Tracy Press

Tracy Unified trustees will review standardized test scores to figure out what the district's students need to work on.

Standardized school test scores released by the state last week will help teachers and administrators determine in what subjects students need to improve.

A curriculum expert will present her analysis of the scores and how teachers and administrators should respond among other items at Tuesday’s Tracy Unified School District Board of Trustees meeting.

The newly released scores indicated that second- to 11th-grade students improved from last year in math and English and exceeded the state average.

But a gap remains between white students’ scores and those of black, Latino and other ethnic minority students. A probable miscount of special-education students held those scores back as well, according to Carol Anderson-Woo, who will present the report Tuesday.

Curriculum for all district schools will be up for review and public comment Tuesday.

To get textbook money from the state, districts everywhere have to hold public hearings on school curriculum. The district encourages public input from teachers, parents and community leaders.

A new bus will get added to a fleet of four that take 322 Mountain House students to West High School every weekday if trustees approve the buy.

Steady growth from kids who aged up from middle school in the planned community and new families joining the school district has filled up three buses and will soon crowd a fourth, school staff predict.

Up to $150,000 Mountain House developer fees would pay for the new 50-seat bus, which will cost the district $15,000 a year to fuel. The district plans to pay $60,000 annually to a new driver, who’ll also work as a groundskeeper-custodian. Trustees will consider whether to approve that next week.

Also on the agenda

• The district pays tuition for several special-education students to attend private schools. Special Education Director Nancy Hopple says one of those students needs special therapy and will ask trustees to approve a contract with a therapist, who charges $83 an hour.

• Trustees will consider teaming up with counselors from the San Joaquin County Substance Abuse Services to conduct a 12-week course to convince kids to stay away from drugs. Kids considered troublesome or prone to dropping out of school are normally sent to these classes. State grant money would pay for the courses, which would take place at Willow Day and Tracy High schools.

• Trustees will consider whether to join a regional electronic registry that tracks students’ vaccination records. State money pays for the registry, which feeds into a statewide database.

At a glance

WHAT: Tracy Unified School District Board of Trustees meeting

WHEN: 7 p.m. Tuesday

WHERE: Board Room, District Education Center, 1875 W. Lowell Ave.

INFO: 830-3200 or http://www.tracy.k12.ca.us/boardmeetingagendas.htm

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written by Thinker , August 23, 2008

Wow! $60k for an entery level bus driver/custodian! Maybe that includes some benefit cost, since that is higher than what the website shows for starting teachers! And $85@ hour for a physical therapist! When teachers make like $30 an hour!?!?! Where's our priorities!?!