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The Decatur Board of Education met last Thursday for their October meeting. Informational items on the agenda this month were reports given by Elementary School Principal Kaycee Wade and Middle School Principal Quinten Fuller. 

Principal Wade highlighted the Elementary Schools’ use of data in tailoring education to their current students. “We’ve made gains on diagnostic scores in every area,” Wade said. Each teacher can utilize that data in their preparation to teach their students, “We give teachers half a day to plan together at the end of each month, to look at their data and see where they need to improve and make plans on how to do that.” But Wade was clear that the administration aims to make teachers’ lives as simple as possible despite the reliance on diagnostic tools to inform teaching methodology,  “we prepare a lot of resources for our teachers so they can concentrate on teaching and not the other things.” 

Principal Fuller touched on areas that the middle school is particularly proud of and highlighted the number of students receiving additional support through various avenues. In addition to supporting students with learning challenges, gifted education is available to qualifying students. The sixth, seventh and eighth-grade gifted classes have been reading the Jekyll Island book series. Educators plan to take participating students on a culminating field trip to the book’s namesake, Jekyll Island, to complete the unit of study. According to Fuller, on October 27, BMS social studies and ELA teachers are being recognized at the state level for their work on this cross-curricula project. 

The board will reconvene for their regularly scheduled work session and board meeting in November.