By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
One Hays USD 489 school board member expressed her concerns about a program that helps Hays High School students who are failing courses bring their grades up to passing.
Board member and former Hays High teacher Jayme Goetz asked questions and raised concerns about the program during a discussion of the student handbooks on July 13.
The program is called Boost, and students must meet very specific requirements to qualify. It was launched at Hays High in 2021.
Students must have a 55% but below a 60% D in order to qualify for the program. Work must be made up within two weeks of the end of the semester.
Board President Curt Vajnar asked why the virtual school isn’t an option for students not passing a class.
Superintendent Ron Wilson said it is.
“It seems we are asking the teachers to do more than they had before,” Vajnar said.
Goetz said, “If the work wasn’t completed when the due date is initial, are we not setting poor expectations to allow them to come right back before the finish line?”
Wilson said he thought the expectation was for students to be successful and to give them opportunities.
“What we are doing is giving them an opportunity to get their grade up,” he said. “Any good teacher will tell you they give a lot of second chances during the semester and all of the time.”
Goetz asked, “Why are we giving them another one?”
Wilson said if a student fails, it creates a hole that is difficult for that student to climb out of.
“We say, ‘Hey, we are going to give you one week to work hard and get that grade up. If you don’t get it up, you’re going to fail. It’s just an opportunity for kids.”
Goetz asked if teachers were having these discussions with students throughout the semester.
“If I have a student who comes to me a week before the class [is done] and comes to me with a 5% [gap], that’s a big gap,” she said. “If you want to jump that 5% gap with a week’s worth of work, that tells me you weren’t doing a full semester’s worth of work behind that.”
She added there are extenuating circumstances.
However, she said issues such as illness or family crisis should have been communicated during the full semester.
Board member Ken Brooks said the program is not new, and he did not understand why the concerns were being brought at the last minute.
Goetz said she had issues about the program from day one.
Hays High Principal Shawn Henderson said Boost is a student intervention.
“If you think about laying a floor, do you lay the whole room? But it’s the last little square that’s missing. We’re letting kids work on that last little square,” Henderson said.
Goetz said it’s more akin to a student missing the middle of the floor and wanting to have the chance to refill that patch.
Henderson said students and teachers are together in the conversation during the process.
He said 20 students took advantage of the program in the spring semester.
Henderson said he would provide numbers of students who used the program in previous semesters at a later date.
Students are working on this the most on the school’s opportunity day, which is the last day of the semester.
Henderson said if students don’t show up on that day, they miss their opportunity to use the program.
Teachers already have a scheduled workday that day.
Henderson said the latest version of the handbook clarifies who qualifies for Boost and when the work must be completed.
“We’ve had this multiple years, but we keep coming back to teachers and trying to firm it up,” he said.
Goetz said because she taught basic math courses, she had more students who had individual education plans and needed interventions.
“That’s a real imbalance of workload on those teachers,” she said.
The alternative to Boost is the student fails the class and has to take the full semester over, Wilson said.
Goetz said, “And that’s not motivation enough?”
Wilson said, “We’re providing another opportunity to help kids.”
Board member Derek Yarmer said the program is not teaching students about jobs and the real world.
Wilson said underclassmen are still maturing and may need extra help.
Goetz said her suggestion is to eliminate Boost and fail the students.
Henderson also taught at the college level. He said colleges offer incompletes.
Board member Ruth Ruder said, “It’s one thing if it’s laziness and it’s another thing if a kid just doesn’t get it.
“I’ve done things that I don’t get it, and I’m not going to get it, but I have to have it in order to graduate.”
Goetz argued those students are getting help throughout the semester.
Ruder said, “Jayme, you are an intelligent woman. I struggled with things like that.”
Goetz said the students Boost targets don’t qualify for individual education plans. They are expected to advocate for themselves, but don’t until the finish line.
She said the program is allowing students not to meet deadlines.
“My concern is that two weeks, that one little day, is that truly helping them learn or is it checking a box for graduation?” Goetz said.
Board member Craig Pallister, former teacher and principal, said he thought what he was hearing from Henderson was that the program is working.
Vajnar said he thought the majority of the students who would qualify for Boost are failing because of nonattendance and failing to hand in assignments.
Anita Scheve, special education director, used to work at the virtual school.
She said before Boost was created, the virtual school might have had 200 students needing to complete an entire class because they failed it.
She said she did not think that served students.
“They had not failed the entire class. They had failed this piece of the class. It might have been attendance, but attendance is often an underlying symptom,” Scheve said.
Goetz said, “I don’t know a single teacher who is not bending over backward to get these kids to come see them, and they’re not coming to see them.”
Henderson said, “I would be really careful. Be a champion for all kids means [all kids]. … People who watch this meeting are listening. We are talking about their child.”
Goetz said she did not think the program was meant to help students learn.
“[I don’t think] it’s meant to help them become contributing members of society. It’s helped boost our graduation rate,” she said.
The board did not take a vote on the Boost program or the student handbooks at the July 13 meeting.
The board members are scheduled to vote on the handbook revisions at their Aug. 17 meeting.