After strong disagreement and lengthy discussion, the Falls School Board Monday approved adopting a Response to Intervention program and the hiring of an RTI coordinator.
The discussion followed a presentation and plea by Jerry Hilfer, elementary principal, who asked the district to designate a coordinator who would focus solely on improving achievement in grades one through six, by assessing and monitoring the different needs of students in three learning tiers.
“It’s a new way to look at delivering services to our kids,” Hilfer said.
At the core of the need for an RTI program is the district’s second consecutive failure to show adequate annual progress in the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment II testing. The RTI national model is based on intervention by target-teaching before results bottom out, and the program takes three to five years to implement.
All of the board members and Superintendent Don Langan are in agreement that strong pro-action is needed to counter the district’s sinking academic progress. Hilfer explained that if minimal growth continues in the lower grades, the district will not catch up.
Langan restated for the record that if the district continues to teach as it is now, the learning status is not going to improve. Hilfer, who has attended several RTI workshops, said that his overload of duties which includes discipline in the elementary schools, does not make him a good candidate for such a monumental task. But he added that he has already invested approximately 80 hours in scheduling to free up resources and identify areas of need, and the process has already begun.
“But it’s not manageable,” Hilfer said. “I lose sleep over it. I can’t do all of it myself.”
Langan, as well as board members Mark Lassila, Darrell Wagner and Michelle Hebner are in support of hiring a new RTI coordinator which would be classified as a teacher on special assignment. But board members Willi Kostiuk, Roger Jerome and Stuart Nordquist were in opposition to a new posting for the position, saying that Hilfer is the obvious person for the job because he is the most trained. They suggested that Hilfer’s duties in other areas be freed up to allow him time to add the tasks of RTI coordinator. Nordquist stated that there are other licensed candidates within the district who could relieve some of Hilfer’s duties.
“Let’s get rid of his discipline responsibilities and have the trained one do it,” Nordquist said.
Langan replied that presuming that anyone who has a license could be effective in elementary administration is a mistake. He referred to that position as a “quasi-principal.”
Hebner was adamantly opposed to the idea of enlisting any coordinator who must fragment responsibilities, and who is not specifically focused on daily intervention. Hilfer agreed that “you need someone driving it — and it’s not the building principal.”
“This needs someone dedicated to it whose job it is all day long,” Hebner said. “I have seen him (Hilfer) running around. He can’t do all this.”
Wagner said that if the district fails annual yearly progress again, it will be on the board’s shoulders.
One of the key factors in the opposition by Kostiuk, Jerome and Nordquist to a new coordinator is the district’s decision not to hire another sixth-grade teacher for three over-sized sections.
“I am the people’s voice,” Jerome said, adding that the issue of too-large sixth grade classes is a topic he frequently hears about from parents too intimidated to attend board meetings. “I can’t justify this position and tell people we can’t hire another sixth-grade teacher.” Kostiuk and Nordquist say they hear about the same issue regularly.
Langan replied that their argument is a separate issue. “Even if you go to four sections of 24 (sixth graders), and don’t change instruction, you won’t see any change (in test results),” he said. After more discussion between board members on the sizes of the overall elementary grades, a new idea was launched for solving the large sixth-grade class size. Ignited by Nordquist, all agreed that the realignment of 26 teachers between 614 elementary students could even out the ratio of students per teacher in each class.
Langan agreed that further exploration of the reassignment of current elementary personnel is warranted, even though many teachers have begun decorating rooms and been assigned grades.
“It will cause concerns among parents and teachers, but it’s not irrational and I think you’ve made some sense,” Langan said.
When it came to voting, Nordquist made a motion for an amendment to adopt the RTI resolution but set aside the assignment of a coordinator until later. Langan interjected that “you essentially are proposing a program without coordination.”
Nordquist’s motion failed three-three. The adoption of the RTI program with the posting for a coordinator went on to be approved at a four-two vote, with Kostiuk and Nordquist still in opposition but Jerome stating that the need for an RTI program was too important to reject the resolution.
