Lisbon approved hiring a fourth-grade elementary teacher and a student success coach for the secondary schools. These teacher contracts will be made for two years, as funding for the positions comes from one-time COVID-19 money provided by Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funds the district received.
The school board debated whether a teaching position should be funded with emergency funds, but made the decision after seeing recent test scores. English and language arts scores on the Iowa Statewide Assessment of Student Progress for the current third grade students shows a total of 40 percent proficient or advanced proficiency in the subject, and 60 percent not proficient in the skills.
Lisbon Elementary principal Justin Brown said the reading and language arts scores for those third graders is what tipped his hand to going with a full-time teacher as opposed to an interventionist or support coach at the elementary school levels.
“You can’t individually intervene your way out of a deficit that large,” Brown said. “We’re going to have to change the way we teach day-to-day to help these students make sure they are meeting the standards, and get them to being proficient moving forward.”
Hiring an additional teacher for that class will also serve as a form of intervention, by allowing for smaller class sizes at the elementary and more individualized attention by a teacher with students who might be struggling in a subject, Brown said.
He expects class sizes at lower elementary levels to continue to show growth as they have in the past.
Brown also noted that math scores for that same grade on ISASPs were the second highest in the elementary school.
Lisbon has strived to have scores closer to the 80-percent proficient range in subjects. In math and science scores, the district showed improvement at the elementary levels by 6 percent and 9 percent compared to 2019’s numbers, Brown said.
Lisbon secondary principal Aaron Becker said that the student success coach will be a position that helps students with interventions to help students succeed. By hiring this additional coach, it will allow instructional support coach Amelia Kibbie to do more of her work with teachers, including peer observations and work with teachers on improving their own instruction.
“The position will not be responsible for any disciplinary actions,” Becker said. “They will be a support role for the students.”
Both Brown and Becker said all applicants have understood these positions are only for two years and it hasn’t been a deterrent for applicants.
“Even if the position is a two-year contract, if we find a teacher we like, we could extend that contract at the end of two years,” said Lisbon superintendent Pat Hocking.
The teaching positions would account to roughly $200,000 of the $394,000 in ESSER funding for the district.
Hocking wants the district to invest an additional $100,000 for heating, ventilation and air conditioning system for the Lisbon cafeterias. He is now seeking competitive bids for the system, and will present those to the board at a special meeting so the system can be installed before the beginning of the school year.
The remaining ESSER funds will be spent on summer school this school year.