Barbour BOE reviews progress
By BEN SIMMONS, Staff WriterBarbour County Schools Superintendent Dr. DeEdra Lundeen told board members Monday the school system is doing very well; however, there is still room for improvement based on her review of the 2008/2009 school year.
During the meeting, Lundeen provided a PowerPoint presentation that summarized a comprehensive review of the previous school year. The review included a budget breakdown, student achievement charts, attendance data and disciplinary reports, along with county goals and progression toward those goals, among other things.
"I basically gave a state of Barbour County Schools address to the board and let them know where we are from last year," Lundeen said afterward.
"I reviewed the goals the board set and where we were in meeting those goals. Some of the goals we were able to obtain and do a beautiful job. We were able to cut our dropout rate almost in half. We were able to reduce our absences by a significant amount, which is excellent. We were able to continue working toward our reading initiative and saw great progress at several grade levels and we anticipate that to continue," the superintendent said.
According to Lundeen, one of the largest areas of improvement is student attendance. She said Barbour County Schools had the best attendance rate in the state during the 2008/2009 school year.
She said the number of students with 10 or more absences dropped from 74 percent in 2007/2008 to 48 percent in 2008/2009. The number of students with 10 or more unexcused absences also dropped from 56 percent in 2007/2008 to 17 percent in 2008/2009, she said.
"I am very proud of the decline in student absenteeism," Lundeen said. "It literally took a village. We had the legal system working with us. We had the physicians working with us. We had our intervention specialists and our teachers working with us. Everyone jumped on board and worked very hard to make sure our children came to school. We were able to see a dramatic decrease at some schools, for example Philip Barbour High School decreased by more than half of its unexcused absences."
Although Lundeen said Barbour County ranks as the 10th most improved school system in the state during the time frame, she said there is still room for improvement.
"We also have some things that we need to work on," Lundeen said. "First of all, we are much improved but we have a ways to go. One of the things we need to look at is the WesTest data, which has just come out. We'll definitely keep our eye on student achievement, especially in the areas of reading and mathematics. We'll also be looking at improving and upgrading our student technology, so we can be in step with the state."
Members of the Barbour County Board of Education include President Patrick Jones, along with Vice President Brian Kisamore and members Brad Robinson, David Everson and David Strait.
The board meets on the second and fourth Monday of each month at 5:30 p.m. at the Board of Education office in Philippi.
