MONROE - In a meeting Monday, the Monroe school board:
• Recognized Randy Ninmer, Northside Elementary School fifth-grade teacher, for winning the Monroe Lamp of Learning Staff Excellence Award in January.
• Heard an update on Educator Effectiveness, a government-mandated teacher evaluation system in its second year. Terri Montgomery, director of curriculum and instruction, said this year was more of a struggle than last year, because Teachscape - the program meant to store documentation for EE - didn't work very well.
Even with the difficulties, the three EE coaches who presented to the board said they feel EE is valuable in helping teachers make goals and see where improvement is needed.
"I feel like it's a better evaluation tool than what we had in the past, because it has really forced us to focus on instructional practices and taking students where they're at and getting them to grow as far as we can," said District Administrator Cory Hirsbrunner.
"It's a huge, huge, huge time commitment ... But it's where our time needs to be, but it's unfortunate there's a whole lot of other things that need to get done that then get pushed back," she said.
• Tabled the renewal of administrative contracts because the board hasn't finished its evaluation.
• Heard reports from board members who attended the Wisconsin Association of School Boards Convention last week.
Board clerk Amy Bazley and vice president Scott Schmidt were absent.
- Susan Endres
• Recognized Randy Ninmer, Northside Elementary School fifth-grade teacher, for winning the Monroe Lamp of Learning Staff Excellence Award in January.
• Heard an update on Educator Effectiveness, a government-mandated teacher evaluation system in its second year. Terri Montgomery, director of curriculum and instruction, said this year was more of a struggle than last year, because Teachscape - the program meant to store documentation for EE - didn't work very well.
Even with the difficulties, the three EE coaches who presented to the board said they feel EE is valuable in helping teachers make goals and see where improvement is needed.
"I feel like it's a better evaluation tool than what we had in the past, because it has really forced us to focus on instructional practices and taking students where they're at and getting them to grow as far as we can," said District Administrator Cory Hirsbrunner.
"It's a huge, huge, huge time commitment ... But it's where our time needs to be, but it's unfortunate there's a whole lot of other things that need to get done that then get pushed back," she said.
• Tabled the renewal of administrative contracts because the board hasn't finished its evaluation.
• Heard reports from board members who attended the Wisconsin Association of School Boards Convention last week.
Board clerk Amy Bazley and vice president Scott Schmidt were absent.
- Susan Endres