Students from the carpentry program at the Wood County Technical Center were recognized Tuesday night during the Wood County Board of Education meeting for constructing a new ticket booth at the Erickson All-Sports Facility’s new softball and baseball complex. (Photo by Douglass Huxley)

PARKERSBURG — The Wood County Board of Education recognized students from the carpentry program at the Wood County Technical Center Tuesday night for their work on a new ticket booth for the Erickson All-Sports Facility’s softball and baseball complex.

“It was not an easy process to build it, but it is beautiful,” Superintendent Christie Willis said.

Candace Lewis and Ashlee Beatty, directors of curriculum and instruction, presented the board with the middle of year i-Ready benchmark data, saying 46% of K-8 students are now on or above grade level in math, up from 23% at the beginning of the year.

“With our annual goal being to double the number of students in green (above proficient), we have already achieved that,” Lewis said. “So we’re looking for great things in the spring benchmark to happen.”

Beatty reported the district also saw a significant reduction in the number of students reading far below grade level.

“From fall to winter, students performing two or more grade levels below dropped from 28% to 20% out of everybody K-8,” Beatty said. “Our strategic plan goal is to cut the number of students in the red by half. So the goal would be 14% total. And this is an 8% drop. So we’re approaching that.”

She said Wood County students are outperforming national and state benchmarks in English Language Arts.

“9.1 million students took the i�’Ready diagnostic for reading this year in the nation, and over 100,000 took it in West Virginia,” Beatty said. “We outperformed both the national norm, the national year to date, and the West Virginia year to date.”

Amber Hardman, director of federal programs, gave the board an in-depth overview of what federal education dollars can and cannot fund, and “how the district plans to use those funds to sustain and strengthen student support programs.”

Hardman explained, “The basic rules of federal grants, everything has to be supplemental, it has to add, to not replace local funding. So we cannot use our federal money for anything that is required. … It has to be targeted … and it’s highly regulated, governed by federal law, subject to annual auditing requirements.”

She also talked about the restructuring of some federally funded positions such as Assistant Principal of Teaching, Learning, and Student Success (Title I), Youth Reporting Center Summer Academic Program (Title I, Part D) and Special Education Instructional Support (Title II Reinstatement).

Hardman said despite Title II cuts, the need for Special Education Instructional Support positions is too great to ignore.

“Yes, our Title II budget has declined. However, the need for this position is significant, and we are willing to adjust our needs in order to fund this position,” she said. “There is a great need for this role, as many of our educators are new to special ed or are working outside of their primary certification area.”

Beatty and Heather Grant, director of elementary education, presented a proposal to strengthen early literacy and numeracy outcomes for grades two and three by shifting from a classroom aide model to an academic support interventionist model aligned with the West Virginia Third Grade Success Act and Wood County Schools’ support framework.

“Our goal is to ensure that students receive the instruction and intervention they need throughout the school year, so that retention becomes a rare outcome rather than a common one,” Beatty said.

Read more from Tuesday’s meeting in the Thursday edition of the News and Sentinel.

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