Republic Board of Education talks charter school, statewide changes

Governor’s office to set new measures for success, ‘high expectations don’t scare us’ — Supt. Pearce
 
 
The Republic board of education met on Jan. 15 to discuss changes in how the state recognizes a district’s success. The board also heard from a citizen rallying for the district to fund an online charter school aimed at accommodating homeschoolers.
The meeting began with updates and reminders of future events. Moving on from that, the board highlighted the performance of a district employee from McCulloch Elementary and heard from students at Schofield Elementary from there, hearing the superintendent’s report and voting on action items.
During his monthly report, the superintendent announced incoming changes handed down from the highest office in the state. Missouri Governor Mike Kehoe signed an executive order that institutes statewide education changes, which will effectively issue each school district a yearly report card, complete with A through F grading.
As we always do, we’re going to align our arrows to the new expectations,” said Superintendent Matt Pearce. “High expectations don’t scare us.”
Pearce also discussed the potential state-level funding changes that are expected to be handed down this year. Though it is currently unknown by Pearce how they will impact the district, he recommends that they stay prepared.
“We’re really going to have to be really minding our P’s and Q’s and keeping our ear to the ground, seeing what comes out of Jefferson City,” said Pearce.

In other business
The board heard from citizen Ashley Jones, representing another who could not be in attendance, Randi George, who prepared a statement. In a message to the school board, George called for the district to contribute funding to a potential online charter school, Pioneer Academy. She shared the idea with the board in closed session in November, according to George. Per the statement, 15 percent of the students in Republic are homeschooled, which she said is more than double the state average. If Republic funded this charter school, the abnormally large share of homeschoolers could receive funding for curriculum and supplies. Additionally, this model of education would be new for the immediate area but has proven to be successful.
“It’s homeschooling with state-provided funding,” said Jones. “Families stay in the driver’s seat of their child’s education and receive financial support for their homeschooling needs.”
The issue of funding the school was on the agenda under action items. Once the board reached the issue, motions to begin support of Pioneer Academy were entertained, but no member motioned to do so.

RepMo Hero
The RepMo hero for this month was awarded to Amy Schroeder, reading interventionist at McCulloch Elementary. As part of the award, she received a crisp $100 bill from the superintendent and $500 to spend on classroom needs.

Building Highlights
This month, the board heard from representatives of Schofield Elementary, including principal Markie Bravestone.
The presentation began by highlighting the building’s stellar mathematics team that has had multiple students advance to regionals, with one third grader making it to the national level last year. Also highlighted was the building’s Spanish club, which allows elementary students to build secondary language skills.
The building presentation made note of efforts to move away from the reading intervention system into a new method that provides more customization based on student needs. The building has seen substantial improvement because of this, allowing more time for students who need assistance and keeping more ready students no longer than they need to be. This success was exemplified by one specific student who was able to improve their reading level by a full grade year in just eight weeks. In the previous reading intervention system, that student would have had to stay much longer, regardless of how much progress they made, taking valuable time from other students.

Action Items
The board took a look at action items, of which there were three on the table: the new school calendar for 2027-2028, a change to the district mileage rate, and the question of whether to support the charter school.
The first of these matters, the new school calendar, was approved unanimously. The new calendar saw seven days of schooling removed, making up this time by adding 10 minutes of instruction daily, faculty meetings, weekly release, graduation, conferences, and grandparents night. In total there will be 170 student days. The district also changed its mileage rate from 72.5 cents per mile, up from 70 cents per mile.

Next meeting
The district’s school board will meet again on Feb. 19.