Polk County Education
12A Polk County Itemizer-Observer • November 23, 2016
Falls City to bring back traditional grading system
By Jolene Guzman
The Itemizer-Observer
FALLS CITY — A plan to
bring back the traditional A-
B-C-D-F grading system at
Falls City High School was
approved by the Falls City
School Board on Thursday.
For the last several years,
the school has used a system
that awarded students with
As, Bs, or Cs based on their
performance.
Those not achieving at
least a C were given an I, or
incomplete, and given two
weeks to bring their grade
up before being assigned a
failing grade.
No Ds were given, even
though it would have been
considered a passing grade
that would allowed students
to move on.
Removing Ds from the
grading scale was part of a
push toward proficiency
grading, said Superinten-
dent Jack Thompson.
He said school officials
believed at the time that
earning anything less than
a C didn’t show proficien-
cy.
Stephanie McEwen, the
JOLENE GUZMAN/ Itemizer-Observer
Students at Falls City High School will be able to earn Ds again.
high school social studies
teacher, and other teachers
and school officials, say it
hasn’t been working.
“We are seeing just as
many kids get Is as before,”
said Art Houghtaling, the el-
ementary school principal.
McEwen said she’s wit-
nessed the frustration of stu-
dents who just can’t get to
the C in a class. Without
using a name, she explained
to the board the disappoint-
ment of one student.
“She tries really, really
hard, works extremely hard.
She does all of her work, all
of her homework,” McEwen
said. “She shows up before
school and comes to my
classroom to get extra help.
She goes to her teacher to
ask for help. She just can’t
make the C, but she doesn’t
deserve an I that turns into
an F.”
McEwen appealed to the
board to end the experiment
and bring back Ds. She and
other high school teachers
have been discussing a
change for two years.
“It’s students like her that
we are thinking of,” McEwen
said. “You’re giving someone
who has a 59 percent in the
class the same grade as
someone who has a 2 per-
cent in the class. That is a
huge variance.”
McEwen is afraid that
some students will get so
discouraged that they con-
sider dropping out because
they simply can’t earn a
passing grade in a class.
“We would rather them
have that success, so maybe
they would build their confi-
dence,” she said.
Board member Larr y
Sickles supported switching
back to a traditional system.
He describes shunning D’s
as “an experiment that didn’t
work.”
“In my mind, we do it im-
mediately and bring that D
back,” Sickles said. “I can
give a lot of examples of kids
where a D instead of an F
changes them.”
Athletic Director Dennis
Sickles said participation in
sports was affected because
the district’s policy that stat-
ed all athletes had to be
passing classes to play. That
meant having all Cs or bet-
ter.
“There are students who
have fallen through the
cracks,” Dennis Sickles said.
“Through no fault of any-
body’s, that has taken away
their opportunity to partici-
pate in sports, which I think
is a real detriment to them.
What you are doing here is
certainly the right thing to
do.”
The board voted to
change the grading poli-
cy effective immediate-
ly.
Thompson will work
with staff to update the
sports participation policy
to reflect the change.
School board looks for new ways to fund facility
By Jolene Guzman
The Itemizer-Observer
FALLS CITY — Having
voters turn them down for
the second time on a bond
to build a new gym hasn’t
completely discouraged
members of the Falls City
School Board.
It does mean the board
may have to consider other
options for facility needs.
The board discussed the
results of the Nov. 8 election
on Thursday in which the
district’s $2 million bond to
build a multipurpose gym
and cafeteria at Falls City El-
ementary School failed 297
yes votes to 329 no votes.
While the board de-
ferred serious talk about
options until all members
were present — directors
Bob Young and Shane Cas-
tle were not at the meeting
— those in attendance
agreed doing nothing was
not an option.
“We need to really brain-
storm for what we can do to
get a facility up there and
not just throw our eggs in
the bond basket,” said board
member Larry Sickles. “We
have to come up with a way
to do it.”
Board chairwoman Jami
Kidd suggested the district
hold a work session to come
up with a strategic plan that
would include more ideas
than a third run at a bond.
Falls City facilities bond
wasn’t the only one to suffer
defeat. Central and Jefferson
school districts also had vot-
ers say no. Falls City and Jef-
ferson were on the list of dis-
tricts slated to receive a
matching grant from the
state if the bonds passed.
Central was the first on the
waiting list.
Kidd said the failures, es-
pecially among school dis-
tricts with high poverty
rates, was disappointing.
“Now we have to figure
out how we are going to pro-
vide those opportunities
that we know our kids need
in another way,” Kidd said.
School officials said the
district faces vocal opposi-
tion, and some information
circulating among voters
wasn’t accurate.
Facilities Manager John
Gilbert said he found out
that one of the arguments
against the bond was that
the school wasn’t using the
space it has efficiently. He
pointed to a line of desks in
the board room at the high
school, saying, next term,
the space would have to be
used as a full-time class-
room, uprooting the school’s
music program.
“Music is going down-
stairs in the only storage
(room) I have left,” Gilbert
said. “I have to give it up.”
Su p e r i n t e n d e n t Ja c k
Thompson added the en-
rollment growth the district
has seen is holding steady,
with 186 students attend-
ing. The district had to split
the seventh- and eighth-
grade class, and may need
to do that for other classes
soon.
“We are growing and that
is awesome, but with that,
we are not where we were
three years ago. We’re
maxed; the buildings are,”
Gilbert said. “That was a
very frustrating thing to see
on my side of the fence, the
facilities side. When people
started talking about how
we are misusing our space.
I’m thinking we are using
some spaces for three or
four different things.”
Thompson said he’s dis-
appointed by the vote, but
not out of hope. It only lost
by 32 votes, he noted.
“I do not feel like this was
a resounding no,” he said.
Thompson stressed the
need for more space still is a
reality, but there is an addi-
tional cost to appealing to
voters a third time. If the
school were to try for the
bond and grant in 2017 or
after, the state would require
a facilities audit, Thompson
said. That could cost about
$10,000.
“If we decide to go out for
it again, we may want to
look at delaying a year so we
can budget for the facilities
audit,” Thompson said.