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Superintendent: Fairfield posts strong overall performance but students with disabilities lower public rating
Summary
Superintendent presented the new Iowa school performance profile showing an overall district score of 67.63 but an "acceptable" public rating because the students-with-disabilities subgroup scored well below state averages; the board approved targeted staffing and compensation measures aimed at those students.
The district's superintendent told the Fairfield Community School Board that the district scored 67.63 on the latest Iowa School Performance Profile and ranks at the high end of the "commendable" band on many measures, but the public-facing rating dropped to "acceptable" because a targeted subgroup'students with disabilities'performed well below state averages.
"We had to go down a rating... because of that subgroup of students with disabilities," the superintendent said, describing a gap of roughly 28 points below the statewide average for that subgroup. Board members said about 200 students fall into the subgroup in district data presented at the meeting.
The superintendent reviewed steps already taken and planned actions to address the gap: adding special-education staff, increasing paraprofessional wages, instituting fidelity checks for IEP implementation, convening PK-12 special-education collective leadership teams (CLTs) for monthly review, and offering targeted compensation for the district's 22 special-education teachers. He stressed that while the district found no conclusive evidence that higher teacher pay alone raises student output, targeted supports and improved fidelity of services are central to the plan.
The board also heard a separate update that nearly 200 students took concurrent classes through Indian Hills last year, producing an estimated $340,000 in tuition savings for families.
What happens next: the superintendent said the district will continue monthly monitoring of special-education progress, present fidelity-check results to the board, and use assessment data at the Feb. 9 work session to inform staffing and resource allocations.
