Triad board member honored
Outgoing Triad Board of Education member April Freville was recognized during Thursday’s meeting for her service to the district. Freville served on the board for eight years but did not run for reelection at the expiration of her term. Superintendent Vickie Hoffman thanked her for her dedication and commitment to the students at Triad. (Photo submitted)
Triad educators are preparing for the future of the district’s middle school.
Triad Middle School Principal Vinnie Spirko shared his three-year vision for the school during Thursday’s Board of Education meeting.
“We’re doing a lot of good things,” said Spirko, who was hired in July.
Still, he said he sees a variety of possible improvements and more opportunities that could be offered to students.
Potential changes could be implemented as early as the upcoming spring semester.
Spirko said he is meeting with middle school staff next week to discuss changing the building’s master schedule.
The middle school currently runs on a split 90-minute block, Spirko said, meaning that students will attend a class for 45 minutes early in the day and return to that subject later in the afternoon.
He said teachers, who previously taught students in full 90-minute sessions, are “learning how to use that time best” when split.
Still, he said he believes a schedule that isn’t split would be more effective. Spirko said it is challenging for students who do not necessarily enjoy school or who struggle in certain subjects to go to the same class twice in a day.
He proposed adding 10-15 minutes in the morning to accommodate for 60-minute blocks throughout the day.
Additionally, Spirko said he would like to add a number of course offerings at the middle school over the next three years.
In the 2022-2023 academic year, Spirko would like to add a health class at the fifth and sixth grade level. He said middle schoolers do not attend a health class at any point while in the building.
He said he has discussed the topic with gym teacher and coach Dylan Wears, who could likely combine health with gym classes. For instance, Spirko said a soccer unit in gym could also include lessons on what muscles are used to play the sport.
Spirko would also like to add a “maker space,” which he described as an introduction to STEM, for fifth and sixth graders.
Agriculture 1 and Spanish 1 are currently offered to eighth graders at the high school building, but Spirko said he would like those classes to be available at the middle school to reduce transportation time.
For seventh and eighth graders, he also envisioned an Intro to Career Pathways class that would allow students to obtain the “Ohio Means Jobs” graduation seal for their diplomas.
Spirko said he is also “in talks with” Edison State Community College in Piqua for offering a personal finance class for eighth graders as a part of the College Credit Plus program.
In the 2023-24 school year, Spirko said he would like course offerings to expand even further.
He proposed adding an English-Language Arts 1 class for eighth graders to earn high school credits.
Additionally, the principal said he feels a “Digital Skills and Digital Citizenship” course should be offered to sixth graders.
“With how much we use computers, I don’t think we’ve ever taught kids how to use them properly” and the repercussions of their actions online, he said.
Spirko said he would also like to offer a coding and robotics class at the seventh and eighth grade level.
He also said he feels as though students should have both a social studies and science class every day.
Spirko said this will likely be the most difficult of his goals to achieve, as he feels the class are currently split between days due to “a lack of staffing.” He said offering both subjects every day would require “another staff member, if not two.”
Spirko listed several additional changes he envisions for the 2024-25 academic calendar.
He said he would like the school to offer Google 1 and Google 2 certification for seventh and eighth graders. The certification indicates to colleges, technical schools and employers that recipients have skills using Google products widely used in a number of industries, Spirko said.
He said he would also like Future Farmers of America (FFA) to be offered at the middle school.
Spirko also plans to apply for the school to be STEM certified by the Ohio Department of Education that year. He said the certification is “not easy to get.”
To prepare students for their futures, he would also like to implement a requirement for community service and job shadowing hours for seventh and eighth graders.
He said he knows it will be challenging to implement every one of the changes he mentioned, but feels Triad is capable.
“I’m pretty confident we can meet, I’ll say, 80% of this in the next three years,” Spirko said.
Superintendent Vickie Hoffman said she sees value in each of the goals, but the actual timeline is not yet set in stone. She said it will require conversations with educators and staff throughout the district to determine when objectives can and should be met.
In other business:
– Director of Academic Programs Patrick Johnson shared a report surrounding efforts to increase career readiness in the district.
He said the district is set to begin offering an online career aptitude and inventory test called “YouScience” that helps students discover career and education paths.
“We want our students to start thinking about options for them to go forward in life,” Johnson said.
He noted that the district has also facilitated business visits between students and Bundy Baking Solutions, Advanced Technology Production and Rittal.
– Chief Academic Officer Morgan Fagnani shared fall third grade reading scores with the board.
As of October, 49% of third graders are proficient, Fagnani said.
She noted that this is the highest percentage to meet that mark since the district began testing seven years ago. The average percentage of students who were proficient over that period of time is 36%.
Fagnani credited the significant increase largely to the expansion of Title 1 services in the district.
She noted that 25 of 63 third graders are using Title 1 services, which offered specialized instruction to students in need of additional help.
Of those, she said 20% have already met proficiency, which is a “very, very strong” amount. An additional 28% are only one performance level from meeting the proficient score.
Fagnani said it should be noted that, in previous years, the district had just one Title 1 instructor and was only able to offer services to four to five students.