Dual credit, advisory class, grading scale, discipline addressed at meeting

By Melonie Roberts Special to the Monett Monthly

A concerned parent spoke to Monett School Board members during their October meeting, addressing multiple issues pertaining to student success, well-being and more.

Mareena Snarey, mother to a student enrolled in Advanced Placement classes, shared her thoughts.

“The district’s motto, proudly declaring Monett R-1, is student-focused, future-driven,” she said. “Unfortunately, a growing gap exists between that public slogan and the daily operational reality experienced by students and families. We’re here tonight not to air issues between the agreements, but to address systemic administrative and policy failures that obstruct student success, compromise student well-being, and invite severe institutional liability. 

“First, we’d like to address dual credit and online scheduling. Academically qualified underclassmen interested in tackling rigorous college coursework are permitted to enroll in dual credit classes. This is good. However, unlike upperclassmen, they are subjected to rigid, blanket restrictions with zero administrative waiver mechanisms. For example, they must sit in the library during the hour they are scheduled for their dual credit class, even if they regularly perform the coursework outside of school. For students who share transportation, this restriction could create transportation bottlenecks. This best current practice fails to support the individual needs of students.”

Snarey said secondly, again at the high school, instructional time is being heavily compromised by extended advisory periods. 

“The routine inclusion of 40 minutes of advisory class for non-academic portfolio building compresses daily class minutes across core academic subjects,” she said. “Those students are missing out on critical educational minutes, pushing a volume of coursework into the evening hours. 

“Third, Monett High School’s grading scale creates an artificial, competitive disadvantage for students who challenge themselves with advanced placement and dual credit courses. As the administration acknowledges, quote, ‘Adopting weighted grades involves more than simply adding points. We would need to determine which courses qualify, consider the effects on class rank, academic honors, transfer students, access to advanced courses, and current students,’ or in other words, they recognize that not having weighted grades for more challenging courses will impact class rank and academic honors, yet they are unwilling to do the work to adequately recognize students who elect to take more rigorous coursework. This is not student-focused. This is quite honestly the way to elevate mediocrity.”

Snarey’s fourth point addressed the rigid enforcement of administrative discipline. 

“Recent events demonstrate a troubling reliance on informal tracking notes, messaging apps, and verbal declarations instead of proper statutory due process and official administrative recordkeeping,” she said. “The discipline [has been] escalated without clear notification. Fairness is abandoned. Furthermore, deploying reactive measures over minor classroom management issues rather than focusing on education correction introduces immense legal exposure and erodes trust between families and the administration. We’d be happy to discuss in closed session the details on how the district has recently enforced multiple suspensions to address minor student behaviors, but we understand that the details are not appropriate for this public audience. 

“Additionally, we have witnessed a complete breakdown in logical and lawful enforcement. How is it lawful or sensible for a district to demand that a student surrender their personal property, such as a cell phone, just to enter school and serve a lesser punishment threatening inflated out-of-school suspensions if they refuse? That is not discipline, that is coercion. Furthermore, the discrepancy between board policy and school enforcement of policy is quite concerning. For example, while district policies state that 18-year-old students are required to sign themselves out of school, in practice at the high school, adult students are retained by the resource officer if the parent has not called to permit them to leave. This disconnect between board and school policy is confusing at best. Student school practices reflect board policies.”

Finally, Snarey said, true governance requires transparency. 

“Taxpayers and parents face barriers to basic public board packets,” she said. “For example, we requested tonight’s board packet a week ago, but were told we may not receive it for five more days. Not only does that fail to follow Sunshine laws, this signals a culture of evasion rather than partnership. We have followed the procedures required to address the board stage by having raised concerns to school administration, and having met with [Superintendent] Dr. [Mark] Drake. Yet, a few parents or community members will put themselves under the scrutiny we and our children now face because we dare to speak up against — to express our concerns. 

