Sikeston R-6 School District ramps up safety measures and career opportunities for students

SIKESTON — Sikeston R-6 School District continues to make improvements to ensure safety for its students and staff.

“We have made a lot of changes to make our school a safer place, and we're going to continue to do that and continue to search for grants to help us fund those changes,” Sikeston R-6 Superintendent Shannon Holifield said during the school board’s regular monthly meeting Tuesday, Jan. 14 at Central Office.

Andy Caton, R-6 safety coordinator, briefed the Board with the district safety report during the meeting.

“We’ve been super busy,” Caton said. “We've worked on things all summer and, of course, into the school year.”

Improvements made in the past year include implementing the Raptor emergency management system in place of Crisis Go and utilizing open-gate weapon detectors at the Junior High and High School campuses, Caton said.

“Students have really become acclimated, I think, to the new norm, if you will,” Caton said of the detectors. “… It was a learning experience for us as well as for students. … The feedback from the community, as far as what I've received, has been outstanding. It's 100% positive.”

Enhancing building security and streamlining visitor management by requiring ID scans for visitors at each building were also implemented, Caton said. Numerous school safety drills and staff trainings have been conducted throughout the year, he said.

Tiffany Morgan, assistant superintendent of secondary education, provided the career and technology report during Tuesday’s meeting. The three goals for the Sikeston Career and Technology Center have not changed because they’ve not been met. However, significant progress is being made on all goals, Morgan said.

“The first goal is to improve the level of recognized post-secondary credentials, and SCTC Director Chad King and his teachers work really hard on providing those credentials for the students when they leave SCTC,” Morgan said.

For example, the industrial recognized credit, or IRC, pass rate in 2023 was 20%. Last year, the IRC pass rate was 55.75%, Morgan said, adding the goal is 70%.

“Mr. King is hoping to get to close to 60% next year and continue that with the credentials and even the stackable credentials — where students can get more than one of the credentials,” Morgan told the Board.

SCTC’s second goal is to increase enrollment from the previous two years.

“Mr. King has been working really hard toward that as part of the SCTC expansion, and he said that maximum capacity is probably closer to around 530 students. We're at 496 students this year, which is an increase from 430 last school year.”

New buildings and new programs have led to an increase in attendance, Morgan said. Also, a student who attends Notre Dame is enrolled in construction at SCTC this year, she said, adding nine adults were trained over the summer in the Certified Nursing Assistant program.

The last goal for SCTC is to increase internships or apprenticeships opportunities.

“We currently have 23 students in the RA program, and six students have completed that program,” Morgan said, adding King is also working to get new companies enrolled in the RA program.

Steve Sparlin, R-6 director of technology, briefed the Board with the technology services report.

“We had to move to a new system this year,” Sparlin said. “That's a big deal. That software touches everything we do. It's not just grades and attendance, but things you wouldn't think of. The nurses use it. We couldn't service without it. So, there are lots of data integrations, and that consumed a lot of time this year.”

The district’s internet content filtering system was also replaced this year, and a new firewall and visitor management software were also implemented, Sparlin said. Five data racks with larger units were replaced as well as a new switch was added at the football stadium, he said.

Goals this year include to enhance student data privacy and governance practices and strengthen cybersecurity protocols and policies to meet standards set by Missouri School Improvement Plan-6 and Missouri United School Insurance Council, or MUSIC.

In providing the communications report, Natalie Coppage, R-6 communications and marketing specialist, said the district will be unveiling a new website this spring. The district’s current website hosting provider was bought out two years, and so the transition is finally happening, she said.

“The new website is going to look a lot neater,” Coppage said. “It's going to have better information and I think it's going to be, on my end, a lot easier to manage it all. … I'm so excited about this.”

In other business Tuesday, district enrollment as of Jan. 7 is at 3,336 students, which is up from 3,222 a year ago and up by six students from last month. The elementary, which is kindergarten through fourth grades, has 1,424 students; middle school, 497 students; junior high, 450 students; high school, 878 students; and alternative education center, 87 students.

Holifield said all of Sikeston’s school board members have completed the board refresher training through the Missouri Association of Rural Education, or MARE.

The superintendent also noted the February board meeting will not be on the second Tuesday as usual; it is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 12 at the board office.