Superintendent Dr. Jan DeLay started by talking about the TCAP. Third grade students will take the reading TCAP this week, while grades 4-10 will take the reading and other TCAP tests in March.
DeLay noted this year will be the last year of the TCAP. In 2015, the state will start administering the Colorado Measure of Academic Success (CMAS) assessments on the new Colorado standards, which include the Common Core Standards in math and literacy.
Unlike past pencil and paper assessments, the new tests will be computerized online assessments.
“We're very excited about these new assessments and we think that it will give us more information on what we need to do with teaching and learning,” DeLay said.
She shared that a sample of students across the state has been able to take the test and “they really do like it and they think that it's much more engaging.”
Much of the institute was spent talking about bullying. Juvenal Cervantes, of Centennial BOCES, shared a presentation by Detective Andrew Palese, of the Delaware State Police, about the types of bullying, who gets bullied and why, the characteristics of a bully and what can be done to prevent bullying.
There are two types of bullying. Direct bullying includes physical bullying, such as hitting, kicking, pushing or hiding someone's things, and verbal bullying, which is thing's like name calling, teasing, insulting or threatening someone. Indirect bullying is relationship bullying, which includes gossiping, spreading rumors and making people feel left out.
A bully is excited by their bullying behavior; enjoys feelings of power and control; enjoys causing pain; can be a below average, average or above average student; lacks compassion and empathy for their targets; and can be all shapes and sizes. The people who you would least suspect can be bullies.
“People who are the most popular and with the highest GPAs (grade point averages) can be bullies,” Cervantes said.
Students may be bullied because they don't fit in; they are physically weak, a minority, emotional or overweight; because of their facial appearance or clothing; or because they get good grades.
According to the presentation, ways to avoid future bullying include not brining expensive things or money to school; hanging out with friends; avoiding unsupervised areas; sitting near the bus driver on the bus or walking with a teacher to class; not walking alone and avoiding places where bullying occurs; getting funny; and not acting scared.
If bullying occurs it should be reported to a trusted adult immediately.
Bystanders can be part of the bullying problem. Bystanders should be encouraged to help stop the bullying incident by being assertive. Students can also be encouraged to make friends with someone who continually gets picked on.
Administrators, teachers and parents at the meeting talked about what can be done to stop bullying.
There was a suggestion to have students and parents fill out a climate survey to see how they feel at school, if they are scared to be there. Plus, teachers talked about needing to make sure they recognize the hot spots where bullying most frequently occurs in their school.
In talking about school safety, DeLay said making sure students feel safe at school is part of her safety plan. She shared administrators and teacher leaders will be going to a training in Loveland Wednesday, to talk about school climate and culture.
DeLay pointed out that strategies for dealing with bullying have to be consistent across the district and that's something RE-1 will be working on.
“As we find out more of what works and what doesn't we're going to try to be at the very cutting edge in this school district,” she said.
DeLay also talked about the other part of the district's safety plan, making sure “the bad guys aren't going to get in here and hurt our kids.”
She addressed parent concerns about the doors at Sterling High School being locked but not doors at other schools. Right now, SHS is the only school with external doors that have card access, meaning the school can give cards to the police and fire department, so they can get inside the school if there's an emergency.
“Part of our safety plan for the whole district is to have the technology installed this summer to get locks on the doors,” DeLay said.
In order to do that, she is looking at how to pay for it, because “it's nothing that we've budgeted for.”
“It goes hand in hand with some of the energy savings that I'm trying to work with Honeywell to look at where we can save with heating and lighting to pay for some of these safety things,” DeLay said, adding that “we're probably going to be taking out some loans to pay for some of these things that I see as urgent and needed right now.”
She pointed out that with this new security there will be a need to make sure that students and staff understand doors shouldn't be propped open and they shouldn't be holding doors open to let people in the building.
A parent asked about communication to parents about changes in the way people can enter buildings.
DeLay said with the buzzer system that's been put in at SHS she helped the principal to create a communication plan that will go out to parents and students, explaining how the system works. She also added there will be a communication plan that goes out to parents when changes are made to entering other buildings.
Callie Jones: (970) 526-9286; firstname.lastname@example.org. Follow @cjones_JA on Twitter.