In Tuesday’s edition of the Butler Eagle, we learned that the state identified areas of need in three Butler Area School District schools.

Because of the findings, the district will implement improvement plans at Butler Senior High, Northwest Elementary and Center Township Elementary schools, Julie Hopp, director of curriculum and instruction in the district, said in a Monday, Sept. 11, presentation to the school board.

Some school board members as well as members of the administration voiced concern, however, that the state may not be accurate in how it identified the areas of need.

Attendance was an area of improvement identified for Northwest Elementary based on data from 2021, when COVID-19 mitigation policies were still in place. Because of that, superintendent Brian White said the attendance data could be irrelevant to today’s version of the school.

White estimated 700 to 800 students were on cyberschool at that time.

“The ones who were in school … if you sneeze, you’re supposed to stay home for 10 days. Now we have an attendance issue; I wonder why,” he said at Monday’s meeting.

In this case, White’s point is likely more relevant than the state’s attendance data. The COVID-19 pandemic seems to be something the state could have factored in to its suggested “areas of need.”

We do commend the director of curriculum and instruction, Hopp, however, for setting some plans in place for the other identified needs. Career readiness and English language arts were deemed areas of need at the high school, and increasing co-teaching and collaborative planning among staff were noted as needs at Center Township Elementary.

“These are things we want to have on our radar, things we want to make sure we’re thinking about,” Hopp said.

These could still be areas of need, Hopp said.

In these scenarios, it’s likely worthwhile to take a closer look at those needs, to consider that 2021 data and take steps to ensure things don’t further go down hill while awaiting information for more current years.

But, in these scenarios, too, it’s pretty likely COVID-19 was still a factor that led to these needs. Make sure to keep that in mind before giving our educators a hard time.

— TL