By NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Hutchinson USD 308 recently had its accreditation visit and Superintendent Dr. Dawn Johnson is still talking with staff about how to apply their conclusions.
"They pore over a lot of data," Johnson said. "They look at our community partnerships. We have a strong community partnership with HCC and the Chamber and many local businesses here. I think that's a plus for us. They look at communication. Since we have Marissa on board with us, our communication has increased tenfold. They look at our civic engagement and then, of course, our academic growth."
The growth of HCTEA's offerings was noted as a positive for the district.
"They highlighted the 22 career pathways that we have," Johnson said. "In our academic growth that we do with Fastbridge and with state assessments, they highlighted that we showed improvement in ten academic areas."
Growth is a challenge for any district post-COVID as it deals with the catch up from learning loss due to the pandemic.
"I like to have quarterly counselings with my leaders," Johnson said. "I'm in the second quarter of the counseling. I went around at the beginning of the year one on one. Now, I'm doing that a second time. We're taking a look at Fastbridge. Fastbridge is a screener that we can do more than a state assessment. State assessment is one time a year, so we can do some screener data. I am noticing as we are looking at the data with the principals, that second graders are the lowest. When we think about where they have been in the last couple of years, it's not surprising, but that trend, as I see that trend, I think we can definitely relate that to COVID."
That's why it is a budget emphasis for the district this year to find money to deal with some of that learning loss in the district.
CLICK HERE to download the Hutch Post mobile app.
CLICK HERE to sign up for the daily Hutch Post email news update.