Halverson Elementary School’s principal used one word to describe MCA reading and math results to the Albert Lea school board Monday night: “uncomfortable.”

Halverson Principal Tonya Franks said kindergarten through second-grade reading levels show more than 50 percent of students are below grade-level expectations in both reading and math.

For math, proficiency is increasing by the time students reach second grade, but Franks called this a reflection of how much work second-grade teachers had to put into getting those children to that level because the proficiency gap coming in was so large.

“We have lots of really hard-working teachers,” Franks said. “The question is, are we doing the right work in how we’re doing that hard work?”

For reading, Franks said establishing literacy skills early helps minimize an educational achievement gap as students age and are sent on to Southwest Middle School.

The school board’s goal is 80 percent reading and math proficiency for district kindergarten through eighth-graders. Third-, fourth- and fifth-grade results from the Minnesota Department of Education show a decline in proficiency from 2017 to 2018 in math. In 2018, 15.1 percent of fifth graders at Halverson were deemed proficient in math. In 2016, that percentage was 41.2.

Third- and fifth-graders at Halverson Elementary School also showed a proficiency decrease in reading, while fourth-graders stayed relatively consistent at 32.1 percent in 2018. Franks said building conversations are focusing on a recommitment to standards and increasing classroom consistency in content delivery.

“We have to start that at the primary level,” Franks said.

Additionally, reading intervention teachers are being implemented in every grade level, where Franks said that implementation had gaps last school year. Success coaches are also being put on a more consistent schedule for reading, she said.

Together, Franks said staff at Halverson Elementary School set a goal of 20 percent growth in both reading and math for the 2018-19 school year. Following that, two consecutive years of 13 percent growth would see Halverson meeting the district’s 80 percent proficiency goal.

“Imagine if I could sit in this chair three years from now and say, ‘We’re there,’” she said.

School board Chairman Ken Petersen affirmed the school’s work on its plan for the future, and school board member Angie Hanson said she was excited to hear Franks’ report next year.

“I don’t expect any miracles,” Franks said. “I don’t. But I do expect change. And I think Halverson is ready to be that change.”

Lakeview Elementary School Principal Nick Sofio said kindergarten and first-grade math both had approximately 50 percent proficiency, with growth in second grade.

Fourth-grade reading peaked in 2017 with an increase to 71.4 percent proficiency, but that number dipped to 58.7 percent in 2018. However, fourth-grade math continues to trend up, with the school’s 84.1 percent proficient surpassing both the state and the district average since 2016.

Building-wide, math proficiency has remained relatively flat year-to-year. This year, 75.1 percent of Lakeview students were proficient in math, 5 percent below the district’s 80 percent goal.

“It’s certainly within striking range for us,” Sofio said.

Reading performance has been less consistent. The elementary school staff is looking into how it can identify and translate some of the strategies and mindsets it is using successfully in math to reading.

“Are we engaging them with the right work?” Sofio said. “Are we engaging them with the rigorous work that we know is going to help them grow and help them learn?”

In other action:

Student school board representatives Gigi Otten and Maggie Moller weighed in on why students may opt out of Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments. Albert Lea Area Schools Director of Secondary Programs Kathy Niebuhr said opt-out rates in Albert Lea are the highest in the big nine and expressed concern on how that affected student proficiency data gleaned from those test results.

Moller said reviewing for the MCA and taking the test cuts into instructional time, and many times the test is not covering topics the students are learning at the time.

“I think the biggest thing is that when you’re taking all your classes and you’re trying to keep up with everything … just taking out of that class to go sit in a room and do stuff you’re probably not even working on … that’s things that distracts you just from whatever you’re doing in class, from a student point of view, it doesn’t make sense to go sit in a room and either get stressed about a test or sit and answer questions when you know you have a lot of other stuff to do,” Otten said.

District superintendent Mike Funk encouraged school board members to contact their state representatives to encourage allowing ACT test results as a form of evaluation.

“This is a key issue for at least the board and this district to talk to our legislators about, really, ‘Look what’s happening here in Albert Lea,’” Funk said.

Since the district began an employee-based energy conservation program in 2002, the district has saved over $4 million, Albert Lea Area Schools energy manager Stephen Lund reported. The 2017-18 school year alone had a savings of $282,581. The district has also reduced its kilowatt hours by almost 2 million over those 15 years, Lund said. He said lighting changes — as well as replacing boilers and furnaces with more efficient models — has saved the district a lot of money.

“Oh yes, (the lights) have paid for themselves several times,” he said.

Funk said the district’s suspension data reflects more tellingly on poverty than racial demographic. For the 2017-18 school year, Albert Lea Area Schools had 369 in-school suspensions and 650 out-of-school suspensions. Of those suspensions 270 in-school and 476 out-of-school suspensions were students who qualified for free and reduced lunch.

“Poverty is a significant factor — as well as the demographics of who’s being suspended — but poverty is also something we’ve got to take a look at,” Funk said.

Albert Lea Area Schools swore in new student school board representative Moller. Otten, who was a student representative last year, continues to be a student representative to the board.

Albert Lea Education Association set this year’s Gobble Wobble for Nov. 18, Southwest Middle School teacher Laura Wangen said. Online registration for the event is open.

The board approved five-year property tax abatements for two properties owned by David and Crystal Miller and Brett Richard Hanson. The abatement limits property tax increases that would result from property improvement, deputy superintendent Lori Volz said.