430 South Brown Co. State Assessment Review for Budget Consideration

430 South Brown Co. District Summary

(A) Identify the barriers that must be overcome for each student to achieve grade-level proficiency on assessments.

There are always a number of challenges that should be considered when evaluating student success in a district. Some of the key barriers that impact our School District include, but are not limited to:

Difficulty in scheduling and finding more time to provide teacher/staff collaboration that would support improved student learning
High percentage/number of free and reduced students and increased poverty rate
Lack of or limited access to community health services and mental health services
Special Education funding shortfall has limited support of our highest-need students
Lack of instructional time or changes in instructional opportunities faced during the COVID pandemic created a learning loss
High levels or an increase in absenteeism among our student population
An increasing level of social-emotional challenges and needs of students
High levels or increased student mobility affects the amount of instructional time we have with highly mobile students and creates instructional issues when students move in or out throughout the school year
We believe using one assessment score is not an accurate measure of student success, especially because assessments are written in a way to avoid 100% success for every assessment participant.
Student enrollment in September does not reflect the increase in student count in May, due to mobility.

(B) Identify the budget actions that should be taken to address and remove those barriers.

Our students face a growing number of barriers to success and our district continually works to support them. Current budget constraints that impact our ability to successfully remove barriers for our students include:

Additional staff members are hired to meet the individual learning and SEL needs of all students
Additional substitute teachers for teacher release time
Increase paraeducator support in special education classrooms
Allocating the budget to focus on prevention, identification, and intervention concerning trauma and mental health issues

(C) Identify the amount of time the board estimates it will take for each student to achieve grade-level proficiency on the state assessments if the budget actions would be implemented.

We measure growth each year and document in our KESA plans our success on a variety of student success factors. We emphasize growth and strive to lead the world in the success of each student. Although we do this and are proud of our work, many factors make it impossible to estimate a time that every student will achieve a definition of grade-level proficiency. Such factors include:

Our ever-changing student population brings a varying degree of cognitive abilities and disabilities which precludes us from being able to guarantee a date when all students will meet a singular level of proficiency.
The current and future levels of school funding have a significant impact on student learning and any increases or decreases have an effect on student success. Any changes to those funding levels, in either direction, impact the ability of students to meet proficiency criteria.
The lack of constitutional funding of special education continues to impact our ability to meet the needs of all students fully
While assessment scores are one measure, our district does not believe that student assessment scores should be the sole measure of student proficiency
Many of the factors that affect student success, such as trauma, poverty, mental health, and student disabilities, are out of the local board's control, so giving a time estimate on things that consistently change, or are under the control of other agencies, is not a realistic practice of a local school board.

Horton Elementary School Building State Assessment Review

District: 430 South Brown Co.

School: Horton Elementary School

Building Number: 6348

Grades Served: PreK-4

(A) Identify the barriers that must be overcome for each student to achieve grade-level proficiency on assessments.

Some of the key barriers that must be overcome at this school include:

High percentage/number of free and reduced students and increased poverty rate
Though not necessarily identified as at-risk using the free and reduced lunch calculation, a number of students are at a high risk of falling behind
High or increased levels of homeless students and families and foster care families
High levels or increased levels of student trauma (Adverse Childhood Experiences, ACE Study)
Lack of or limited access to community health services and mental health services
Special Education funding shortfall has limited support of our highest-need students
Lack of instructional time or changes in instructional opportunities faced during the COVID pandemic created a learning loss
High numbers or increasing numbers of single-parent families
High levels or an increase in absenteeism among our student population
An increasing level of social-emotional challenges and needs of students
Diminishing local control limits our ability to provide support and services specific to our student and community population
We believe using one assessment score is not an accurate measure of student success, especially because assessments are written in a way to avoid 100% success for every assessment participant.

(B) Identify the budget actions that should be taken to address and remove those barriers.

