Novi Board of Education Goes Paperless, Discusses MME Scores

In an effort to cut costs and save paper, the Board of Education experimented with using iPads instead of paper packets at its work session meeting Thursday night.

The iPads are the district’s and are used in the kindergarten through sixth grade buildings, and the board hopes to make a permanent switch to paperless meetings.

Several board members said that they were pleased with the iPads.

“I think it’s very important that we’ve gone to this not only today, but if we do go to this in the future, it will save us quite a bit of money from what I understand, and not only that, but it also demonstrates to our students, I believe, our commitment to educating ourselves on new technology,” said Trustee Jason Manar.

Michigan Merit Exam scores

Board members also discussed several other topics at the work session.

Assistant Superintendent of Academic Services R.J. Webber gave a report about the to the board with numerous graphs that broke down the scores by ethnicity and subject and compared the scores to that of the county and the state.

Eleventh grade students took the standardized test in March and the district received the results at the end of June.

Novi ranked fourth in Oakland County in reading, fifth in writing, fourth in math, eighth in science and sixth in social studies out of nearly 30 districts.

Webber said he will be working with Superintendent Steve Matthews to present a more comprehensive report to the board in the fall.

Several board members raised questions about sample sizes and the relevancy of comparing Novi to other districts in the county with different demographics.

Webber and Matthews said they will be looking further into the data to examine the results.

“We really want to go much, much deeper in asking those questions,” Webber said

Matthews said they will also need to look at how long each of the students have been in the district. 

“As we begin to look at who are the students who are being successful, who are the students who are not being successful, we need to begin to identify which of these students we’ve had the most impact on and for the longest period of time,” he said. “And then if we do see that there are students coming to us that aren’t prepared, what are we going to do so they can become prepared so they can be successful.”  

Webber said the district should also examine to see if differences in scores from year to year are caused by any inconsistency in teaching or processes.

“We have to dig deeper to find out before we start making assumptions,” Webber said.

Webber said they will need to examine several factors so that any future decisions passed on programs can be based on fact and research. He and Matthews said they want to build an internal system over the course of several years to have detailed information on each student in order to be responsive to the needs of each student.

“What we really want to be able to do is look at this data and say ‘This doesn’t surprise us’ or ‘This does surprise us’ because we should know going into this assessment how we think kids are going to do based on their experiences with us in the courses they’ve taken, in the grades they’ve gotten,” Matthews said.

Two teachers hired

The Board voted to hire two new fourth grade teachers: Erin Damon and Cassandra Schmitt, who will both work in .

The Board also approved the termination of a special education teacher and a music teacher, who agreed to the one-year contract when they were hired last year. Two teachers from Novi High School rejected their recall and were approved for termination, and two teachers who were laid-off in 2009 were recalled by the board.

School Breakfast Program

The Board of Education discussed the benefits of having the School Breakfast Program in the district and the possibility of expanding it next year. The breakfast program is currently in two elementary schools, the , and , and the district is considering adding it to , and .

Students who are financially eligible for free lunch are offered a free breakfast; students eligible for a reduced lunch can get breakfast for 30 cents; and students who are ineligible for free lunch can purchase breakfast for $1.50.

Assistant Superintendent of Business and Operations Steve Barr said the program does not cost the district any money or extra labor, and breakfasts in the elementary schools are served during snack time.

The board will vote on whether to expand the program at its Aug. 18 meeting.

Japanese School of Detroit lease

The Board discussed the lease the district will have with the Japanese School of Detroit, which will use 40 classrooms, two gymnasiums, two cafeterias, a music room and a conference room in Novi Meadows on Saturdays starting Aug. 27. The lease will become an action item at the board’s Aug. 18 meeting.