District board discusses projects
The Farmington School Board met Tuesday night to discuss new construction projects, parent-teacher conferences, and academic accountability.
Among the new construction projects, the wrestling center is completed for the most part with the exception of the lockers. They were shipped Tuesday and will be set up soon. The construction for the locker room project at the stadium has been going well and should be under roof by or around Thanksgiving.
Technology bids were opened Nov. 3. Meetings have been held to discuss the project and get information in order to select the finalists. Once finalists for the projects are selected, there will be a meeting held to discuss details and make sure everyone is clear on what work is to be done.
Parent teacher conferences were held in October. Farmington High School had about 345 parents sign in and pick up progress reports. It was an increase from 240 last year. Many things were done to help attract parents to the conferences, such as letters being sent out and phone calls from freshman and sophomore seminar teachers to parents to set up times to meet.
The Middle school had 96.7 percent participation, which is an increase of 23.7 percent from last year. The students led the conference and took responsibility of their grades. There was positive feedback from both parents and students. It was explained that about seven to eight parents on each of the four teams had phone conferences because they were unable to attend. Those students either gave their report to their teacher or Principal Dorothy Winslow.
The elementary students grades kindergarten through sixth had 94 percent attendance for the conferences. Some 1,790 out of 1,905 parents or guardians turned out.
The Featured Teacher award was handed out to third grade teacher Tara Lacy, who teaches at Roosevelt Elementary. It was said she has taught there for five years, and has phenomenal MAP scores because she constantly works with her students.
Heartland Hero was awarded to Renee Beckman, a parent who volunteers and tries to get the students involved. She has set up picnics, movie nights and other things to get parents and students involved.
Roblyn Hatch gave a report about the schools in the district. A school research site www.schooldigger.com is a website to research schools in the country. Farmington schools rated as some of the highest. The district itself is rated 24 out of 325. Washington/Franklin is second, Jefferson is 25th, Roosevelt is 21st, Lincoln is 105th out of 1,103 elementaries. The Middle School ranked as number 76 of 358, and Farmington High School is 62 of 487 high schools.
The next school board meeting will be Dec. 16 at 6 p.m.
