By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
The Hays USD 489 school board approved handbooks for all grades at its meeting Monday but without a program aimed at helping students who are close to failing courses.
The Boost program allows students who have between a 55 and 59% make up work to raise their grades to a passing D.
Although Principal Shawn Henderson said 13 of 15 departments at the high school supported moving forward with the program again this year, board member Jayme Goetz expressed her opposition.
Goetz, a former math teacher with the district, said she did not support the program when it was created in 2022 and does not support the program now.
She also expressed her opposition during the first readings of the handbooks at the last school board meeting.
Goetz said 22 people reached out to her about Boost after the last board meeting, with some expressing support and others against.
She said one of the people who supported Boost said some students struggle with transportation, had to care for younger siblings, had to work to help support their families or had to deal with medical issues.
The person also said not all teachers are willing to help students if they fall behind.
“That concerns me because I believe this Boost program is a blanket program that addresses an exception as opposed to the rule,” Goetz said. “I feel that it takes away teacher autonomy.”
She said she did not think it was fair to the students who completed their work on time.
She said if teachers are not assisting students, that needs to be an administrative issue.
“I’m really concerned that we have a 29% chronic absenteeism rate and a 96% graduation rate,” Goetz said.
She wanted to know how many Boost participants are chronically absent.
Brooks said high school teachers came to him and said the program works.
Goetz said students already have time during advisory periods and GPS to do makeup work and receive extra help from teachers.
She said if students don’t qualify for individual education plans under special education, they need to advocate for themselves.
She said issues with work and caring for siblings are issues for parents.
Henderson reiterated his analogy from the previous board meeting about building a floor.
The students use Boost to fix one piece of the floor they are building in their class that they missed.
If they fail the class, they have to take the entire class again and rebuild the whole floor, Henderson said.
He said the language in the new handbook on the Boost program requires students to work on their Boost work on opportunity day, which is the last day of the semester. They also only have two weeks from the end of the semester to complete all makeup work related to Boost.
Henderson said he and teachers thought they were improving the program by adding more restrictive language to the policy.
Goetz said she has concerns that students need to be building on skills in classes, such as math, and Boost takes away from their learning experience.
Henderson said, “We work with every student exactly where they are. … “This is super important about Boost. It does not mean they are going to struggle forever. Best scenario, we use it, and they never need it again.”
He said Boost is just one tool the high school uses to help students, and only the program applies to only 6% of the student body.
Board member Ruth Ruder said a student might have struggled in a class, such as band, but might grow up to be successful in an unrelated field. He might run the city’s road department, she said.
“You have to look at the kids that struggle,” she said.
She added, “I think as we are putting students first every day as our mission, this is a program the teachers and administrators believe works. I think it’s worth a shot.”
Board member Craig Pallister said the program was another strategy to help kids, and that’s why teachers are in the business of education.
The board made three attempts to pass the handbooks. A motion was made to remove the Hays High School Handbook from the agenda item and vote on that separately. That motion failed.
A motion was made to approve the handbooks as presented. That failed on a vote of 3-3, with Goetz, Curt Vajnar and Allen Park voting against. Board member Derek Yarmer was absent.
Another motion to approve the handbooks without the Boost program failed on a vote of 3-3, with board members Ruder, Brooks and Pallister voting against.
Board President Vajnar decided to move on with the meeting, with the suggestion the handbooks be brought back to the board when Yarmer was present to break the tie.
Later in the meeting, Superintendent Ron Wilson urged the board to reconsider the handbooks and approve them without the Boost program so the students did not have to start the school year without handbooks.
He said he was specifically concerned that the students need to be able to reference the cell phone policy.
All Hays USD 489 schools already prohibit use of cell phones during school hours, but that prohibition was passed into state law by the Kansas Legislature in the spring.
The board finally approved the handbooks on a vote of 6-0 without the Boost program.
Wilson said district staff would re-evaluate the Boost program and bring it back to the board for reconsideration before the end of the semester.