HUMBOLDT — Thursday’s storm, which brought even more grotesque forms of destruction to property elsewhere, exacted its toll on the USD 258 board office, too. Due to water damage inside the building, Monday’s board meeting was moved to the middle school media center.
On the topic of shelter, the only action item on the night concerned plans for a new middle school roof. The board unanimously approved a bid for $45,948.50 from Murphy Roofing to begin work on the Bridge Street building as soon as possible.
In other news, school counselor Misti Czarnowsky appeared before the board with the results of the most recent state assessment tests. In most categories, Humboldt students, grades three to 10, kept pace with, or else fell just behind, their peers in the state. The assessment tests have undergone radical changes in recent years, which have — claim administrators across the state — confused the meaning of the results. According to the test’s own system of evaluation, the majority of the state’s students, while performing at grade-level, are failing to meet standards that would denote “college readiness.”
But, as Superintendent of Schools Kay Lewis explained, it isn’t the practice of most districts to put “all of their eggs in this one [state assessment] basket.” The district will continue to aim for improved test scores, continued Lewis, but will also assimilate the many other criteria by which pupil success is measured, and will continue to advance a curriculum that is holistic and that meets maximum standards of academic rigor. “We have to remember that this is just one test on one particular day.”
High school principal John Johnson took a few minutes at the end of the meeting to praise his students’ actions of last week. The high winds and rain that swept through Humboldt Thursday night did so on the eve of the school’s homecoming ceremony.
“We come in on Friday and the town is about destroyed. Well, of course, we’ve got all our homecoming activities planned out for that day. But, that morning, I had numerous teachers come up to me and say, ‘Hey, instead of doing this fun stuff, why don’t we go out in our community and help pick up.’ This was strictly a volunteer effort. That is to say, if you would rather go help the community, we will take you out and let you work instead of doing the fun activities that were planned for the day.” More than 60 students, plus 10 adults, spread out across town. “We brought them back in at lunchtime and then, after lunch, we had a group that wanted to go back out, and did. I am,” said Johnson, “extremely, extremely proud.”
Humboldt students swap fun for clean-up efforts
