A representative of the Buena Vista District Accountability Committee (DAC) shared updates on the district’s internship program at the Board of Education’s regular meeting on Monday, April 25. Additionally, Superintendent Yates gave a year-end report on the district’s ENDS measures, highlighting points of progress and priority for the board to consider.
DAC monitors BVHS internship program
This year, the DAC was charged to monitor the development and progress of the internship program at Buena Vista High School (BVHS) and offer commendations and recommendations based on their observations. Judy Hamontre, Co-Chair of the DAC, shared that they researched other districts’ programs, heard from guest speakers, and worked with Principal Jon Ail and Business Leadership Teacher Adam Fuller.
Buena Vista School District Sign (Photo by Taylor Sumners)
“A clear plan is now in place for the 2022-23 school year,” Hamontre said. “Yes, I think I can say BVHS now has an intern program to help realize that goal of students having access to multiple pathways, counseled and coached by the school, that will best suit their desires after graduation, whether it is joining the workforce, career technology education, or college.”
The DAC also surveyed the 10 internship participants during the year, averaging their responses across the questions. Overall, students felt they had enough staff support during their internship and felt the internship program “help[ed them] answer the question of whether to pursue this vocation as a career.” Additionally, students were highly likely to recommend the internship program to other students.
A survey of the upcoming juniors and seniors found that 108 out of 123 were interested in an internship opportunity, and 97 felt the internship would help them determine their post-graduation plans.
Hamontre highlighted the program’s growth from five to ten students between the first and second semesters, as well as the job fair held in March for all juniors and sophomores, allowing them the chance to consider their options before registering for classes after Spring Break.
Hamontre reported that the district promoted the program to businesses by sending 350 emails to area businesses. She also commended the program’s flexibility in meeting student needs.
As part of the DAC’s recommendations, she emphasized the importance of clarifying the differences between the various career exploration options in order to counsel them on the best choice based on their interests. Hamontre also suggested the district continue hosting the job fair in both the fall and spring, solidifying the program’s structure, and allowing the program to evolve naturally while directing its progress.
While the program was only available to seniors this year, in the future it is expected that the internship programs could become available to juniors as well.
“[Students] may start planning their schedule freshman and sophomore year to make some room OK in junior year, and we’ve never talked about if a student can do more than one internship program,” Hamontre said.
ENDS Final Report
The board has heard regular updates on the measures, which are updated continuously on the district’s SCAP website. These measures “record whether the Aspirational Target has been met or not along with summary statements demonstrating progress toward the Aspirational Targets,” per Superintendent Lisa Yates’ report.
Yates identified attendance, activity participation, reading support, and testing data as points where priority progress is needed in order to meet the district’s aspirational targets.
“Attendance needs to be studied. Even outside of COVID [-19 realities] there are high percentages of absences which says it could be impacting learning, I think. No doubt over time, they will impact learning,” she said. “BVHS is already doing a study of it … Basically, it gets at, ‘Why are students absent, and do we want to eliminate those absences that, in our community, are going to be acceptable?’”
Yates highlighted the impact of their mid-year assessment of reading support with elementary students.
“One of the things that we need to do is evaluate the measure,” she said, explaining the district’s Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening (PALS) assessment. “If you watch that [assessment] over time, you’ll always see that from the end of the year to the beginning of the year, we’ll see progress even through the summer. We have fewer students qualifying under reading at the beginning, in the fall, and then at the mid-year [assessment] is when we have a big surge of students…So I think that mid-year assessment is triggering to some students who qualify. Maybe we can serve them in the classroom rather than pulling them out of school.”
The board’s next meeting will be held at 6:00 p.m. on Monday, May 10, at the District Administration Building, located at 115 North Court Street in Buena Vista. More information about the Board of Education, programs, and schools can be found on the district website.
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