Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Board To Look At Uniforms

The Gurdon School Board decided to form a committee of teachers, parents, and some students to investigate the "school uniform issue."

The committee will be chosen by the principals of the three Gurdon schools. The district is required by law to fully explore the community's interest in the subject, whether it's for or against according to School Uniform Act 1301.

Parents may volunteer to help work on the issue , but the numbers will be limited to six parents from Primary, and four parents from each of the other schools.

The committee will be ready by the next school board meeting in December.

The Gurdon School District received the Fall 1999 Stanford Achievement Test scores for fifth, seventh, and tenth grades. The SAT-9 scores are on a scale of 1-99, with 50 being the National Norms.

These test are used to decide admittance by many colleges and universities.

An alarming pattern of decline in test scores for the 10th graders is shown over the scores from 1997-'99.

When questioned by board member, Billy Tarpley, superintendent, Bobby Smithson stated, "Once a student gets in the 10th grade if you haven't reached him, there's very little we can do to help him."

The SAT test scores comparison graph which followed the current 10th grade class scores for the past three years shows an average drop of nine points in the four main areas.

The fifth grader's highest scoring area for the year was 43 in study skills. The lowest score for the fifth grade was 25 in math. This means Gurdon fifth grade students are scoring at 1/4 the national average in math.

Out of the three grades reported on only the seventh grade made above the 50th percentile in four out of nine areas.

Smithson announced that Gurdon Primary School principal, Rita Roe and other teachers will be attending a conference in February 2000 in Nashville, Tenn. to inspect information on a new teaching program entitled "Star Math Program." "If this doesn't work we've got to try something else," commented Smithson.

The lawsuit over the poor construction of the high school parking lot has been settled. The school will receive $5,000 after lawyers fees are deducted.

BB and B Construction will pay this amount, even though the larger portion of the money was lost when Caltrex went bankrupt. The money has already been used to seal the high school parking lot in hopes of extending the life of the parking lot by five years.

The Gurdon High School band students were presented with pins by the board in honor and recognition of their recent win in the Governor's Trophy band contest.

Allen Wimberly stood with his students to convey his pride in each one's effort and hard work. Wimberly thanked the band booster parents and the board.

The district's recent audit turned up nothing unusual, with the exception of a common citation. The citation commented that the school lacks enough personal. "It's automatic, no one has enough people," commented Betsy Hearst, district's bookkeeper.

"The FFA is selling fruit now," Smithson said. "Stacy Stone is the contact teacher."