Updates on Cape summer school, improvement plan given to board

An update regarding the Cape Girardeau School District's summer school program was given to school board members Monday.

Howard Benyon, deputy superintendent for elementary education, reported there were improvements in the reading and math scores for a majority of students in all grade levels, elementary through high school.

With a total enrollment of 993 students, Benyon said there were increases of more than 90% in scores for reading and math for both elementary and junior high students and 100% in high school student scores from pre-testing to post-testing. He said this also amounted to 204.5 credits earned by Central High School students and 23.5 credits earned by Central Academy students.

The cost of the 2022 summer school program came to $302,361.38, which Benyon said was an increase from last year. He said the cost increase was because of hiring additional teachers for a new enrichment program for junior high students at the Career and Technology Center. He added that costs were lower in 2021 because of additional federal funding received that year.

Benyon said, in addition to the enrichment program, other strengths of the 2022 summer school term included academic opportunities for low-achieving students, the meal program, transportation and additional time to complete credits.

He noted one concern was attendance.

"We get kids started the first two weeks, but attendance starts falling off, especially in elementary schools," Benyon said. "Getting the kids to complete the entire program is sometimes a challenge when competing with summer break."

In the future, Benyon stressed an emphasis on graduation rates.

"We need to continue working on credit recovery during summer school to get students back on track for graduation," he said. "We will be doing research on innovative programming that will impact students academically, socially and emotionally."

Improvement plan

Benyon also reported on the district's Continuous School Improvement Plan. He said more than 1,200 stakeholders — families, staff members, board members, school supporters and the Cape Girardeau community — were invited to become committee members. As such, he said they can partake in interviews, happening Monday through Oct. 5, for input on school improvements to be implemented over the next five school years.

"Once the interview process is completed, we will send out surveys to students and families to get additional data," Benyon said. "Once we get all of that, we'll begin working on our next five-year plan. We're excited because this will give us a lot of good information from a lot of our stakeholders."

Community Teacher Association

Another item brought before the board was a report from the Community Teacher Association. Allie Balsman, CTA president, said the group has 216 members. She said the Missouri State Teachers Association state convention will be held Nov. 16 through 18, and the Cape Girardeau School District is allotted 11 delegates. Also, she stated the association will host a state capitol day Jan. 31. Balsman said there are close to 43,000 MSTA members and all are encouraged to be in Jefferson City on that day to talk to legislators.

Wi-Fi on buses

Also, student parent Stephanie Stagner came forward to address the board, objecting to the use of federal funding for adding Wi-Fi to school buses. She said the money should have been spent on external cameras on all the buses.

"We have to get cameras on the outside of these buses in order to get the license plates of these cars that are speeding by and almost hitting the buses and our children," Stagner said.

Board president Matthew Welker said student safety is the highest priority for the board.

Kristin Talent, district communications director, later clarified in an email that federal funding was used to install Wi-Fi on school buses through the Emergency Connectivity fund, which was funded by the American Rescue Plan Act 2021 to help schools and libraries support remote learning. Unfortunately, school bus stop-arm cameras were not an eligible expense under that funding, she wrote.