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Superintendent details Student Investment Account spending as board debates state attendance metric
Summary
Superintendent Robert Freeman outlined Student Investment Account uses — including music, student services and tutoring — and reported completion rates over 90%; board members pressed on an ODE attendance metric that shows 64% of students attending 90% of days under state rules, prompting calls to clarify calculations and possible damage control.
Superintendent Robert Freeman presented the annual Student Investment Account report and explained how the funds support district staffing and services, including a full-time elementary music teacher, student services directors, a behavior evaluation specialist and tutoring for credit recovery.
"This bucket of money funds a music teacher at the elementary school... student services director... behavior evaluation specialist..." Freeman said, listing specific program uses funded by the account.
Freeman also summarized performance metrics, saying graduation and five‑year completion rates exceed 90 percent and 92 percent respectively. He reported a district figure that "64 percent of students district wide [attended] 90 percent or more school days," and acknowledged confusion about how regular attenders are calculated under state rules. Several board members pushed back, calling the state method misleading and urging the district to clarify published numbers before they appear in public reports.
Board members debated whether the state Department of Education criteria — which counts students present during a defined window and requires a minimum number of days enrolled — misrepresent local attendance. One board member called the system "a bad system" that can make larger districts look worse, while others urged using the district's internally computed figures to provide context.
No formal vote was taken on changing reporting methods at the meeting; board members asked staff to provide clearer explanations of the state calculation and to include the district’s internal attendance figures in communications when appropriate.
