Move aims to improve scores

By AMANDA GARRETT
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- After earning a continuous improvement rating on last year's test scores, the Warren City Schools district is working to take its pupils' test scores even higher, school officials said.
The district is in the process of adding "curriculum maps" to ensure that every child in the district is being taught the same thing, said Kathy Shook, executive director of teaching and learning.
Shook and Mark Leiby, executive director of technology and state and federal programs, gave a presentation at the school board's Tuesday meeting highlighting the district's accomplishments and talking about the path ahead.
The district has already mapped out its curriculum for kindergarten through eighth grade in four subjects: language arts, math, science and social studies. Shook and her colleagues are working on maps for the high school.
The maps better align the curriculum with federal and state standards, which will enable pupils to better perform on the standardized tests from the Ohio Department of Education, Shook said.
Maintaining uniformity
Board member Linda Metzendorf said the curriculum maps are excellent for the Warren district.
"We have a lot of mobility in this district," she said. "Students could be in a classroom in one school one week and in a classroom in another school the next week, and we lost out on test scoring because of that. With this plan we won't have to lose out anymore."
Anyone wishing to view the maps can visit the school's Web site at www.warrenschools.k12.oh.us and then go to the teaching and learning link.
Other matters
In other business:
The board approved an addendum to Superintendent Kathryn Hellweg's contract, which will give her about 2,500 more per year.
The compensation is for Hellweg's doctorate and for her years of experience in education and is in line with what other Warren schools administrators receive, board president Robert Faulkner Sr. said.
Hellweg agreed to wait until after the first year of her employment for those items in her contract to take effect, Faulkner said.
Hellweg was hired August 1, 2005, and her base salary is 108,120.
The board also awarded a 381,613 contract to Commercial Appliance for food service equipment.
agarrett@vindy.com