Altamont School Board Hears Progress on Number of Failing Students

Altamont school board members Monday heard that the number of students with failing grades is falling.

High school principal Jerry Tkachuk said, after the third week of school, there were 58 students at the high school who were failing at least one class. Teachers were asked to set a goal of reducing the failure rate by 50%, and to start by contacting parents of students who were failing. As of last night, the number of student failures had been lowered to 26.

The high school also has a goal for students of an attendance rate of 97% (last year's attendance was 93%) and the rate is currently at 95.9%.

Tkachuk also shared that a speaker will be appearing at the high school to talk about the dangers of heroin addiction. The presentation is scheduled for 9am on October 27. Also mentioned was what Tkachuk termed "rather confusing data" regarding students' prepraration for Algebra I and how many of the sophomore class are considered on track for graduation and said he would work to sort out the information.

Superintendent Jeff Fritchtnitch reported on progress in meeting the goals outlined in the District's Strategic Plan, shared that the Illinois Vision 20/20 committee on which Fritchtnitch serves has promoted two bills passed by the General Assembly designed to assist public education, but said work is still needed on the issues of shared accountability, 21st Century Learning, Equitable Funding, and Highly Effective Educators, and heard that a special meeting will be held on October 20 to discuss district finances.

Ryan Heiden was approved as junior high boys basketball volunteer assistant, and the Board discussed the City of Altamont proposed to establish a Tax Increment Financing District. The Altamont Chamber of Commerce and the City of Altamont plan to host an informational meeting on TIF on Monday, October 19 at 6pm.