Teton County district credits 4-day week, attendance push for staffing gains and higher funding

Superintendent Megan Bybee said at the June 9 Teton County School District board meeting that a deliberate push on attendance tied to the district’s four-day student week has produced measurable results and more state funding.

“Why are we focusing on attendance? Well, we can't teach kids if they're not in the classroom, right?” Bybee said, explaining the district prioritized attendance and systems work before re-emphasizing achievement targets.

Board members were shown district data that Bybee summarized as a net gain of roughly 50 more students present each school day compared with the prior year — “that’s 2 to 3 full classrooms,” she said — and a projected increase in the district’s support units for state funding. Bybee said the attendance improvement translated into a projected 5.85 additional units compared with earlier estimates and “more than $800,000” in additional state revenue when multiplied by the district’s per-unit funding assumptions.

Nut graf: The district is crediting a package of operational changes — the four-day student week, clearer attendance systems, revised behavior expectations and targeted staffing work — with both higher student attendance and better teacher recruitment and retention, outcomes board members said are central to sustaining classroom instruction and improving outcomes.

Bybee also reported personnel and staffing signs of improvement: a sharp drop in the number of teachers hired on emergency or alternative authorizations (from dozens in prior years to one this year), 47 applicants for administrative positions, and fewer classified vacancies than in past years. She said staff absences were down about 18 percent, with roughly 900 fewer substitute days used districtwide. “We’ve cut our absences down by 18, including 900 fewer subs being hired this year,” she said.

Administrators and staff who spoke to the board connected particular operational moves to the changes. Bybee said separating elementary and secondary students on buses reduced discipline write-ups and improved safety. Omar, a district staff member presenting a newcomer-program summary, said the district served 71 newcomers this year and offered parent nights and classroom supports to help students acclimate.

The board discussed assessment results and growth measures. Bybee cautioned that the year of major operational change was not chosen to produce sharp year-over-year gains in proficiency, but said growth measures were encouraging: the district’s spring ISAT proficiency was roughly unchanged in English-language arts and up about 3 percentage points in math, and 60 percent of students showed average-or-above-average growth on the district’s growth metric in math.

Board members asked follow-up questions about test participation, potential ties between higher attendance and testing counts, and how to convert the current operational foundation into targeted achievement gains next year.

Ending: Bybee told the board the district will use the coming year to shift from system-building to achievement-targeting: “Next year, we're coming in with student achievement goals with the right people in place to make those decisions,” she said.