School board discusses AYP fixes

School board members on Monday discussed possible solutions to help two Tucumcari schools reach Adequate Yearly Progress goals.

While Tucumcari Middle School met the state’s standards last school year, the elementary and high school did not have a passing grade on the New Mexico Standards-Based Assessment. Extra programs have been started and are ongoing to help the schools reach the state’s goals, school officials said.

“We are trying to emulate what we are doing at the middle school at the other schools,” Assistant Superintendent Dennis Roch said. 

Tucumcari High School started a reading and math intervention program this fall to try and get scores up. Tucumcari Elementary is going into its third year using this program and the middle school is starting its second.

“We cannot be reactive anymore,” Roch said. “We need to become creative.”

Later this fall, elementary school students will be offered Friday classes if they’re struggling. The middle and high school also have after-school programs and all schools have more tutors than a year ago. Also additional special education support and district-funded summer school are going to be used to improve scores.

“We spent so much getting the middle school back up when they fell below we ended up losing ground with the other two,” Roch said.

Tucumcari High School junior Christopher Arias informed the board of a program called “One Book, One School.” The program features all students and staff reading the same book for 20 minutes a day. Student Council members hope the program can boost the high school’s reading test scores.

According to the New Mexico Public Education Department, only 30.7 percent of 820 schools in the state met goals last school year. Tucumcari Middle School was one of only 23 middle schools that met AYP standards. There were 187 elementary schools and 27 high schools that met standards in the state.

Board members on Monday also discussed building new soccer fields. Land behind the Tucumcari Administration Building was brought to the board’s attention as a possible site.

“We have growing soccer leagues with up to 20 teams,” said Clair Strong, who presented the information to the board. “We need better fields.”

Board members said they would consider that site as a possibility and would need time to make a decision.

Superintendent Aaron McKinney said construction on the high school “is going well” and “should be finished by December.”

The board also voted unanimously to extend McKinney’s contract as superintendent and give him a 5 percent raise.