The Sulphur Springs Union School District governing board discussed potential site layout plans for the future elementary school site in the Skyline Ranch community and reviewed state testing scores from the spring on Wednesday night.  Members of the governing board, excluding board member Lori MacDonald, who was not in attendance, reviewed two layout options for the Skyline Ranch community elementary school site presented by Scott Gaudineer, president and CEO of Flewelling and Moody architectural firm.  Both school layout plans included two classroom buildings, a kindergarten building, a multi-purpose room, an administration building, two parking lots, a baseball field, blacktop courts, a soccer field with a track surrounding it and grass fields.  The difference between the two layouts was that option one featured the administrative offices and the learning center together in one building and option two featured them apart.  Superintendent Catherine Kawaguchi asked governing board members which of the two options they prefer so that Gaudineer can move forward in that direction and begin to develop a schematic design phase and begin the geotechnical investigation for where the buildings will be going.   Governing board members stated they were leaning more in favor of option one over option two. No action was taken, and final plans will be reviewed at a later meeting.   “It is nice to have the supervision, the accessibility it (layout option one) does if we have it together,” said Kawaguchi.   Gaudineer said that he looked forward to showing the governing board schematic designs in about a month and a half.  After the presentation, the governing board reviewed the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress test scores and the California Science Test.  Third through sixth graders take the English and math portions of the CAASPP test while fifth graders also take the science portion of the CAST test.   Overall, the district saw 51% of the 2,765 students who took the English portion at least meeting the state standard.   In math, 42% of the 2,786 students who took the test at least met the state standard.  This year the governing board was able to examine the grade-level cohort multi-year data. With the cohort data, administrators can identify which grade level the students are struggling with the most and plan how they can help out.   The grade-level cohort math data revealed that students’ test scores decreased in fifth grade.   “I think that fifth grade the standards become very challenging in that the jump from fourth to fifth is significant,” said Julie McBride, assistant superintendent of educational services.   McBride said now that they can see a dip in test scores for fifth graders, they can begin to monitor why exactly that happens. They can figure out a plan to help the fifth-grade teachers.  McBride added that it is exciting to see the test scores increase in the sixth grade, where possible reteaching of difficult math lessons takes place and allows the students to show how well they grasp the concept.   In all, 642 fifth-graders took the CAST test and 36% of those students met the state standard. McBride presented the elementary schools’ percentage of students that met or exceeded the science standard. Golden Oak Community School ranked the highest with 60% of its fifth graders meeting or exceeding the standard.   McBride said that knowing which school is the highest out of the rest gives the governing board a chance to go to Golden Oak, see what they are doing differently and share it with other teachers, so all the students are successful.   The post Sulphur Springs school board chooses a school site plan, praises state test scores  appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.