Columbia school board sets $22.6 million maximum cost of Columbia Area Career Center work

Additions and renovations at the Columbia Area Career Center will cost $22.6 million.

The Columbia Board of Education on Thursday approved the guaranteed maximum price submitted by Reihardt Wilson, the district's construction manager at risk.

It's well within the project budget of $24 million, said Heather McArthur, chief financial officer for Columbia Public Schools.

There has been a lot of discussions with the company, said Randy Gooch, chief operations officer.

"A large concern and what is driving a lot of the demolition on the original construction is the foundation," Gooch said.

Reaching this stage of the project indicates progress, Gooch said.

"Generally, I think it's going very well," Gooch said of the project.

According to a schedule, work is expected to begin at the career center in late spring 2024, with completion in August 2025.

The project is part of an $80 million bond issue approved by voters last year.

Student absenteeism

Student absenteeism remains a problem, the principals of Battle and West Boulevard elementary schools and Hickman High School told the school board in their reports.

Attendance at Battle is 79.6%, said Principal Kyra Yung.

The fourth grade is the only grade that meets the state standard of 90% attendance, she said.

At West Boulevard, the attendance rate this year is 78.4%, with no grade levels reaching 90%, said Principal Morgan Neal.

The attendance rate at Hickman is 77.5%, said Principal Mary Grupe.

The students who have the lowest attendance also have the lowest achievement scores, Grupe said.

"If students are not in school, we can't teach them," Grupe said.

Hickman students also may have tempting attractions away from school being closer to downtown than the other high schools, she said.

"The people who aren't engaged in school are less likely to come to school," Grupe said.

Other data points

The principals reviewed other data sets from their schools.

"You are going to see really quickly that the data at Hickman is alarming," Grupe said.

Black and multiracial students and students on special education plans don't register in proficient or advanced on achievement tests, she said.

"This is painful," she said.

Graduation rates for those students also is lower, she said.

A positive data point is the 75% drop in behavior incidents since last year, from 737 incidents to 190 incidents. Out-of-school suspensions declined from 51 last year to 30 this year.

Restorative practices are being included in teacher professional development, she said. In it, student offenders meet face-to-face with those they harmed to hear from them the ways they have been harmed by the offenders.

There will be a double dose of equity training on Oct. 27, Grupe said.

Prescriptive graduation plans are developed for students who are not on track for graduation, she said.

At West Boulevard Elementary School, out-of-school suspensions dropped from 16 last year to six this year, involving only a few students, Neal said.

The school needs classroom aides, new playground equipment and heating and air-conditioning repairs, she said.

At Battle Elementary K-2 students had a 10% growth in reading proficiency, Yung said. Math scores for students in grades 3-5 were stagnant, she said.

The school has a behavior committee and literacy and math committees, she said.

Roger McKinney is the Tribune's education reporter. You can reach him at rmckinney@columbiatribune.com or 573-815-1719. He's on X at @rmckinney9.

This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Principals report to school board on student absenteeism, other issues