Our students face a growing number of barriers to success and this school continually works to support them. Current budget constraints that impact our ability to successfully remove barriers for our students include:

Increased salary to recruit and retain high-quality certified and classified staff
Additional staff members are hired to meet the individual learning and SEL needs of all students
Increased funding and time for staff development
Additional substitute teachers for teacher release time
Increase paraeducator support in special education classrooms
Maintain a low teacher/pupil ratio for greater individualized instruction
Allocating the budget to focus on prevention, detection, and intervention concerning trauma and mental health issues

(C) Identify the amount of time the board estimates it will take for each student to achieve grade-level proficiency on the state assessments if the budget actions would be implemented.

We measure growth each year and document in our KESA plans our success on a variety of student success factors. We emphasize growth and strive to lead the world in the success of each student. Although we do this and are proud of our work, many factors make it impossible to estimate a time that every student will achieve a definition of grade-level proficiency. Such factors include:

Our ever-changing student population brings a varying degree of cognitive abilities and disabilities which precludes us from being able to guarantee a date when all students will meet a singular level of proficiency.
The current and future levels of school funding have a significant impact on student learning and any increases or decreases have an effect on student success. Any changes to those funding levels, in either direction, impact the ability of students to meet proficiency criteria.
The lack of constitutional funding of special education continues to impact our ability to meet the needs of all students fully
While assessment scores are one measure, our school does not believe that student assessment scores should be the sole measure of student proficiency
Many of the factors that affect student success, such as trauma, poverty, mental health, and student disabilities, are out of the local board's control, so giving a time estimate on things that consistently change, or are under the control of other agencies, is not a realistic practice of a local school board.

Everest Middle School Building State Assessment Review

District: 430 South Brown Co.

School: Everest Middle School

Building Number: 6344

Grades Served: 5-8

(A) Identify the barriers that must be overcome for each student to achieve grade-level proficiency on assessments.

There are always a number of challenges that should be considered when evaluating student success in a district. Some of the key barriers that impact this school include, but are not limited to:

Difficulty in scheduling and finding more time to provide teacher/staff collaboration that would support improved student learning
High percentage/number of free and reduced students and increased poverty rate
Though not necessarily identified as at-risk using the free and reduced lunch calculation, a number of students are at a high risk of falling behind
High levels or increased levels of student trauma (Adverse Childhood Experiences, ACE Study)
Lack of or limited access to community health services and mental health services
Special Education funding shortfall has limited support of our highest-need students
Lack of instructional time or changes in instructional opportunities faced during the COVID pandemic created a learning loss
High numbers or increasing numbers of single-parent families
An increasing level of social-emotional challenges and needs of students
High levels or increased student mobility affects the amount of instructional time we have with highly mobile students and creates instructional issues when students move in or out throughout the school year
It is difficult to encourage a student's highest performance on an assessment that does not impact their future.
Lack of, limited, or difficulties in engaging parents in the educational process
We do not receive disaggregated and approved state assessment scores until October of a school year, which limits the amount of time we have to make adjustments based on that data
We believe using one assessment score is not an accurate measure of student success, especially because assessments are written in a way to avoid 100% success for every assessment participant.

(B) Identify the budget actions that should be taken to address and remove those barriers.

Our students face a growing number of barriers to success and this school continually works to support them. Current budget constraints that impact our ability to successfully remove barriers for our students include:

Increased salary to recruit and retain high-quality certified and classified staff
Additional staff members are hired to meet the individual learning and SEL needs of all students
Increase paraeducator support in special education classrooms
Allocating the budget to focus on prevention, detection, and intervention concerning trauma and mental health issues

(C) Identify the amount of time the board estimates it will take for each student to achieve grade-level proficiency on the state assessments if the budget actions would be implemented.

