School board talks impact of health plan; low SBAC scores

Springfield School District Director of Fiscal Services, Steve Hier, discussed the impact that the Vermont Education Health Initiative (VEHI) will have on district finances during Monday’s school board meeting.

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2017-06-28 / Front Page School board talks impact of health plan; low SBAC scores By KELSEY CHRISTENSEN kchristensen@eagletimes.com SPRINGFIELD, Vt. –– Springfield School District Director of Fiscal Services, Steve Hier, discussed the impact that the Vermont Education Health Initiative (VEHI) will have on district finances during Monday’s school board meeting. Hier anticipates that the state will demand the school board to find $324,000 in health care contract savings, which will then be withheld by the state. However, Hier estimates that the school will save $278,000 by transitioning to the health care plan. Gov. Phil Scott vetoed the proposed state budget earlier this month because it did not include a provision that he says would save $26 million: a teacher health care overhaul that would require contracts to be negotiated at the state level, rather than under local control. “I am very pleased to have reached an agreement with the Legislature on an education savings proposal that realizes savings from the Vermont Education Health Initiative’s (VEHI) transition of health care plans,” said Gov. Scott in a statement following passage of the state budget following a legislative compromise last week. “This agreement will save Vermont taxpayers millions of dollars and provides a path to achieve greater efficiency in the future. With this proposal in place, the Legislature passed a budget today that — for the first time in recent memory — does not raise taxes and fees.” In consideration of positions for which health care is paid through means other than the general fund, Heir thinks the school district will be short about $30,000 in the first fiscal year after the plan is implemented, and $16,000 in the next year. “It’s not what we would like, but it’s better than school districts that have not settled,” Hier said. Superintendent Zach McLaughlin says that while the money the district will have to make up may not sound that daunting, the school district had plans for some of those savings. “The state has grabbed money that we’ve been working to create,” said McLaughlin. “It’s like we’ve been running a marathon, and the state has come in from the sidelines and said ‘we’ll take it from here.’” Later in Monday’s meeting, Director of Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment, Steve Cohn, presented the district’s Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) scores to the board. SBAC, a Common Core standardized exam, tests grades 3-8 and grade 11 in mathematics and English/Language Arts (ELA) on a 4-point scale where a score of 3 or higher demonstrates proficiency. Next year, SBAC will pilot a test that measures science. “We’re mainly disappointed this year,” said Cohn. “Last year, there was growth in most areas. Overall, there are just a couple positive highlights [this year].” The scores do not present particularly optimistic outcomes for the school district. In 2016, the school district saw gains in the percentage of students that meet the standards for proficiency in all grades but 11 in English Language Arts. Now, the percentage of students proficient in ELA has dropped in every grade level but 11, which saw a 7 percent gain in number of proficient students, up from 42 percent in 2016. Math scores declined at all grade levels in 2017, with outcomes for fourth and fifth graders particularly staggering: they show 10 percent and 9 percent of students are proficient, respectively. “In math, we’ve put a lot of professional development, staffing, and time into those areas, so I’m really disappointed,” Cohn said. “[The scores] are not only scarily low,” said McLaughlin. “They’re scarily low after a two-year investment.” Cohn and McLaughlin note that there are some positive gains if the progress of classes as they travel through grades is tracked in an “apples to apples comparison.” For example, fifth graders in 2016 showed only 13 percent proficiency in math, but in 2017 that same class — now sixth grade — is 25 percent proficient in math, but those highlights cannot be observed across the board. McLaughlin thinks that the teacher’s perspective on the outcomes comes down to behavioral issues. Addressing behavior and mental health will be a factor for Cohn and McLaughlin to consider in future curriculum development. Administrative turnover, a relative shortage of qualified applicants for science and math positions, and socio-economic demographics could also contribute to the disappointing results, according to McLaughlin and Cohn. McLaughlin says the school district needs to be even more solid for students who face more challenges outside of school. “But, there are low socioeconomic districts that are outperforming us,” Cohn said. “So, no excuses.”