Highland School Board approves new math curriculum
Starting next year, elementary and primary students will be taught the same math series across the Highland School District.
The School Board on Monday of last week unanimously agreed to purchase the Eureka Math Series.
The district is now teaching two different math series in its schools.
At Alhambra and Grantfork, students in grades pre-kindergarten through grade 2 are now being taught the Investigations math series. Investigations is a complete K-5 mathematics curriculum. It is designed to help all children understand fundamental ideas of number and operations, geometry, data, measurement and early algebra
But Alhambra and Grantfork students in grade 3, as well as the entire student body in grades K-5 in Highland Elementary and Highland Primary, are being taught the Envision Math Series. Envision was designed to be aligned with the Common Core State Standards.
School officials believe this purchase might also improve the district’s scores on the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC), the state’s standardized test, next year.
School officials are now negotiating a purchasing price with Eureka representatives.
For the past several months, the district has been studying nine different math series.
Highland Assistant Superintendent Derek Hacke said the new math series was the only one he could recommend “with good conscience” to the board for approval.
New hires
In other news from the May 18 meeting:
The School Board hired five new personnel for the 2015-16 school year, including:
▪ Alyssa Duffin, bookkeeper for the school district;
▪ Lauri Brueggemann, secretary to the assistant superintendent;
▪ Jason Basso, assistant varsity football coach. Basso is taking over for Calvin Potthast, who resigned earlier.
▪ Karen Twyford, freshman volleyball coach; and
▪ Davina Brown, part-time playground supervisor at Alhambra Primay.
Handbooks approved
The board, by a 4-0 vote, approved 2015-16 school handbooks for all buildings.
Board member Ray Miller voted present, noting he needed more time to review the proposed handbook which was given to the board members just a couple days earlier.
Unlike years past, the new handbook will be posted on the district’s website.
Printed copies will also be available in each of the district’s school office buildings.
Budget hearing
The School Board will be holding an amended budget hearing on June 22. The 2015-16 budget will have to be adjusted after the state budget is approved, said Superintendent Mike Sutton.
In the meantime, the School Board unanimously passed a resolution approval abating the working cash fund. The district will now transfer $2 million from the working cashing fund to the district’s education fund. The education fund is projected to finish the current fiscal year with a $1.6 million deficit.
The district pays for teachers’ salaries and textbooks out of the education fund.
Sutton said abating the working cash fund will not generate the district any additional money. But, he hopes it will eliminate some confusion on how the education fund is used by the district.
This story was originally published May 27, 2015 at 11:59 AM with the headline "Highland School Board approves new math curriculum."