We measure growth each year and document in our KESA plans our success on a variety of student success factors. We emphasize growth and strive to lead the world in the success of each student. Although we do this and are proud of our work, many factors make it impossible to estimate a time that every student will achieve a definition of grade-level proficiency. Such factors include:

Our ever-changing student population brings a varying degree of cognitive abilities and disabilities which precludes us from being able to guarantee a date when all students will meet a singular level of proficiency.
The lack of constitutional funding for special education continues to impact our ability to meet the needs of all students fully
Similar to how other professionals, such as doctors, lawyers, etc, cannot ensure 100% success due to a variety of factors and obstacles, we will be unable to achieve 100% proficiency
Many of the factors that affect student success, such as trauma, poverty, mental health, and student disabilities, are out of the local board's control, so giving a time estimate on things that consistently change, or are under the control of other agencies, is not a realistic practice of a local school board.

Horton High School Building State Assessment Review

District: 430 South Brown Co.

School: Horton High School

Building Number: 6350

Grades Served: 9-12

(A) Identify the barriers that must be overcome for each student to achieve grade-level proficiency on assessments.

Our teachers, students, and families face a number of challenges in ensuring student proficiency on assessments. Some of those challenges at this school include:

Difficulty in scheduling and finding more time to provide teacher/staff collaboration that would support improved student learning
High percentage/number of free and reduced students and increased poverty rate
Though not necessarily identified as at-risk using the free and reduced lunch calculation, a number of students are at a high risk of falling behind
High or increased levels of homeless students and families and foster care families
High levels or increased levels of student trauma (Adverse Childhood Experiences, ACE Study)
Lack of or limited access to community health services and mental health services
Special Education funding shortfall has limited support of our highest-need students
Lack of instructional time or changes in instructional opportunities faced during the COVID pandemic created a learning loss
High levels or an increase in absenteeism among our student population
An increasing level of social-emotional challenges and needs of students
It is difficult to encourage a student's highest performance on an assessment that does not impact their future.
Lack of, limited, or difficulties in engaging parents in the educational process
We believe using one assessment score is not an accurate measure of student success, especially because assessments are written in a way to avoid 100% success for every assessment participant.

(B) Identify the budget actions that should be taken to address and remove those barriers.

Our students face a growing number of barriers to success and this school continually works to support them. Current budget constraints that impact our ability to successfully remove barriers for our students include:

Additional staff members are hired to meet the individual learning and SEL needs of all students
Additional substitute teachers for teacher release time
Increase paraeducator support in special education classrooms
Maintain a low teacher/pupil ratio for greater individualized instruction
Allocating the budget to focus on prevention, detection, and intervention concerning trauma and mental health issues

(C) Identify the amount of time the board estimates it will take for each student to achieve grade-level proficiency on the state assessments if the budget actions would be implemented.

We measure growth each year and document in our KESA plans our success on a variety of student success factors. We emphasize growth and strive to lead the world in the success of each student. Although we do this and are proud of our work, many factors make it impossible to estimate a time that every student will achieve a definition of grade-level proficiency. Such factors include:

Our ever-changing student population brings a varying degree of cognitive abilities and disabilities which precludes us from being able to guarantee a date when all students will meet a singular level of proficiency.
The current and future levels of school funding have a significant impact on student learning and any increases or decreases have an effect on student success. Any changes to those funding levels, in either direction, impact the ability of students to meet proficiency criteria.
The lack of constitutional funding for special education continues to impact our ability to meet the needs of all students fully
While assessment scores are one measure, our school does not believe that student assessment scores should be the sole measure of student proficiency
Many of the factors that affect student success, such as trauma, poverty, mental health, and student disabilities, are out of the local board's control, so giving a time estimate on things that consistently change, or are under the control of other agencies, is not a realistic practice of a local school board.

USD 430 South Brown County

Kansas State Department of Education

Required Documents

ACT Information

District Accreditation Accountability Measures

District Budget Documents

District ESI Policy

Enrollment of Non-Resident Student Policy

Needs Assessment

Non Academic Tests, Surveys, & Questionaires

Part Time Enrollment Policy

Revenue Neutral Rate Hearing Information