“For this reason, we propose that the school board once again hold a community forum where parents, community members, and school officials come together and discuss openly what is currently happening in the schools. We’ve been told previously that the board will absolutely not allow an open forum. So we ask, why? Why is there such a tight gatekeeper protocol to keep members of the community from addressing the board? Are you afraid of hearing from community members?”

At that point, Snarey timed out of her five allotted minutes, and the board acknowledged her concerns and noted it would not address those issues at that time.

Steve Garner, assistant superintendent, then discussed concerns with the Middle School HVAC system.

“At our last meeting, we talked about the middle school HVAC that we were in the process of testing the performance and some of the failures that we’ve been seeing with those units,” he said. “We did receive the tests back. So, in our middle school, we have eight different systems within that entire unit. Six of those eight systems have had a failure at some point, and sometimes multiple failures.

“We tested system one in and it came back with oxidation within the pipe, which basically means that it is an installation issue. The thought is that the other five when they’re tested would be the exact same. [There have been] multiple failures. So we’re going to conduct another test on one of the systems that hasn’t had any repair work done on it. The contractor’s belief is that, potentially, those two will perform right. We’re not really going to know that until we run the test.”

Garner added the company had agreed to make repairs to system one. 

“LG has sent a recommendation on how to [complete] a total repair on that,” he said. “They’re also going to test system five. That’ll either come back positive, negative, whatever that is, then we’ll at least know that maybe system five is okay, and then we’ll continue to move on through the [remaining] systems.”

Garner said if the company tests two more and they’re installation errors, they would probably stop testing and just make repairs throughout the entire system.

“We’ve got another meeting on November 4th,” he said. “I will say that all of the parties have been at these meetings, the contractor, the mechanical engineer, uh, two HVAC companies, the one that installed them, the one that’s been doing the repairs and we’ve had good discussions. I think we’re moving in the right direction to finally resolve this issue.”

Isaac Sooter, assistant superintendent, reported on curriculum and student instruction focuses for October. 

“Our academic work this month is focused on consistent instruction, support for teachers, and using student learning to guide our next steps,” he said. “The goal is straightforward: students should have access to strong teaching and clear expectations in every Monett classroom. Carrie Smith and Heather Romine are supporting this work through coaching cycles, classroom learning walks, and professional development across buildings.

“New Cub Academy and curriculum days give new teachers additional support with classroom culture, student engagement, and instructional planning. These efforts help teachers put district expectations into daily practice. Curriculum work continues in English language arts and mathematics to ensure lessons align with the Missouri Learning Standards. Teachers are also reviewing science assessments and pacing. Writing professional development is helping grade levels establish shared goals and common classroom expectations so students build their skills consistently as they move through school.”

Another priority is helping teachers use assessment information to make instructional decisions.

“Professional learning is focused on comparing what students know before instruction with what they can demonstrate afterward,” Sooter said. “This helps teachers identify students who need additional support,

students ready for more challenging work, and lessons that need a different approach. The Profile of a Cub is also becoming more visible in classrooms. Students are receiving lessons connected to its five competencies and creating artifacts during CUBS time that demonstrate those skills. Recognizing progress toward academic and personal goals helps students take ownership of their learning. Our focus moving forward is to use student work and assessment results to determine where these efforts are making a difference and where we need to adjust.”

Sooter also reported the Missouri State School Board Association has been working primarily on state district’s A-F designations that they were behind on providing this year’s Annual Performance Report (APR).

“That’s been pushed back,” he said. “I would typically update you on APR next month, November, that that is not going to happen. We probably won’t get that until December at this point.”

Sooter also proposed formulation of a cohort program designed to encourage instructors to pursue continuing education to develop in-house masters in administration, within the next three to 10 years.

“We want to make sure we’re building up leaders within the school district,” he said. “Our plan would be to come to [the board] next month with a plan to start a masters in administration cohort with anywhere from 8-14 people within the district. We want to try to grow our own in the administrative ranks.”

The next meeting of the Monett Board of Education will be at 6 p.m. on Nov. 19, at the administrative offices, 710 Ninth Street.