By Julie Johansen
Emery County School District Superintendent Larry Davis recently invited media personnel to his office to give updates on the district. In his second year as superintendent, his desire is to keep the public informed and updated on district happenings. Besides the monthly media briefing, he is also preparing a press release packet available at each school board meeting that will include the superintendent’s information. These press releases will be emailed and posted on the district website and linked to the district’s Facebook page.
First day enrollment for the district was down by 29 students overall, which Davis said is not an accurate count as there are many reasons students miss the first day of school. The student number counts seem to be lower in the lower grades and pick up in the upper grades. The transition of the sixth graders to the middle schools and ninth graders to the high school seems to be going well, according to Davis. The new block scheduling at the high school has had a few bumps but all seems to be leveling off and running smoother.
A recent press release informed parents of an early out day at mid-term on Sept. 18 and each mid-term day for the year. It will also include a full-day end of term student release day so that teachers can team together with grade levels or in secondary class content teams. Teachers will assess data and establish priority standards as well as create common assessments and individual learning strategies. This will facilitate the goals of the Professional Learning Community program adopted at the beginning of the 2016-17 school year and collaborative teams.
Sage testing data and what theses scores mean will be presented by Ryan Maughan at the October school board meeting on Oct. 4 at 6 p.m. at Emery High School library. Ferron Elementary was the highest scoring school in the district but Book Cliff Elementary had made good improvement raising 6% in language arts, 14% in math and 17% in science.
Davis also shared that the robotics program in K-12 grades is growing and receiving achievements for students and teachers. This is a great step for the STEM program in the district. Youth protection seminars are scheduled for Nov. 2 at 6 p.m. in the Little Theatre at Emery High and the following Thursday, Nov. 9, at Green River High.
Davis also explained his vision to work with economic development in the county. He calls it “ Emerynonmics.” He hopes to develop curriculum patterns to meet labor requirements in the area in order for students to find work in the county, or least have some employment to come home after college.