Principal’s Message
November 20, 2018
Land Trust Final Report:
Each year, I am responsible for publishing a final report summary for what Churchill Jr. High did with our Land Trust money. Last year, we received $58,400 from the Land Trust. The school’s community council works with me in establishing a goal and an action plan for accomplishing the goal and spending our allotted money. I am always appreciative of the time and thoughtful consideration given by the members of the community council as we create and implement our plan each year. This final report is a summary of the Land Trust Plan for last year (2017-2018).
Our goal for last school year was to move our Median Growth Percentile (MGP) into the “average” range. The average range begins at 40 and represents one-year’s academic growth. The MGP is calculated using SAGE testing data. The valuable thing about MGP is that it is based on individual students and how they compare to themselves from the year before. Good MGP is indicative of students learning and progressing compared to themselves and not others. Due to last year being the first year of our reconfigured school, we only have comparable data for year-to-year improvement for 7th and 8th grade for this report.
We were able to reach our Land Trust goal of having all tested subject areas in the ‘average’ range for MGP growth. In the core areas reviewed, the school scored as follows:
2016-2017 2017-2018
ELA-
7th 27 48
8th 56 64
Math-
7th 23 52
8th 48.5 43.5
Science-
7th 44 49.75
8th 43 46.5
All areas showed improvement except for 8th grade math, which went down. All scores ended up being in the ‘average’ range that begins at 40.
There were a few steps included in the plan that the school would use funding for to help us reach our goal. We had the intention of finding two classroom aides to hire for the year. The two aides would have been deployed in core classes to offer support for teachers and facilitate small group instruction, tutoring, and remediation in real time during classes. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to find any aides until fourth quarter when we found one. The aide worked for the quarter and was valuable to the school, but this did not help expend the money that had been set aside.
We also included in the plan to have the GT teachers come in during the summer to work on planning for their classes. The planning was to focus on curriculum and cooperative projects (cross-curricular activities). The group of GT teachers did come in for a week during the summer. We are continuing to work to make sure there is a difference in curriculum between the honors level classes and the GT classes. Each teacher who participated turned their time in and was paid a stipend from Land Trust.
As with the previous year, the bulk of the money spent was to purchase chrome book carts/mobile labs. We were able to purchase three new carts/labs. Teachers and students are becoming increasingly proficient at purposeful use of technology in the classroom. The school is trying to make sure technology is available for students in all of their classes, and the purchase of chrome book carts helps fulfill this by providing access to elective and non-SAGE tested content area teachers. With the purchases from this year, the school is close to having a chrome book cart for each teacher. When the school’s computer labs are taken into consideration, each teacher has access to technology every period.
There were a couple of steps in the action plan that ended up not working out last year. We had built in some money to pay for substitute teachers for the core subject areas so they could have planning time during the year to work together on curriculum and assessment. We ended up not doing this due to reconfiguration and having 10 new teachers to go along with our 70% new students. We decided it was best to keep the teachers in class as much as possible. The other step that wasn’t utilized was providing extra periods for teaches to teach remedial classes or extra sections of classes to reduce class sizes. We did add a Reading Lab and Writing Lab for fourth quarter, but this did not expend the money that was set aside for extra periods.
When all the spending was tallied, we spent $46,092 dollars of our $58,400 allotment. This means that we carried over $12,329 into this year’s Land Trust Budget. We are supposed to spend our money down to zero each year, so I am working with the community council to amend our current school plan to account for the additional funds to make sure we spend them this year.
So you know what we are working on in this year’s plan, our goal is to get all of our MGP to 50 and above. Everything we are doing and the efforts we are making as a school are focused on improving and increasing our students’ learning. We appreciate the support of our community council and all of our parents.
SAGE MGP Information:
We have talked quite a bit this year about our school’s Proficiency on the SAGE from last year, but as you can see from the Land Trust Report, our school goal actually focused on MGP (Median Growth Percentile) scores. The Science MGP was just released to us today, so now is a good time to take a few minutes to reiterate what MGP is, what it means, and take a look at where we stand.
MGP is the piece of data that is most closely looked at for determining how much students are actually learning in a given school year. It is a great piece of data because a student’s score is determined by comparing their performance in one year to their performance in previous years and then figuring out how much their performance improved. This means the score is truly reflective of that student and how well they learned during a school year. Proficiency scores tell us how well a student knew material compared to all other students in their grade across the state. The MGP tells us how much the student grew during a school year versus their own knowledge from the previous year.
A school’s MGP is determined based on individual SGP (Student Growth Percentile). All the students from a school are lined up and the middle student score becomes the school’s score, thus the Median Growth Percentile. This means half the kids in the grade scored above the score and half below. We work on shifting our MGP as high as we can. A 99 is a perfect MGP score. Scores are then broken down into three categories: 0.5-39.5 is the Low Growth zone (red), 40-69.5 is the Adequate Growth zone (white), and 70-99 is the High Growth zone (green). Generally speaking, a score of 40 means that one year’s learning has taken place and then anything above that is additional learning that is taking place.
If you recall from previous discussions, Churchill had the #3 MGP in both ELA and math amongst junior highs in Granite. Evergreen was #1 in both, Kearns Jr. was #2 in ELA, and Valley was #2 in math. The district has not totaled and aggregated all the MGP for science for us yet, but I have access to our school’s science MGP. Our science MGP is a 50. This is in line with our ELA (56) and our math (51). Churchill is a school with great teachers working with great students to produce strong learning.
