SHAWANO, WI – A decision has been reached on how students will be evaluated for the rest of the school year.
The Shawano School Board discussed the grading for students for the second semester of the school year at length before passing what was recommended by the Administrative team.
High School students will be graded on a pass-fail for their classes and second semester GPA will not be calculated or considered in overall GPA of a student’s school career.
“I truly believe we have come up with the best plan for our community,” said Superintendent Randi Anderson.
Students who were receiving a passing grade before school ended on the last day in March will continue to pass, students who were failing have the opportunity to do work to get their grade to a passing level.
The decision was made to accommodate students that do not have as much access to wi-fi to complete their course requirements for the final two months.
“We did not want to penalize a student who is not able to access that digital content as we move forward, so the Pass-Fail will not result in a negative impact for those students.”
Anderson said a survey asking about reliable internet access showed their were enough students that would struggles with that for it to be a concern.
“This semester will not effect their GPA positively or negatively.”
She says it also will not play a role in class ranking for underclassmen.
Anderson calls their plan a Hybrid plan which is in the middle of what some districts are doing.
“Some districts have just ended and are using the grades that were in place in March and others are continuing with regular grading and will have letter grades,” Anderson said. We feel we are in the middle.”
“We strongly encourage those students to reach out to those teachers and the teachers are strongly working on reaching out the students to either help them pass the class.”
All other grade levels in the district are being evaluated on a pass-no evidence to evaluate system. Anderson says a lot of the end of the year evaluation would be in the form of feedback.
Board member Chris Gull said his concern was how this decision would impact the future.
“My concern of High School is that our college bound students is that this could put our students behind everyone else if others are not doing this.”
“What is the state using,” asked Mart Grams. “I had four calls today asking about GPA’s and would this impact their chances to get in college?”
It was mentioned that statewide, the semester would be footnoted with “COVID disruption.
It was also mentioned that students who are receiving a passing grade by March 15 should still continue to do course work for the remainder of the school year to keep momentum for the next year of high school or college.
“We hope that our students will value the opportunity to stay engaged for the rest of the school year, and that will be critical for our underclassmen so they are prepared to come back when we do comeback,” Anderson said. She also challenged the parents and families to see the value in that.
“It im imperative that they continue to build so they can be ready to move forward so they can build on,” said board member Tyler Schmidt.
Anderson said the Administrative team has worked long and hard on the proposal presented.
OTHER SCHOOL BOARD ITEMS
MAINTANCE PROJECT BID APPROVALS– The Shawano School Board approved some projects that will come out of the 2019-2020 Maintenance budget.
GYM FLOOR MAINTENANCE
The Board approved a $33,450 dollar gym flooring contract that would sand, repaint and finish the Hillcrest gym floor. The contract was given to Stalker Flooring out of New London which was the cheaper of two bids obtained. The gym floor has not been sanded for 10 years. The plan is to recoat all the other gym floors with a protective finish. Building and Ground Director Jeff Easter explained that gym floors are typically resanded every 7-10 years and the floor at Hillcrest is yellowed and showing age. Recently, the District has moved from an oil based finish to a water based finish which will prevent the yellowing over time.
The project will be completed in late May or June.
ACOUSTICAL PANELS IN OLGA BRENER CAFETERIA
The Board approved up to $20,000 dollars for acoustical panels to the walls in the Olga Brenner cafeteria to help with an echo problem. The board agreed to pay $11.96 per square foot, the cheaper of the two bids. School Principal Terri Schultz made the request because voices of students reverberatee to a level where people cannot hear each other. The idea would be to dampen the noise and give the District the ability to better use the space for instruction, meetings and general use.
HIGH SCHOOL LIBARY CARPET
The board approved $19,960 dollars to replace the carpet in the High School Library due to wear and staining. Building and Grounds Director Jeff Easter explained that the carpet was last replaced 8 years ago and the color and type of carpet chosen is not holding up well. The recommendation was to switch to a tile type of high quality carpet.
The bid selected was the higher of the two bids by around $1,600 dollars, but board members wanted to give the job to a Floors Unlimited, a Shawano business rather than a Green Bay business that offered a lower bid.
The project is expected to be completed in Late May or June of 2020.
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