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Arlee superintendent position to go full time next year

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ARLEE – The Arlee School Board passed a motion to hire a full time superintendent for next year at the last regular board meeting. The following process is to look at salary negotiations. Current Superintendent George Linthicum is expected to fill the position.

Linthicum reported that the district is organizing a switch from the current mandated standardized testing required by the federal No Child Left Behind Act to a new form of student assessment. 

“Denise Juneau got the waver that — except for science —we are going to Smarter Balance testing,” he said. “We will be working out technical aspects for the actual testing in April. Schools will maintain their AYP status from the year before.” 

The drug dog was back in the school for a regularly scheduled search.

“Overall, our district has been very clean,” said Jim Taylor, high school principal. 

Administrators reported attending a reservation-wide safety meeting to enhance current safety plans.

“With Senate Bill 348 we have to come up with a new safety plan,” Taylor said. “We do have a current safety plan but we need to think of more.”

Elementary Principal Don Holst reported that the school’s holiday concert was a success.

“It was well attended,” he said. “We had easily over 1,000 people there. We are thinking about possibly separating it into two smaller concerts for next year.” 

Tricia Desjarlais was approved as the after school tutoring substitute. Jeffrey Padgett’s letter of resignation for early retirement for the next school year was approved. Joe Difulgentis was approved by the board for the substitute teacher list, and Ashley Gaumer was approved as the school’s assistant high school track coach.

Team leaders reported to the board on the status of various grant projects. Literacy coaches reported working on developing further programs to enhance new teacher training, literacy screenings and helping students develop reading skills. 

Grants also fund the computer applications program, individualized for each grade level. The third graders are learning to solve hardware and software problems. Fourth graders are being introduced to Google Earth, and the fifth graders are looking at place names with a tie in to Indian Education for All. The sixth graders are learning more advanced Microsoft Word functions. 

It was reported that the Community Night in October, also funded by grants, had a high turnout of 250 people. 

The Yes Program, a grant funded alternative graduation program, is one semester ahead of schedule. They have eight students currently recruited and teachers are tracking at-risk students.

Merle Farrier, an independent grant manager, reported on the data he collected to see if the school is building the capacity to carry out the grants. After reviewing a number of survey questions, he concluded that the programs were seeing significant improvement. 

“There is a capacity being built,” he said. “Very good findings at this point.”

New books including “Counting Coup,” “A River Runs Through It” and “Hunger Games” were submitted to the board by English teacher Anna Baldwin and were board approved.

“These are high quality books that will teach students the skills they need,” Baldwin said. “The plan is to pair newer contemporary books with older ones.”

The next regularly scheduled board meeting will be held Feb.11 at 6:30 p.m. in the school district 

office.

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