Sikeston school board praises New Horizons

SIKESTON -- Nearly 250 students have earned their high school diplomas since the Sikeston School District opened its alternative school in 2003, the Sikeston Standard Democrat reported.

Lynn Crader, principal of New Horizons, told the Board of Education during its regular meeting Tuesday there are 239 graduates the the alternative school.

Board President Rick Adams commended Crader and his staff for their work.

"These are people who probably wouldn't have gotten a high school diploma otherwise," Adams said.

Superintendent Steve Borgsmiller said he agreed.

"That's the whole purpose of why we established this program -- to give an alternative to those who don't fit into the regular school program, and some children just don't," Borgsmiller said.

Crader provided the report for the Bulldog Academic Resource Center program. The program provides an alternative educational opportunity to students that habitually disrupt the educational process in the regular schools.

This school year 21 students returned to their sending schools from last year and 36 students are enrolled in the program this year. Academic gains were also made in third and fourth grade reading and seventh and eighth grade math, Crader said.

Currently 37 students are enrolled in the suspension school program, which offers students with habitual disciplinary referrals a final opportunity to gain credits sufficient to graduate, Crader said.

In other business Tuesday, the Board approved entering a $19,803-contract with the Office of Social and Economic Data Analysis to provide eMINTS grant external evaluation services for the district.

"As the Board of Education knows that last year, we were awarded an eMINTS grant at the Fifth and Sixth Grade Center. The result of us getting that grant and as a part of that, the district is required to have an external evaluation of the eMINTS service," Borgsmiller explained.

The superintendent said the district solicited proposals from interested groups and received one response from the Office of Social and Economic Data Analysis, which has done numerous eMINTS evaluations across the state over the past few years.

Ron Hampton, district transportation director, provided the annual transportation report. During the 2008-2009 school year, the bus drivers transported 2,203 students and drove 197,453 route miles.

Hampton also informed the board of a surprise inspection by the Missouri State Highway Patrol two weeks ago with the district receiving a score of 100 percent. Borgsmiller and Hampton noted annual bus inspections occur every spring, but surprise inspections occur about once every three or so years.

In updating the Board with the library media report, Terri Mickey, department head, said a goal for this school year was to adopt and implement the Destiny library system software program, which is an updated version of the program the district currently has.

"We realize now isn't the time to implement a new software program. Eventually it will have to be done. This company will phase out and only deal with Destiny," Mickey said.

Right now the current program does work fine, but the aging program is starting to glitch, Mickey said.