BUCYRUS — The Bucyrus City Schools Board of Education discussed reading achievement in the district during its most recent meeting.

The board is beginning the process into coming up with a plan to help improve the district’s Reading Achievement Plan after receiving a letter from Governor Mike DeWine’s office in September.

For the last two years, the school has received a “D” or an “F” on the Improving At-Risk K-3 Readers component on the report card, and less than 60 percent of the district’s or community school’s students scored proficient or higher on the state’s grade 3 English Language arts test.

Because of this, the school was given until Dec. 31 of this year to create and submit a new Reading Achievement Plan.

So far, school representatives have met with State Support Team 7 to discuss the components and process for developing a Reading Achievement Plan; there has been a team of administrators, teachers, and other staff that will look over the K-5 reading data from the last five years to implement the Reading Achievement Plan.

The next steps in the process are for the team to meet on Nov. 6 to analyze date, create an action plan, and complete the Reading Achievement Plan framework. There will be a draft of the plan submitted to State Support Team 7 on Nov. 18, and based on recommendations from that meeting, the team will make any necessary changes to the plan in preparation to submit the final draft.

“While the timeline is challenging, this is work we know we need to do. As professional educators, we need to take time to review and reflect on our data and practices. Developing the Reading Achievement Plan will help us do just that,” Bucyrus Superintendent Matt Chrispin said. “I’m excited about working with this group of teachers and am confident we are going to improve reading instruction and assessment for all students.”

Also during the meeting, Chrispin briefly mentioned Ridgedale leaving the Northern 10 Athletic Conference and said there are two schools looking to come into the league after Ridgedale exits for the 2021-22 year.

It also was announced that bowling is now a varsity sport at Bucyrus, instead of just being a club sport.