USD 253 Emporia’s Department of Teaching and Learning is encouraging the district to celebrate recent statistics from the district’s academic achievement report.
The report, delivered to the USD 253 Board of Education Wednesday evening, showed that while students have not seen a dramatic increase in areas such as math and science compared to spring 2022, there has not been any measurable decline either. This was encouraging data for Assistant Superintendent of Teaching, Learning and Student Services Judy Stanley who says stable numbers are always preferable to the alternative.
Stanley attributes the numbers largely to an ongoing return to normalcy.
Stanley says in addition to the pandemic disrupting normalcy, it also played a key role in the dramatic rise of chronic absenteeism over the past year, something she says was a major challenge for the district and likely led to widespread learning loss amongst students. While it is too early to tell whether or not absenteeism will be as major an issue as it was the year prior, Stanley believes the constant climb back to normalcy will result in a positive trend.
Speaking of getting back to normal, that was the major focus of the district’s first COVID-19 data report in just over six months Wednesday night. Director of Nursing Services Jennifer Arndt led the presentation which recommended the district adopt a new set of COVID guidelines designed to put USD 253 in line with recent recommendations by the Centers for Disease Control and Kansas Department of Health and Environment.
Arndt says the district will still utilize the “five percent threshold” to measure certain guidelines such as mask use inside of buildings. Unlike the past few years, the district will not be maintaining its weekly COVID-19 dashboard as Arndt says that is another area they are looking to move away from.
Board members approved the updates unanimously. You can view the updated guidelines online at USD253.org.
Towards the end of the meeting, the board moved into a 15-minute executive session to consult with legal counsel. District administration could not comment on whether the session was related to the recent allegations of misconduct involving one or possibly more members of the Emporia High School football team.
The USD 253 Board of Education will next convene on Wednesday, Sept. 14 at 6:30 pm inside of the Mary Herbert Education Center.
