A reading program used at Buckskin Elementary was highlighted by teachers at Monday’s school board meeting, held at the elementary school in South Salem.

The program is called Lexia and it is based on the science of reading. According to the teachers, it has helped students become not just better readers, but more engaged and confident.

Teachers Lynda Cottrill, Nate McNeal and Julie Shonkwiler all talked about how students interact with the Lexia program and the positive learning they have witnessed.

Cottrill said the program is highly individualized according to each student and the diagnostic data the program provides helps teachers target particular instruction needs for students. All three teachers talked about how the students are engaged when it’s time to do the Lexia lab.

The Lexia lab has even helped in relationship building among her kindergarteners, Shonkwiler said, as she has watched how they encourage one another.

McNeal said it’s been fun to watch the kids learn and improve their reading skills, which turns around their whole educational experience.

Cottrill echoed that with an anecdote about one particular student that struggled resulting in poor behavior in the classroom. She has watched the student’s steady improvement this school year, and with that reading improvement the student has become the one who wants to keep reading when it is time to put the books away and who volunteers to read aloud in class. He is just one example, she said, of the engagement and confidence that the program is helping children achieve.

In other meeting business, food service director Stephanie Lanning provided an annual report. It included how many breakfasts and lunches are served daily, also comparing those numbers to previous years. Lanning also discussed the changes in nutritional standards and how those are being incorporated into the meal offerings. Last year’s inaugural year of the summer food service program was also recapped, showing that over the program’s 43 days, more than 400 children were served daily. Lanning brought to the board’s attention possible avenues to explore how the district is reimbursed from state and federal agencies.

Superintendent Quincey Gray in her report noted construction progress at the practice field, which has included adjustments to anchored steel plates. While the on-site work has faced delays, things are progressing.

Student advisory council members Brooke Baldwin and Katie Cook reported on happenings with FFA, which included upcoming events and competitions. In that list of upcoming things for the FFA is a trip to Ireland, which the group has been planning and fundraising for more than a year. That trip is coming this spring and will include visits to a variety of farms.

Employment recommendations approved by the board were: Natalie Rolfe, third grade teacher at Greenfield Elementary; Andrea Swackhammer Darst, van driver; Debbie Burgess, cafeteria; Kyndall Penwell, aide; Emma Gall, half year social studies department leader; John Wilson, half year social studies department lead; Madison Schumacher, softball volunteer; and certified substitutes Adam Bushatz, Bryn Karnes and Sylvia Gray.

Monday’s consent agenda included the approval of a mowing contract with Mark Watson for Rainsboro and Buckskin elementaries and the Washington, D.C. trip for eighth graders on May 24-27.

Angela Shepherd is a correspondent for the Greenfield School District.