BY MEGAN DECKER
Staff Writer
VASSAR — The Vassar Public Schools Board of Education approved four contracts during a special session on Wednesday.
The state recently labeled the Vassar High School and Middle School building as a “priority school” — on the bottom five percent of the state’s annual Top-to-Bottom School Rankings. After a lengthy discussion, board members voted, 5-2, to approve the hiring of Jason Kiss as the sixth through twelfth grade principal. Board members Jill Baase and Randy Middlin voted no.
“Let’s be fair to this man and let’s not set him up for failure,” Baase said, regarding Kiss’ contract during the meeting.
“I think you’re the guy to turn this around. You have the right skill set and leadership style, but I have similar fears that you’ve been maneuvered into a position,” said Board Member Ben Guile.
Kiss succeeds Paul Wojno who retired as Vassar High School principal earlier this summer. In his new role, he will be responsible for leading the school’s priority school committee which will be made of teachers, board members, administration and a community member. The committee will meet several times in coming weeks in order to submit a plan of action to the state of Michigan by the deadline of Oct. 6.
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Superintendent Thomas Palmer explained to the Advertiser that the Vassar High School and Middle School building became a priority school this summer due to declining scores on academic tests during a four-year period. In 2011 and 2012, Vassar High “had two of the highest-scoring classes that we’ve seen in years,” Palmer said. That caused what Palmer called an upward “spike” in test scores, though those scores fell in 2013 and this year, according to the superintendent.
“This past year, this testing class … dropped us completely,” Palmer said. The state looks at test scores from each year’s junior class when determining a school’s four-year performance trend, he said.
“Although each class’s testing showed an improvement in each student from the beginning of the year to the end of the year, the state only compares each eleventh grade class over a four year period,” Palmer added.
Two years ago, Vassar High was labeled a “reward school” by the state, Palmer said. A reward school is one that makes adequate yearly progress academically, and also is identified in one of several other ways, such as making the greatest gains in achievement or outperforming the school’s predicted ranking and/or similar schools.
“One of our goals (of the priority school committee) will be to look at our test scores and see where the disconnect is occurring,” Kiss told the Advertiser.
The state this year also labeled Vassar’s Central Elementary School as a “focus school” — one of the 10 percent of schools on the state’s Top-to-Bottom list with the largest achievement gaps between its top 30 percent of students and bottom 30 percent, based on test scores.
Due to Vassar High’s new status as a priority school, district leaders must adopt one of four reform plans outlined by the state. The school board hasn’t chosen its plan yet, but must submit a plan to the state by the first week in October.
One reform plan — the “turnaround” plan — requires the release of no more than 50 percent of school staff. The “transformation” plan, if adopted by the board, doesn’t require layoffs but Kiss said state officials indicated “No one has ever made it out of (the) transformation plan without at least 35 percent staff turnover.”
The other two plan options, as outlined by the state, are to close the school, or to close the school and reopen as a charter school, Palmer said.
“This has to be a team effort,” Palmer added. “We all need to work cooperatively in order to succeed. I firmly believe that we can come out a very strong educational entity. A lot of positive things can come from this.”
Board members also approved the contracts of Dr. Elaine Makas of Curriculum Connections, Bob Nowotny and Fran Peplinski as business manager.
“All of us are behind (Mr. Kiss). We all have to do more. We were really excited to learn we would have those three people (Kiss, Makas and Nowotny) on our team,” said teacher Toni Scribner during Wednesday’s session.
“Bob Nowotny is a top notch guy and we need to lock him in now. It hurt the district when he retired and we need to get him back on our team,” Guile said.
Board members unanimously approved the contracts of Makas and Nowotny. Peplinski’s contract as business manager was approved, 6-1. Baase was the sole ‘no’ vote.