District leaders tout OHS, Evans successes

Mar. 21—OTTUMWA — With additions to schools being built and new amenities being constructed, the outward appearance of the Ottumwa Community School District is one that's positive.

Behind the scenes, however, there are also plenty of successes, and for different reasons.

Ottumwa High School Principal Shelley Bramschreiber and Evans Middle School Principal Mike Davis shared with the district's board of education Monday how their buildings are changing. Whether it's in academic success or a change in culture, things are happening.

"One of the things we've focused on was chronic absenteeism, which is missing at least 10% of school days," Bramschreiber said. "It's a fine line because we know students involved in activities do better in school and feel more connected to their building."

Bramschreiber noted that chronic absenteeism was down 12% between the end of the 2021-22 school year and last year, and continues to decline. Currently, that number is down 14% from two years ago.

Board member Morgan Brown asked Bramschreiber if there was a leading cause for absenteeism.

"Disengagement is what I call it. They just don't see the value, but they also get behind and just can't see their way out," she said. "I believe we've got to continue to work with kids, engage with them and help them see the importance of their education.

"Chronic absenteeism is a problem nationwide."

Students appear to be excelling more in math courses than two years ago, when the pandemic was still setting students back in the classroom. Math teacher Brooke Fischels said a change in curriculum has helped students succeed.

"If you were a ninth-grader in March of 2020, you were in Algebra I and you did not learn how to factor, how to solve a quadratic or have experience with exponential functions. We knew our scores would go down," Fischels said. "Also, in the spring of 202, it would take two yeas until you were a junior before you would have an opportunity to relearn algebra content."

The math department changed its curriculum to work more in line with its testing material, and the results have moved in a positive direction. After three years of test score stagnation, currently 63% of 11th-grade match students are either proficient or advanced proficient.

"We've regained ground, and it's encouraging that we have a lot of students in that advanced proficient (12%)," Fischels said. "I'm hoping we can try to get more of those students in those areas."

Bramschreiber said the teachers' willingness to embrace the curriculum change after initially being skeptical also helped in the students' success.

"They're very different than the more traditional materials. It was a lot of work for teachers and they were apprehensive," she said. "I think the data and the success encourages teachers to take that step, learn something new and really work for what's best for students."

Evans successes

While the middle school has added a couple of courses this year, most notably Spanish, which does count toward high school credit, many of the changes in the building have resulted in the building currently being just a grade 7-8 building.

That won't last long, as freshmen will start going to Evans next year. However, since sixth grade has moved to Liberty Elementary School, there has been a noticeable difference.

Teacher Carrie Long said the morale of students and teachers has improved just within the last year, when Davis took over.

"I've been here at Evans for about 10 years, left for one year to go to Douma Elementary, but Evans is where my heart is at," Long said. "I think the morale of our students and teachers has gone up so much, and a big part of that is our new administration, and the structure and the consistency they have.

"They're holding our kids accountable."

Long noted the decrease in students in the building has made it "phenomenal and less congested," something that reiterated by students who spoke the board.

"Evans has seen a lot of improvements. I feel being a 7-8 building, it allows us to build better connections with seventh-graders," eighth-grade student Joey Naumann said. "They're not just another student in the hallway, and you can have peer-to-peer connection with them. It's less chaotic, but it really helps with the overall environment of the building."

Success is also taking place in the building, Davis said. Over 200 students in both seventh and eighth grades made the honor roll, well over half the enrollment in each grade.

The amount of students tardy to classes is down about 17%, and the Spanish class for eighth-graders has been a success, with 131 students taking the course.

"Having just those two grade levels has been a huge success for us in our building," Davis said. "We're able to supervise our students more effectively in the hallways and at lunch. The respect levels from student to student and from student and staff has been much more positive.

"We had a total of nine fights within a quarter. I wasn't here last year, but they were having a fight every day," Davis said. "We have changed what we do. When they fight, they get their consequence, but when they come back, they have an intervention, and we get to build that student-to-student relationship. Respect has been my No. 1 word since I walked in the building, and we will respect our students and staff, no matter who they are. It's something we continue to build on."

— Chad Drury can be reached at cdrury@ottumwacourier.com, and on Twitter @ChadDrury