A three-year collection of state school board report card results were given to Hennessey Board of Education members by Supt. Jason Sternberger during their Monday, Nov.10, meeting.

The superintendent noted that the 2024-25 reports are “preliminary” and that the middle and elementary schools both scored B grades and elementary principals Barry Crosswhite and Stacey Mack “weren’t about to miss the meeting tonight.”

Elementary Scoring is Up

That’s because the elementary school made a B on its state report card for the 2023-24 school year after two previous years of getting Cs.

Those C grades were mainly due to low “academic growth” points.They scored 74.43 points last year in that area.

In 2023-24 they only scored 12.37 in academic growth and scored 34.83 in 2022-23.

Middle School Test Scores

Middle school students have scored overall B grades for the past three years.

The letter grades for 2024-25 categories were: Academic Achievement, C; Academic Growth, B; ELPA (English Language Proficiency Assessment) Progress, A; and Chronic Absenteeism, A.

For the 2023-24 and 2033-23 they had B grades in every one of those areas.

The middle school kept its three-year string of B grades and Sternberger said Principal Ricardo Tarango would have been at this month’s board meeting, but was attending seventh and eighth grade basketball games.

High School Scores

Overall grading at the high school in 2024-25 dropped from a B to a C (due to a D in Academic Achievement).

That compared with an overall B in 2023-24 (and a B in Academic Achievement).

The overall letter grade for HHS in 2022-23 was a D (due to a D in academic achievement).

Sternberger said he’d visited with HHS Principal Josh Faulkner and “I know he’s not happy with these scores.”

The superintendent asked if board members had any specific questions for the principals and there were none.

Stipends OK’d for All Staff

“It’s that time of the year again,” said Sternberger, “and we’ve talked about stipends in the past.

He had provided board members with information showing the costs, which would total about $135,000.

He recommended to give teachers $1,000 stipends and support personnel $500 and said that’s “based on what we did last year.”

The board unanimously agreed to the amounts which will be given to staff Nov. 20.

“We are eating into our carryover,” Sternberger added, “but we’ll finish the year at about our yearly projection in the $4.3 million range,” he said. “So I’m comfortable in asking for your approval.”

He added, “It would be nice when gross production taxes come back and we could get that tax collection again.”

“We greatly appreciate all of our staff, and our administrators,” said Board President James Matousek before the unanimous vote.

“This is something that we hope we can do for many years to come…of course with our leadership from Mr. Sternberger these are the things that we’ll take into consideration.”

He added, “We know what kind of pressure you’re under and what a great deal of importance you are to forming the minds of our future leaders. We want to make sure that you understand that you’re much appreciated.”

In the past the board has given stipends twice a year - with another in the spring - if funding is available.

At the Meeting

All board members were present: Matousek, Vice President Dakota Semrad, Clerk Amy Charmasson, Luke Lough and Lance Painter.

Also at the board table were Sternberger and Office Manager/Minutes Clerk Timberly Jech.

Staff in the audience were Faulkner, Crosswhite and Mack.