L’ANSE – The L’Anse Area Schools Board of Education discussed the possibility of modifying teacher evaluations at a meeting on Monday. One fourth of teachers’ effectiveness is based on student progress on standardized tests, and currently, said board member Eva Marie Hatfield, all students are expected to score at least a 70 percent to officially show progress.

That’s unfair when students begin in the 0 to 40 percent range and can show significant improvement without cracking that threshold, Hatfield said.

“If they start at 0 and show a 28, that’s progress, but it doesn’t show,” she said. “I think the growth scale is a major stress as a teacher.”

“This is the fifth year (of evaluations),” said board member Christine Collins, noting that her son, a teacher in another district, had simpler, less stressful evaluations. “I think it’s time to talk about it.”

Superintendent Carrie Meyer said she understands the stress, as she’s judged on more than twice as many categories, including the teachers’ success under their rubrics.

“I think there should be something we can do about it,” Meyer said. “The state mandate is we have to base 25 percent of it on student growth, but we can tweak what constitutes that growth.”

In other business, the board:

approved the hire of Hilary Froberg as the new kindergarten teacher. Meyer said Froberg worked in the school’s special education department, and the school should offer her the security of a job while she completes her certification.

“She does a great job with the kids,” Meyer said. “We want to keep her here.”

heard from Meyer that fencing around the new football field was expected to be up by the end of July.

“Last year they broke into the press box, this year they dug up the field,” she said. “We can’t get that fence up soon enough.”

heard from Ayres that final legal bills have come in from the Traxys property tax litigation, and that he’s satisfied with their accuracy. The board’s share of litigation costs came to $29,630, just a few hundred dollars under the maximum they’d agreed to pay.

heard Ayres’ recommendation for 2 percent raises for district administrators. Ayres said money for those raises had been included in the budget, and that administrators had recently gone through a wage freeze.

The raises will be decided at a later meeting.