Earlier this year, I published a table looking at the five junior highs right around Churchill to show how we compared. The chart showed both proficiency and growth and can be seen hanging in the main hall of the school right outside the auditorium. Here’s a quick look at just growth data compared with the school Churchill is most often compared to:
| 2017-18 MGP | Churchill | Wasatch |
| ELA | 56 | 39 |
| Math | 51 | 35 |
| Science | 50 | 50 |
Open Enrollment:
With December right around the corner, it is the time of year to advertise and make sure everyone is aware of Open Enrollment. Open Enrollment is the state law that allows families to choose which school they would like to attend. The following is the official letter from Granite School District regarding Open Enrollment:
Dear Parent/Guardian,
Granite School District provides school choice enrollment in all schools where space is available. Parents are responsible for transportation when exercising school choice. This letter explains Granite School District’s Open Enrollment Guidelines; Open Enrollment is necessary for students to attend a school other than their home boundary school.
There are two open enrollment periods: Early Open Enrollment and Late Open Enrollment. The Early Open Enrollment period is the recommended time to enroll for the next school year. Late Open Enrollment period is for the current year and may be applied for at any time. Early open enrollment period for the 2019/2020 school year begins on Monday, December 3, 2018 and ends on Tuesday, February 19, 2019. Open Enrollment Applications are available at all schools, and are processed in the order received. Students residing within Granite School District boundaries are given priority. Enrollment depends on space available in the requested grade, class, or program. Open Enrollment requests do not require a release from the student’s home school or district.
A one-time, non-refundable $5.00 processing fee, payable to the requested school, may be charged at the time the application is submitted. This fee can be waived for qualified applicants.
If your student is accepted for Open Enrollment, annual reapplication is not required—as long as the student remains in the same school, and space is available. When a student transitions from elementary school to junior high, or from junior high to high school, there is no automatic feeder system for Open Enrollment; therefore, reapplication is necessary to attend a school outside of the student’s home boundary school.
For more detailed information, refer to the back of the Open Enrollment Application or Granite School District’s website: www.graniteschools.org; select Departments>Prevention and Student Placement>Open Enrollment Guidelines.
The Early Open Enrollment period is an important time, and I recommend that everyone submit their paperwork during this window. The window is important because the school uses the applications we receive during this time to submit a preliminary enrollment number to the district so that we can get preliminary FTE allocated to us. The FTE is what we use to determine the number of teachers we have in the building and the programs we can offer. It is much easier for our school to accept Open Enrollment Applications if they are received during the Early Application Window as opposed to those received after the February 20 deadline. This year we did get to the point where we denied Late Open Enrollment Applications and placed students on a waiting list due to our core classes reaching capacity. I know that has not generally been the case at Churchill and people have not felt a sense of urgency to get their application turned in during the Early Window, but it is important to change that perspective and get it in.
I would also like to remind everyone that you do not need to fill out an Open Enrollment Application each year, but you DO need to fill one out if you are changing schools. So, for any of our eighth graders who are at Churchill via Open Enrollment, they will need to fill out a form if they would like to attend Skyline next year. Out-of-boundary fifth graders at any of our elementary schools will need to fill one out to attend Churchill.
As always, if you or anyone you know would like to check out Churchill, you can call the main office and speak to Mr. Peterson or me about setting up a time for them to take a tour of the school. If you have friends who live out of the boundaries who would like to see the school they can do the same. We have already begun doing tours and have done around eight in the past month. The phone number for the main office is 385-646-5144. Our email addresses are jeleroy@graniteschools.org and wcpeterson@graniteschools.org
Class Fees:
Second Quarter Class Fees have been charged to student accounts. Please check your student’s account for a current balance. Payments can be made on-line or in the main office with Mrs. Cluff.
After School:
We are having some problems with students staying and hanging out in the building after school gets out. Please make sure your students head home when school releases. We have added a bell that rings at 3pm Monday-Thursday and 12:45pm on Fridays to remind students to leave. Once those times come and go, the only students who should be in the building are those under the direct supervision of an adult, meaning they are in Homework Club, another club meeting, are at practice/intramurals, or are at rehearsal.
Attendance Issues:
We have a lot of people calling the main office to handle attendance issues. Please call the Counseling Center for attendance issues. Their phone number is 385-646-5145. Calling the main office will only mean it will take longer for you to take care of the attendance as they will have to put you on hold and then transfer you back to the Counseling Center.
Important Dates:
Nov. 21-23 Thanksgiving Recess
Nov. 26 Basketball team selection
Dec. 3 Early Open Enrollment Window Opens
Dec. 3 Basketball vs. Wasatch
Dec. 4 PTSA Meeting
Dec. 4 8th Grade GTI Assembly
Dec. 5 Basketball vs. Bennion
Dec. 10 Basketball vs. Valley
Dec. 11 Community Council, 1:30pm
Dec. 12 Basketball vs. Granite Park
Dec. 12 Band/Orchestra Concert, 7pm
Dec. 17 Basketball vs. Bonneville
Dec. 19 Basketball Final Games, TBD
Dec. 24-Jan. 1 Winter Recess
Jan. 2 Volleyball Start Day
Sincerely,
Josh LeRoy
Principal
