CCS board focuses on performance grades

Performance grades and the path toward improving them took center stage Wednesday as the Clinton City Schools Board of Education convened for its September meeting, with board members and administrators weighing the pressures placed on teachers, the changing metrics from the state, and the district’s responsibility to students and families.

The meeting, held at the district’s central office, was at times technical — as leaders analyzed state testing standards and accountability formulas — and at other times deeply personal, as administrators reflected on the daily burdens carried by teachers and the individual needs of children.

For Board Member Clark Hales, the issue boiled down to a single question: how can the district free teachers to do what they entered the profession to do, teach?