Wood County BOE approves more oversight of school construction

PARKERSBURG -- Wood County Schools' Assistant Superintendent of Operations Kaleb Lawrence would like more oversight on the daily construction of new schools planned for the district.

"We have Mr. (Martin) Best, our current clerk of works. He's going to notify us, but he cannot go there and say, "Stop. That's not right," Lawrence said. "There's a little bit of a misconception about the clerk of the works. They do not have the authority to stop the contractors on the job. They are our eyes and ears, per se."

Lawrence said under the standard agreement for construction management services with McKinley Architecture and Engineering, a construction manager out of Pittsburgh will give updates on construction sites twice a month.

"Obviously, the job, the size of this and the scope of this work, and how important it is to us building these new schools, we don't feel that two times a month is adequate," Lawrence said.

He presented a proposal from Pickering Associates to provide a "regular weekly presence on all SBA (School Building Authority) construction sites."

Key features of the enhanced construction services include:

* Daily site inspections.

* Verification of work progress.

* Coordination with existing construction managers.

* Verification of pay applications and change orders.

* A $110,000 contingency fund for potential issues.

The proposal includes:

* 3,400 total hours of construction oversight

* 1,280 hours allocated for Lubeck Elementary.

* 1,080 hours for Lincoln Elementary.

* 1,020 hours for Vienna Elementary.

He said the total project cost is approximately $530,000, covering all three school sites. For the Lubeck school specifically, he said the cost breaks down to $200,960, with the SBA reimbursing $125,000. The district would contribute an additional $75,000 from its general fund for each construction site.

"It would be cheaper at North End (Lincoln) and Vienna, which we would still, in turn, have the $125,000 be reimbursable from the SBA in that," Lawrence said.

The board approved the proposal during the consent agenda.

During policy updates, the board talked about changes to Policy 1330, which governs the use of school facilities and associated rental fees.

"It's not clear in the policy as written, if, say, booster groups are raising money for their... whether it's football or any other booster group, it's not clear whether they have to pay to rent the facilities," board member Judy Johnson said. "I understand we have to have a professional there from a school and those things, and I agree but it's not clear whether, since they're raising money for the school, do they have to pay the rental facility fee?"

To address the confusion, a motion was made to pull the policy changes until more clear wording could be proposed.

Reading proficiency on the rise

Directors of Curriculum and Instruction Ashlee Beatty and Candace Lewis presented encouraging results from the district's end-of-year i-Ready diagnostic assessments, highlighting significant gains in both reading and math proficiency across all grade levels.

The data revealed a notable drop in the number of students performing two or more grade levels below in reading, from 27% to 17%.

"The number of students that were on grade level or above grade level increased by 30% so we increased from 33% to 63% on grade level," Beatty said.

Elementary and middle school students showed consistent improvement.

"All of our grade levels, kindergarten through fifth grade, saw a decrease of the number of students in the red… and an increase of the number of students in the green, which are early on or above grade level," Beatty said.

Math gains mirror reading success

"We more than doubled the percent of students at grade level, going from 23% in the fall to 63% in the spring. And across the district, we have cut the number of students performing two or more grade levels below in half, going from 24% in the fall to 12% in the spring," Lewis said.

The team emphasized the importance of not just proficiency, but also student growth.

"Our accountability system does both. We look at grade level proficiency, but we also look at the students' growth," Lewis said.

A new focus on "stretch growth" aims to help students who are behind catch up more quickly.

"A stretch growth goal is an ambitious goal," Beatty said. "It's designed to help our students catch up a little more quickly. … It's a strong indicator when they meet that goal, that they're closing the gap and moving towards grade level proficiency, which is what we want."

Douglass Huxley can be reached at dhuxley@newsandsentinel.com.