Continuous improvement a focus at Lovell schools

Big Horn County School District No. 2 amended their unpaid meal debt policy at the December 11 school board meeting.
The policy was amended so students on full pay status could not be denied a meal for unpaid student meal debt, however in actuality that never happened.
“There was a line that we had in there saying the school can deny a meal to a student who was full pay status and who did not provide the payment for the meal,” Superintendent Doug Hazen said. “After discussing this, we don’t think this effectively will ever happen and we would say to a kid, ‘Yeah, you want to eat but just because you’re full payment we’re not gonna … that’s a parent issue, not a kid issue.’”
Craig Lundberg, principal at LHS, reported on student attendance and achievement at Lovell High School. Attendance is sitting at 95 percent of the 220 students at Lovell High School.    
The continuous improvement program continues to be implanted at Lovell High School, Lundberg said. Students who need extra support can catch up on the classes they are struggling with during flex time or attend after school or Saturday tutoring.
The school is also focusing on ACT prep, Lundberg said. All juniors are required to take ACT prep at least once a week during flex. Students can take practice tests, work on their weaknesses and be assigned lessons by their teachers in the virtual ACT practice programming. Students can work on ACT prep as much as they want during flex. However, if a student is behind in a class, they can catch up in the class instead of doing prep, he said.
The high school started the student success team to identify students who need extra support, Lundberg said. Teachers identify students who need extra support and report the interventions that have already been attempted. Using that information, a plan is formulated for the student with all of the staff’s knowledge. The program has been successful, allowing some students to be taken off of the at-risk list.
Several students were recognized for their achievements at the beginning of the school board meeting. BrayLynn Krantz was the Lovell Middle School student of the month, Croix Tryon was the Lovell High School student of the month and Alivia Nuttall was the CTE student of the month.
The Lovell High School Knowledge Bowl team was recognized for being Big Horn Basin champions for the third year in a row. All-State Choir members Damian Wagner, Jarrett Allen and Jay Mayes were recognized as well as All-State Football players Adnan Khan, Davin Crosby and Jared Magnus.
Hazen reported on the study he worked on for defense of his Doctorate in Education from the University of Wyoming, which covered teacher relations with superintendents in rural districts. Hazen interviewed 14 teachers from districts similar to Lovell about compensation, superintendent support and superintendent visibility.
One part of the study that was interesting, Hazen said, is that most teachers felt that they were fairly compensated. That could be in part due to teacher pay in Wyoming, he said. Most teachers were not aware of whether the superintendent influenced their pay structure.  
Hazen said the study found that teachers wanted to be supported by having a personal relationship with their superintendent who acknowledges their hard work. While there are times, he said, that he is working away in his office on something critical, outside staff don’t always realize what he is doing and office work was not a focus of surveyed teachers.
“But that never came up, like what happens behind closed doors, most people don’t even really know, so they don’t think about it. What did matter is that the person was around, they were visible, they could talk to me, they might pop their head in.”
Cassie Heindl, student council representative, talked about initiatives to improve school spirit and connect with each other. One emphasis, Heindl said, was for students to be kind and encouraging to their fellow students, even if they do not know them.
Christmas activities for Lovell High School during December included the door decorating contest that is run by FCCLA, dress-up days, a snowball fight during flex and a contest to guess how many “snowballs” are in a jar of cotton balls.