St. Ignace Principals Update School Board on Class Sizes, Test Results
By Paul Gingras

In a month of testing and student conferences, principals Bonnie Ledy and Don Gustafson updated the public and the school board on testing, student progress, class sizes, and activities in the district at St. Ignace Area Schools Board of Education meeting Monday, October 8.

To raise their scores and increase their odds of receiving a Michigan Promise Scholarship, some seniors will retake the Michigan Merit Exam Saturday, October 27, and Tuesday, October 30, said Mr. Gustafson, principal of LaSalle High School. The students took the test for the first time as juniors in March.

Merit exam results reveal that, compared to their peers throughout the state and across the Eastern Upper Peninsula, more LaSalle students achieved the state's highest recommended levels of mastery in science and social studies, and fewer achieved them in mathematics and English language arts, Mr. Gustafson reported.

Now, from grade school to high school, testing has begun anew. Grades eight and nine began the MEAP during the week of October 8, with eighth graders covering language arts, mathematics, and science, and ninth graders covering social studies. Ninth graders also took the EXPLORE test, a prep test for the ACT, and on October 17, juniors will take the PSAT test. MEAP testing for students in grades three through seven began Tuesday, October 9.

Class sizes are growing at LaSalle, owing to staffing reductions since 2004 designed to keep the district financially solvent, said Superintendent Mike Springsteen." Class sizes are a concern," Mr. Gustafson said, citing the example of a sixth-hour world cultures class of 34 students. It would be difficult to fit any more desks into the room, he said.

Many classes have 30 or more students. Classes at LaSalle range from 49 in band to eight in a calculus course taught through interactive television.

LaSalle has had large class sizes for the past two years, Mr. Gustafson said, primarily a result of teacher retirements that have reduced the number of elective classes available.

Most recently, for example, following the retirement of Mary Sue Kunze, the school lost two nutrition classes and two clothing design classes. Looking back farther, Mr. Gustafson said that LaSalle once had more advanced physical education classes.

"You are trying to fit a similar number of students into fewer classes," he said.

Last year, LaSalle had 348 students in grades eight through 12. There are about 25 fewer students this year, Mr. Gustafson estimates, although the final count will not be available until the November 12 board of education meeting.

Spread out over five grades, this only amounts to a difference of five students per grade, he said.

The new scheduling program at LaSalle did not influence the number of students in each class, nor was it intended to, he said. LaSalle's revised schedule was designed to change how often classes meet, to make students' schedules more conducive to learning.

A new mathematics homework laboratory is being offered to help high school students achieve new state mathematics requirements. Students can get help from the district's mathematics teachers Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays, from 3:15 p.m. to 4 p.m. There is no charge to participate.

The lab eases the burden on parents struggling to help their children in mathematics, Mr. Gustafson said.

In response to questioning by board vice-president Rick Litzner, Mr. Gustafson said that turnout at the lab has been low, so far, but attendance is likely to rise now that academic progress reports have been sent home.

Both Mrs. Ledy and Mr. Gustafson reported a drop in parent attendance at student conferences, which, at higher grade levels, appears to result from parents choosing to monitor their children's progress through the district's Web site.

More than 90% of parents with children in kindergarten through fifth grades met for conferences with teachers this fall; 74% of parents with sixth-grade students did so, and attendance was 59% among parents with seventh graders.

Many parents stop attending parent teacher conferences when their children pass the fifth-grade level, Mrs. Ledy said.

Aproposed policy change would allow eliminating athletes from junior varsity teams in years when no freshman teams are offered. The board read the policy and is expected to act on it at its November meeting.

Currently, the school's policy is to prohibit cutting at the junior varsity or freshman level, but when no freshman teams are available, students could swell the ranks of junior varsity teams, Mr. Springsteen told The St. Ignace News, to 30 or 40 students.

Freshman teams and many coaching positions were eliminated several years ago to cut expenses, said Athletic Director Marty Spencer. Now, a freshman team is offered only when a group generates the money to do so. Last year, the district had a freshman volleyball team.

So far, turnouts for junior varsity teams have not been so high as to activate the new policy, but the district needs to have guidelines in place if a problem arises, Mr. Spencer said.

Large turnouts would not present a problem in all sports, he added. The district needs many athletes for football, for example, but not as many to fill basketball teams, which are smaller.

In other athletic department news, the board accepted the resignation of softball coach Gene Massey.

"He has done a nice job with the kids, and he will be missed," Mr. Springsteen said.