WhitehouseTexas.com

A survey of exiting seniors from the Class of 2005 at Whitehouse High School turned up two or three possible areas of concern amid some positive feedback. Principal Christopher Moran described the survey, which was prepared by LifTrack Services, Inc. of Clarkston, Wash., as �very general.�

He told the board that though he and his staff don�t base all of their decisions on it, they don�t discount it either�� even though it may hurt our feelings.� The survey was an information item at Monday�s school board meeting.

The two areas of concern that seemed to attract the most attention at the meeting were drug availability and harassment by students. Six-two of 156 seniors who responded to the survey, or almost 40 percent, responded yes to the statement, �Drugs are easily accessible on campus during the school day.�

While it was pointed out that the test cannot differentiate between students answering truthfully and those who are not, answers to two other drug related questions may encourage the district to look more closely the WHS campus.

When asked �Do students commonly come to school
under the influence of drugs, 71 answered �Yes.� That is 46% of the survey.

Seniors were also asked if students commonly come to school under the influence of alcohol. This time the number of Yes answers was lower�51, That is about one third of the respondants.

The question concerning harassment was �Did you ever experience serious harassment from other students?� It resulted in a positive response from 26 students, or almost 17 percent of the survey.

Another possible area of concern was technology. While 97 seniors, or about 62 percent of the survey, said Whitehouse High School did provide �a strong foundation in the use of technology,� 59 or about 37 percent, rated it as average or below.

The areas of concern were balanced by some very good responses. Well over 90 percent of the respondants indicated they would be immediately entering college or vocational/ technical training. Over two-thirds felt the school offered enough elective classes to allow exploration of different career opportunities.

Over 82 percent of the students answering the survey said their learning experience at WHS was positive. In light of some incidents of campus threats made last year that resulted in student expulsions, the statement �Whitehouse High School provided a safe learning environment� was revealing.

Campus safety was rated by over 78 percent of the students as either excellent or good. Another 15 percent rated the campus as average when it comes to safety. Less than one percent said campus safety was below average, while just over five percent said it could use improvement.

In other information items, the board received the results of the state and federal accountability reports. Whitehouse�s highest rated school was Whitehouse Junior High School which received a �Recognized rating from the state.

All of the other school regular school campuses received an �Academically Acceptable� rating. The ratings across the state were generally lower due to tougher standards and new implementation rules required by the state. However, with the exception of fifth grade science, all areas in the school district were rated above statewide averages.

The Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) report is a federal accountability report. The district met both academic and participation standards across the board on the AYP.

The board also was presented with the district�s new, reorganized compensation plan. That plan reduces the number of steps for teachers from 27 to 20 and makes the steps uniform. It gave each category of district employee a three percent raise for the current school year, based on the salar y mid-point of the category.

In line the raises given to employees, including administrators, the board approved an amendment to his contract, granting the same three percent raise to WISD Superintendent Dennis Miller.