(Cushing, Okla.) Cushing Public Schools Superintendent Koln Knight had mostly good news to report while speaking at the Cushing Lions Club Tuesday.
According to Knight, in spite of the current budget crunch, Cushing is in pretty good shape compared to a lot of school districts. “We actually added to the carry-over this year,” Knight said. “But we still don’t know what the budget numbers are for next year – so we are playing things pretty conservatively.” He said the state budget numbers should be in around July 22.
Knight also cited the bond issues passed in March 2009 and the tremendous support of the community as reasons for the Cushing school system being as good as it is.
“We can say our school system is up to par with anyone in the state,” Knight said. He went on to mention the new practice facility and invited interested parties to stop by and take a look. “It’s almost completed – next week they will be putting in the turf.” On another positive note, Knight said the project “came in under bid” allowing them to do a little more. Knight continued, “The football players will also be able to use the space to practice some.”
The practice area is approximately 50′ x 104′ but has an additional 25′ or so for storage.
Something else in the forefront – a new way to track student/teacher performance. “We (Oklahoma) wanted to get in on the Race for the Top, (a federal grant program), but unfortunately we failed in a couple of areas. One thing – we couldn’t prove the performance of our teachers – we had no hard data.”
Since then, Knight said the Cushing school system is planning on implementing a new program that will allow the evaluation of teachers and student sand let them know where the weak and strong links are.
“And it is primarily teacher driven,” Knight said.
The system (ALCA) will be able to show whether or not a child has improved under the instruction of the teacher rather than basing improvement on test scores.
“I’m really excited about this,” Knight said. “It will answer the question ‘Are these kids better after being in my class
Knight no doubt will continue taking the conservative approach, with emphasis on teacher accountability and student accountability – but he does not want to forget parent accountability.
“I want Cushing schools to be ahead of the game in all respects,” Knight said.
***
