The Limestone County Board of Education approved Tuesday a new platform for evaluating the usefulness of educational programs in the district, though not everyone was OK with the decision.

Glimpse K12 is a way of reviewing school spending to see which programs and initiatives are having the desired impact on student achievement. During a presentation at the Oct. 1 work session, Glimpse representative Jessica Williams said the company usually saves districts enough money by weeding out ineffective programs to pay for the cost of its contract.

However, board member Earl Glaze was unconvinced. Before a vote to approve the contract Tuesday, Glaze questioned why the district needed to spend money on an outside company if they already had curriculum directors to review and determine which programs were best.

“This is the tool they need to evaluate,” Superintendent Tom Sisk said. “… Their job is to evaluate instruction. This is a piece of it.”

Board member Ed Winter admitted he had also been skeptical and asked Brad Lewis, executive director of curriculum and instruction for Limestone County Schools, to better explain the program.

Lewis said Glimpse K12 would evaluate programs throughout the district to see how often the programs are used and what effect each has on students. The company would then provide report its findings to the district.

For example, Sugar Creek Elementary began using DreamBox Learning as way to improve math scores among students. Glimpse would monitor the program to see if students used the program, how much time students they spent with it if they did and if their scores improved or fell as a result. The district could then use the information to decide if DreamBox should be expanded to other grades or schools.

In a district with several programs being used by nearly 11,000 students, Lewis said he simply doesn’t have the staff to accomplish such an evaluation the way Glimpse could.

“With the different software programs and systems and interventions we’re using, we’re trying to determine if we’re getting the most money we can for these programs,” he said. “… We need a tool to evaluate the usage of these programs and do a cost analysis.”

He said educators in the district have too many choices right now, and he wants to simplify those options while also being a good steward of taxpayer money.

“This is the only thing I’ve asked for, because I think it can help us make better decisions on the programs we’re currently using and programs that we’ll use in the future,” Lewis said.

The board voted 5-2 to approve a one-year contract with Glimpse at a cost of $32,350. Glaze and Bradley Young voted against the proposal.

Other business

In other business, board members approved the following:

• Travel to Indianapolis, Indiana, by Career Technical Center FFA members for Oct. 29–Nov. 1 for the national FFA convention;

• Travel to Dauphin Island by East Limestone and Elkmont high school gifted program students Nov. 10–13;

• Use of the Ardmore middle school gym Feb. 15, 2020, by Baseball Diamond Club for a baseball fundraiser dinner;

• Use of the Sugar Creek cafeteria Oct. 16–June 1, 2020, for Girl Scouts Troop 13 meetings;

• Use of the West Limestone High old gym and new gym Oct. 1–March 1, 2020, by Booster Club for practice and ballgames for West Limestone Rec League Basketball;

• Use of $23,900 in state textbook funds to purchase Multisensory Orton Gillingham Supplemental Reading Program;

• Presence Learning Contract in the amount of $35,240 for Virtual Speech-Language Services at Tanner;

• Agreement between Ardmore High and Cook’s Pest Control for $1,810 in services;

• Permission for Ardmore High School Band to lease a copier from Berney Office Solutions using local school funds;

• Presence Learning Contract to provide behavioral mental health services using Title IV funds;

• Use of Imagine Learning Math Pilot Program at Creekside Primary, Creekside Elementary, Johnson Elementary, Ardmore High, Clements High, East Limestone High, Elkmont High, Tanner High and West Limestone High;

• Copier lease agreement with J.T. Ray Company;

• Ban of Chelsea Redus from all Limestone County Schools property and LCBOE-sponsored events for a period of one year;

• Board members Ronald Christ and Charles Shoulders to serve as delegates at the December 2019 Alabama Association of School Boards Conference, with Glaze serving as alternate; and

• Extended school-year grants in agriscience education for Lauren Graham, Jacob Cosby, Ben Maples and Landria Smith.