ELKINS — The Elkins School District gave a report to the community on Sept. 15 with an invitation to the public to attend the event at the high school cafeteria with the district's board members, teachers and administrators.

The focus was to let the board and the public know the test results from the 2008-2009 school year.

The district's principals and counselors were all in attendance. School counselors from each school gave the results of each grade level, as well as discussed ideas and tools for improvement in each area for the future.

Superintendent Mike Harris introduced each one before they took the floor to give the results using a power point presentation.

"We are excited about what's going on," Harris said. "Our enrollment numbers and test scores are up."

The Gifted and Talented (GT) program report was given by GT coordinator Deanna Auslam.

Auslum said the purpose of the GT program is to provide maximum opportunities for self-fulfillment of potential giftedness through the development of one of more talent areas where superior potential may be present.

The development of this potential will help to produce the next generation of leaders and problems solvers. Development of these gifts is important to society as well as being in the best interest of the child.

"GT testing scores are going up since Ms. Posey came on board," Auslam said.

Auslam gave specific reasons why GT testing scores have improved as well as stated goals for the program in the future.

Auslam went on to say, "With the loss of our colleague Mr. Myers, we are dedicated as a district to continue his work." Jeff Myers, who recently passed away, oversaw the Quiz Bowl, ACE and the Geography Bee during his years at Elkins.

Primary counselorLisa Carper gave the test results for the primary school. Each school in the district was tested in different areas on the State level exams.

The primary students tested in math and literacy. The primary students' numbers or ranks were up from the previous year, Carper reported.

Elkins also reports the differences from their district against the rest of the State scores. In most cases, Elkins ranked moderately higher than the State average.

"We are going strong in math and plan on continuing that way," Carper said. "This year we would also like to see increases in literacy as well."

Elementary counselor Suzanne Krumpelman gave a report for the elementary school. The trendto higher test scores and areas of more focus continued. As with the primary school, the elementary numbers were up or above the state averages.

"When you look at these graphs and compare them, we are just leaps and bounds above in a lot of ways," Krumpelman said.

Middle school counselor Tina Bulla also gave a report to the board and the public.

Elkins Middle School students remain proficient or advanced in most areas, Bulla reported. The middle school was tested in the areas of math and literacy.

The students benefit from many different ways to increase their overall testing scores, Bulla said.

Some of them include;

Elk Lab, Tutoring, Reading Class, and Tools for Learning.

High school counselor Debbie Drake explained the results of the high school student's scores by saying, "We test very heavily in high school;

every test has a purpose and an outcome." High school students test in many more areas of study than the lower grades, Drake said. Some of the area the students test include Algebra I, Geometry, Literacy, U.S.

History, and Biology. As with all the other schools in Elkins, the high school offers a variety of tools forhigher learning and better comprehension.

The schools offer many different times for tutoring in specific areas for the students to take advantage of. They also have a literacy committee that attends workshops and prepares the students for testing.

"We want to make sure our kids are ready for harder college work and give them the knowledge they will need for the future," Drake said.

Harris thanked his faculty and staff for their generous and hard work.

"This is all about the kids," he said. "They are why we are all here."

Education, Pages 7 on 09/24/2009

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