anything fundamentally wrong with the way the department calculates schools' performance grades.
Despite whatever hiccup is going on at the Pennsylvania Department of Education, Susquehanna Community students, faculty, administration, and school directors have much about which to be pleased. Their relentless quest for excellence will, no doubt, continue unabated.
