Mountain Grove School Board welcomes new faces

The Mountain Grove R-III School Board met on Wednesday, April 15 to welcome two new faces and to reconfirm a third.
Sheena White, Ryan Allen and Cody Secrest were sworn in; Allen and Secrest to their new positions and White to a new term. 
The members were all smiles as the meeting started, with Ryan Morris, who is exiting the Board and is currently a candidate for Associate Circuit Judge, remaining in the audience to support his former colleagues.
Now fully sworn in, the complete Board elected officers, include Joe Golden being reappointed as president and is now the Missouri School Board Association (MSBA) delegate, Sheena White as vice-president, Amanda Owens was named MSBA alternate delegate, Bobbi Benson named secretary and treasurer being Donna Courtney. The meeting began as normal, with expenditures being approved, bills being paid and Board policies being updated.
A presentation was given by the vice president of the Mountain Grove High School FFA and the Middle School Structural Engineering Class, which were both informational and entertaining. One concept presented by the Middle School Student was “Learn through Failure.”
Discussion was a little heated during an exchange regarding data for the Comprehensive School Improvement Plan (CSIP). During the presentation on CSIP, a plan that guides the district in five year increments, Golden challenged Mountain Grove Superintendent Dr. Aaron Gerla to present figures showing progress.
After being asked multiple direct data questions and full answers not being provided for them, Golden began to lose his patience.
“We met once per month over the last four months and I have requested this information. How do you not have it?” Golden pressed loudly.
“One of the things that’s in our (school board) policy is to monitor district performance. That’s our job, it’s our job. We have this document that is like our report card for the State of Missouri. This report is 15% of our Annual Performance Review. We haven’t done anything. How can we monitor the progress if we don’t have the numbers?”
While Superintendent Dr. Gerla provided no answers on data in the meeting, including improvement of MAP test scores and i-Ready reading levels, Golden presented his own, compiled with data previously presented during meetings.
“If I can pull the information this easily, why can’t you?”
When reached for comment, Golden recounted, “My frustration over this just boiled over. It’s easy data, it’s not a surprise. The meeting on the 15th was the first step in accountability. It’s beyond comprehension not to have it. I have confidence it will be presented, but if not, the Board will take action.”
Golden expressed his goal of open information for parents.
“When I joined the Board, my first goal was transparency and increasing communication. Things like this are step one.”