Last week, the Henry County Board of Education approved the graduation date for the Henry County Class of 2024 for Saturday, May 25 at 11 a.m. The final regularly scheduled school day is May 21, and the last two months of the school year begins with Spring Break from April 1 through April 5.
Also, during last week’s board meeting held at Campbellsburg Elementary School, the board heard school instructional coach Megan Mahoy present the progress of students at the school in reading skills. Mahoy displayed an illustration of the “Scarborough’s Rope of Reading” to show the board how school staff help develop language comprehension and word recognition among students to achieve a skilled reading goal of oral reading fluency.
Mahoy said that 5th graders have a goal of reading 150 words per minute, but until that goal is attainable, accuracy of word recognition is emphasized in instruction.
“You must be accurate before you can be fast,” she said.
Mahoy added that instructional methods and analysis of results for targeted improvement help school staff determine how to further reading progress and relay the skills needed for students to achieve comprehension of language and recognition of words.
“The teachers feel like they truly know our kids as readers because of that,” Mahoy said.
Mahoy also said staff is planned to focus more upon vocabulary assessment next year “to increase data points around language comprehension.”
“Vocabulary is one of the greatest indicators of comprehension,” she said.
Principal Amy Treece also addressed the board about the value of the instruction provided at Campbellsburg Elementary to assess and improve student language comprehension and reading skills.
“It’s transformational,” she said. “It’s going to have a big impact in the next five to six years.”
Superintendent Dr. Jim Masters remarked about the “the growth that these students have seen” through the instructional and assessment directive, adding that the progress in reading skills is evident across all three elementary schools in the district.
Last week, the board also took the following action for site improvement projects:
• Closed out the bus garage roof replacement project at a final cost of $228,368
• Closed out the land acquisition for the future site of the school district’s central administrative office at a cost of $356,307
• Approved the construction manager agreement with Wehr Constructors, Inc. for construction of the new school district’s central administrative office
• Approved the plans for the window replacement project at Eastern Elementary and advertisement soliciting construction bids for the project
• Approved the contractor agreement with Wehr Constructors, Inc. for the vestibule entry project at Campbellsburg Elementary
• Approved payment of $44,791 to Wehr Constructors, Inc. for the Campbellsburg Elementary vestibule entry project.