High school board: School improvement plan presented

‘The main thing now is how we get back on track prior to the pandemic’

Jeff Helfrich
Posted 10/18/21

Members of the Rochelle Township High School administration presented their school improvement plan at Monday’s District 212 Board meeting. RTHS Principal Chris Lewis and Assistant Principal David Perrin said this year’s school improvement goal will focus on social and emotional learning to combat the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on students.

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

Log in

High school board: School improvement plan presented

‘The main thing now is how we get back on track prior to the pandemic’

Posted

ROCHELLE – Members of the Rochelle Township High School administration presented their school improvement plan at Monday’s District 212 Board meeting. 

RTHS Principal Chris Lewis and Assistant Principal David Perrin said this year’s school improvement goal will focus on social and emotional learning to combat the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on students. 

“This is something that's a result of some of the isolation and frustration students have experienced due to e-learning,” Perrin said. 

Social and emotional learning is defined as “an integral part of education and human development and a process through which all young people and adults acquire and apply the knowledge, skills and attitudes to develop,” Perrin said. 

Perrin said there were a variety of things that informed school administration that social and emotional learning should be its improvement goal. A study came out this past August that said one in four youth globally are experiencing clinically-elevated depression symptoms, he said. 

“This isn't just a Rochelle problem,” Perrin said. “It's an international problem. One in five students are experiencing clinically-elevated anxiety symptoms. Both of those figures are double the pre-COVID-19 rates of those two problems. The study said loss of peer interaction, social isolation and reduced contacts with support such as teachers and coaches may have precipitated these increases.”

Perrin said there were about 200 kids that hadn’t participated in in-person learning at RTHS in 18 months due to the pandemic and e-learning. A monthly survey given to RTHS students last year asked them to rate their stress levels. 

“Kids self reported a high level of stress last year,” Perrin said. “This had an impact on our outcomes as well. We had a difference in students with multiple academic failures. We had 78 kids at this time last year failing five or more classes. That's a very significant number.” 

RTHS also saw a drop in the numbers of freshmen on track to graduate from 95 percent two years ago to 74 percent this year. 

Lewis said the stress survey is still ongoing and that recent stress levels are “a little bit better.” Steps are also being taken with freshmen in a seminar program and a math intervention room. Two additional hourly deans are being utilized to help with attendance and tardies. 

“That gives us more time to have conversations about why they're missing school,” Lewis said. 

Lewis said since the school returned to full in-person learning this year, metrics have been “slowly getting back to normal.” The number of D’s and F’s per week are still a little higher than pre-pandemic levels, he said. 

“But we're getting closer to normal as a school,” Lewis said. “The number of just F's, we have 25 more with an F, however, we're a lot better off than the 400 we had at this point in time last year. Freshman on track to graduate last year was 74 percent. Typically it's been 90 or 95 percent. We'd like this freshman group to get to 85 percent.”

The administration has also set goals of getting 86 percent of sophomores and 91 percent of juniors on track to graduate. It would like its seniors to reach a 90-94 percent graduation rate. 

“That's been pretty typical and very strong for us over the past 5-10 years,” Lewis said. “We plan to track attendance, academic behaviors, club activity participation and discipline referrals. The main thing now is how we get back on track prior to the pandemic. I think we're on the right track, but we have work to do over the months before we get to May.”

Workforce development

On Oct. 8, RTHS administration, counselors and teachers met with area employers about workforce development. 

Superintendent Jason Harper said building and facility improvements that might be tied to curricular changes or enhancements have been discussed to improve workforce development. 

“The building is getting close to being 20 years old,” Harper said. “We brought over some equipment from the old building. I think we've been strategic in our decisions financially and knew this day was coming where we wanted to reinvest in some of our facilities. Specifically we're talking about tech labs, workshops, a welding lab, our greenhouse and our computer labs. We want to make sure that our students that come through our building have the best opportunities to be prepared for tomorrow.”

Harper said he wants the RTHS curriculum to reflect what the community and students need. 

“If there's an opportunity to partner with some of our companies to improve our facility and equipment, we'd love to do that,” Harper said. “If there's an investment needed on behalf of the district for students, of course I'd bring that recommendation.”

Lease of school buses

The board unanimously approved the lease of nine school buses including six 77-passenger buses for $29,074.89 each totaling $174,449.34, one 65+1-passenger bus for $32,915.50, one 35+3 midsize wheelchair bus for $34,340.79 and one 24 full seat mini bus for $13,812.22 from Central State Bus Sales Inc. for three years. 

It also approved the lease of two new Hub activity buses for five years at $11,573 each and kept three activity buses with two-year lease extensions at the current price of $9,792 each from Midwest Transit Equipment, Inc.