The Monmouth-Roseville Board of Education met earlier this week and one item discussed was the hiring of two Student Support Specialists, Dave Giles and Amy Rogers, and how they have been a great addition to the district. Superintendent Ed Fletcher reports more on how they help the district:
“They are staff members to help, number one, form a relationships with students and parents. Help find resources for parents if they are in need. We know if the parents are struggling, sometimes the students don’t come to school. With the Every Student Succeeds Act there is a significant emphasis being placed on student attendance,” Fletcher shares.
Since the addition of the Student Support Specialists, Fletcher has already seen families reaching out and building new relationships with each other.
The Monmouth-Roseville School District has hired a third counselor at the high school, which has been a tremendous help. Superintendent Ed Fletcher shares more for the reason behind the new hire:
“As part of our strategic plan to improve performance, you know with two counselors at our school, it was proven to be pretty difficult to get through all the future planning, college planning, and after high school planning and talk to kids with their day to day difficulties that they deal with on a regular basis. Our counselors are meeting with a lot of kids on a regular basis and seeing kids that they might have never seen before. They are able to bring the child in and see how they are doing. Just to create a relationship with the child with a renewed emphasis on what are you doing after high school,” states Fletcher.
Fletcher reports with a third counselor, the high school is able to stay in touch with more students and provide them with assistance in their plans after high school.
The Monmouth-Roseville School District is looking to start a summer school program for next year. With the state’s long term goals for reading, Superintendent Ed Fletcher is working to expand the learning opportunities for the students:
“Ms. Ince is going to pilot a Saturday school. We are still working through the details, to provide an opportunity for kids who may be struggling academically to improve their academic performance. The state has put long term goals in place for reading, which is 90% of Third Graders reading on grade level by 2032 and 90% of Fifth Graders on grade level in Math by that same time. It’s a lot of work but we have to expand the learning opportunities for kids. We are looking at the possibility of doing summer school next summer for various grade levels. So we are really trying to think outside the box and we are able to do that with the Evidence Based Funding,” Fletcher reports.
Fletcher shares the district’s plan for summer school would be three hours and day, four days a week and last six weeks long.
On November 15th, the Monmouth-Roseville school district is teaming up with the Regional Office of Education and the Warren County Public Library to host a family reading night. Superintendent Ed Fletcher reports more:
“The theme is going to be Reading Takes You Everywhere. It’s cool to partner with the ROE and the public library to pull our resources together. There are a lot of families who visit our public library, so then families know they are working with the schools and I think that cohesive approach is a benefit for our kids. Reading is really important for kids and to get out there and read and read a lot when they are young,” shares Fletcher.
The event will be held at Lincoln School. More details will be available at a later date.
written by Kelsey Crain
To hear the full interview, listen to the link below:
