Student intervention team at RWE discusses changes

The way the Student Intervention Team (SIT) works at Ralph Witters Elementary has changed a bit and they presented those changes and what they’ve meant to students at the November school board meeting.

According to principal Catelyn Deromedi, they currently have about 45 students in the intervention program, none of which are associated with special education or regular, basic classroom interventions.

Deromedi said they had some kinks to work out in the program along with a number of new teachers, so this was a perfect time to make the changes. Her hope is to be able to share the success of the program with other schools in the state.

Previously, everything was done with paper and pen. Any interventions they were working on were kept in individual files for each student in intervention and that file was passed down to each teacher as the child went through school.

Now, everything has been switched over to a digital format and there is much less of a chance that something is going to get lost.

A liaison is attached to each student-teacher pair in the program and helps the teacher decide what the best course of action is going to be with intervention for that particular student. They are monitored every two weeks for 10 weeks to make sure the intervention is getting the results they need or if it needs adjusted.

The 10-week period gives them time and opportunity to figure out what may be specific triggers for students.

For instance, if a child is having difficulty when it comes to reading out loud, the teacher and the liaison can figure out what it is that happens at that time that makes reading aloud difficult for that particular student.

Once they’ve figured out the trigger, they can work around it, helping the child have more success with reading out loud.

Early interventions are big turning points and everything within this program is based on what the teacher has seen. Interventions can be either academic or behavioral.

The board also spent some time going over their recent audit.

As is typical, there are some issues the auditor found in regards to segregation of duties. This is something the board hears every year, as there are not enough people on the payroll to absolutely separate everything that comes through. It isn’t something to be overly concerned about as the audit came up clean.

Actually, there weren’t a lot of changes in numbers from last year to this year. The auditor did find some depreciation issues and was able to make the necessary corrections.

It is important to note that the depreciation issues were from prior years, not this current year.

Approval was given by the board to reinstate a bus stop at 2080 Hamilton Dome Road, the Arapahoe Ranch Commissary, for student pick up and drop off.

The address had previously been a bus stop, but the family that used it had relocated and the stop was no longer needed. Now a new family is in the area and the board agreed to begin using the stop again.

The board will have their December meeting on Tuesday, the 17th in the boardroom at 6:30 p.m.