IREAD update

Jay School Corporation students passed the 2024 IREAD-3 test at a rate significantly higher than the state average.

They were also above the state average for math for the ILEARN test while sitting at the state average for English.

Jay School Board heard a presentation Monday about how teachers have approached working with students to improve their reading skills.

Principals Julie Gregg (East Elementary) and Erica Tomano (East Jay Elementary) introduced IREAD-3 statistics and their staff members.

For the spring 2024 test, Jay School Corporation third graders passed IREAD-3 at an 88.8% rate. That’s 7.3 percentage points higher than the state average. (It was up more than 7 percentage points from 2023 and the highest since the COVID-19 shutdowns.)

Passage rates for individual schools were 90.5% for East Jay, 87.5% for Westlawn, 87.2% for Bloomfield and 85.4% for Redkey.

“They worked very, very hard with our students last year and these changes were remarkable,” said Tomano.

Third grade teacher Lexi Pease explained some of the Science of Reading strategy, which includes working on skills such as vowel sounds and blends every morning. Phonics is a major focus. She also has instructional aids join the classroom to assist with other specific stills.

Christa Robinson, the literacy cadre coach for East and East Jay, noted that East Jay was one of about 20 schools to voluntarily join the state’s cadre program last year. (Redkey, Bloomfield and West Jay elementary schools joined the program this year.) 

It provides professional development for teachers “based on the science of reading, a compilation of evidence-based research on reading, reading development, and reading instruction.”

Robinson added that diagnostic tests and the resulting data have been key to helping teachers identify gaps in reading skills and address them. Curriculum mapping has been used to create specific plans for students.

Jay Schools superintendent Jeremy Gulley noted that in its first year as part of the literacy cadre, East Jay’s passage rate jumped from 77.3% to 90.5%.

“You hardly ever see that,” he said.

School board member Phil Ford asked about state funding for the program. Gulley noted that there is state funding to help cover the cost of literacy coaches for two years.

The board later received a review of ILEARN scores from assistant superintendent Trent Paxson. Jay School Corporation students passed math at a 46% rate and English at 41%. The state averages are 41% for both. (The English passage rate was up 3 percentage points from 2023 while the math passage rate was down 3 percentage points.)

Bloomfield had the highest passage rate for math at 53%. East Jay, West Jay and Bloomfield all had passage rates of 44% for English. Redkey came in at 31% for English and 36% for math.

“You can see that we have a little bit of work to do in some of the areas, but overall we’re progressing,” said Paxson.

In other business, board members Ron Laux, Phil Ford, Donna Geesaman, Jason Phillips, Vickie Reitz, Chip Phillips and Marcie Vormohr:

•During the Patriot Pride moment, recognized students involved in the East Jay Elementary School Care and Share project. Students held a pie-in-the-face event to raise money for Jayland Homeless Shelter. In partnership with The Portland Foundation, the students donated $946.50.

•Heard concerns from Joseph Vormohr regarding the junior-senior high school track. He said conditions were not good — unsafe in some cases — for athletes who had to practice at West Jay Elementary School in the spring while the field at Harold E. Schutz Memorial Stadium was being renovated. Looking at the new field now, he expressed concern about a lack of finishing along one of the track’s turns and that the high jump, pole vault and long jump areas are incomplete. He also asked about plans for the track if the stadium is moved to the other side of the field. Later in the meeting, Gulley said athletics director Alex Griffin has been seeking quotes to fix problem areas with the track.

•Accepted the resignation of high school English teacher Michelle Christensen.

•Heard an update from food service manager Jennifer Gelhaus of Chartwells that noted that more than 68,000 meals were served during the summer breakfast/lunch program. That number is up from last year’s 43,000. (The previous peak was just over 64,000 in 2021 when bulk meals were first allowed. It dropped to 12,314 under the traditional format in 2022.) She also noted that the new special option at the junior-senior high school, following a student vote, is Big City Barbecue. She also shared a Chartwells marketing video that highlights Jay Schools.

•Accepted federal grants — a $1.03 million Title I grant, a $161,293.08 TItle II grant and a $78,901.85 Title IV grant.

•Approved the following: on a 5-2 vote with Vormohr and Chip Phillips dissenting (see related story), the hiring of Chantel Beiswanger as a high school resource teacher as part of the consent agenda that also included leaves of absence for Brittany Martyne and Kristy Blalock, extracurricular assignments including Ava Stockton as an FFA sponsor, out-of-state or overnight field trips for high school FFA students to the National FFA Convention in Indianapolis, eighth graders to Washington, D.C., and high school choir students to New York City and contracted services agreements with Community Development Institute Head State for services to preschool students with disabilities, Ball State University Graduate Assistant Sponsorship for psychology services and Adapt Ability Autism Services for support on strategies and individualized behavior plans; a food service agreement with Westminster Preschool to provide food service at Jay County Early Learning Center, which is housed in the former Judge Haynes Elementary School; and adding an exercise science pathway course.

•Accepted a $3,000 grant from The Portland Foundation to Jay County Robotics for new fields and game elements and a $750 grant from Jay County Drug Prevention Coalition for special education teachers to attend training.