California officials pleased with progress on PSSA test
CALIFORNIA – The California Area School District improved its scores on the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment Test as well as attendance and graduation rates, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Education. “Our district is now out of ‘district improvement’ and into ‘making progress,'” said Joetta Britvich, California’s assistant superintendent.
Superintendent Dr. Tim Marks said it took a concerted effort by all of the staff to make the difference in the district’s test performance. In the past, each of the district’s three schools had made adequate progress, but when the district was taken as a whole, a need for improvement was shown, with some subgroups of students not meeting state standards.
“Last fall, I went to a mini conference for the purpose of district improvement. I brought back information and we were all working in the same direction,” Marks said. “The area we want to continue to look at is 11th-grade math.”
The district is considered to have met its benchmark for 11th-grade math scores, even though the score was slightly under the state requirement. Marks said the district has received a $29,000 state grant to provide tutoring to students that will be used to help bring the scores up.
In other matters at Wednesday’s school board meeting, the board voted to accept sealed bids for unused Xerox machines. The equipment will be sold as-is, along with the supplies on hand for the various machines.
The board also voted to allocate $3,000 from the capital improvements fund for construction of dugouts at the girls’ softball field.
“The vo-tech was supposed to do this for us, but that fell through,” said Director Tom Russell.
“I just want to see the dugouts built,” said director George Safin.
School director John Bayer questioned whether the funds could come from a different budget area, but the motion remained unchanged. It passed 6-1, with director Donna Tyrpin voting against it. Directors Dorothea Kulak and Barry Niccolai were absent.
It was announced that the California Area School Action Committee will hold an all-you-can-eat spaghetti dinner at Hugo’s on Tuesday.
There will be two seatings, from 5-6:30 and 6:30-8 p.m. Tickets are $5.50 each and may be purchased at the schools or at the door the day of the event.