Check out the notes from the meeting
Northside Restart plan approved, Vaughan to go global
Northside K-8 and Vaughan Elementary received approvals by the Board of Education for changes this fall.
Northside K-8 School’s Restart Plan and Vaughan Elementary’s request to become a global school were both passed unanimously by the school board during their work session on May 23.
The Restart Model of School Improvement allows schools designated as low-performing for two out of the last three years to apply for waivers to grant flexibility usually reserved for charter schools. Schools using the Restart model are still under the jurisdiction of the local school board and are not charter schools.
In January, the state board approved Restart applications for Mariam Boyd, Northside K-8, Warren County Middle, and Warren County High. The Warren County school board has already approved the Restart plan for Mariam Boyd Elementary, and the calendar waivers for Warren County Middle and Warren County High.
Principal Medicus Riddick and several Northside teachers presented their Restart plan to the board, seeking waivers to fully implement Engineering Is Elementary (EiE) throughout the entire school, hire one full-time social worker for the school, and extend the school year by five days.
Engineering Is Elementary is a program currently at Northside that teaches students engineering while simultaneously enhancing their math and science skills. To fully implement EiE, Northside officials explained that they’ll need staff training so all teachers can implement the program in their classes, a designated EiE coordinator who assists with implementation and monitoring, and materials for various engineering projects and challenges.
Northside is seeking a fulltime social worker dedicated just to Northside to provide social-emotional assistance to students throughout the day. The social worker will provide support, consult with teachers and administrators, and offer individual and group therapy.
The social worker will also bridge the gap between the school, home, and community, and perform interventions to get students back on track.
Lastly, Northside’s third waiver is to extend the school year by five days to all the staff to build on remediation programs and provide more targeted instruction to students. The five days would be added by taking days from the track-out sessions.
Vaughan to go global
Vaughan Elementary School will be a hub for global learning this fall when it opens it doors as the district’s first global school.
Principal Brian Biles and Media Coordinator Trina Paynter gave a presentation to the board about what it means to be a global school and how Vaughan Elementary plans to implement the new approach.
Vaughan’s goal is to help students see that they are part of a larger, interconnected community where their choices shape the world, and provide students with cultural sensitivity and knowledge to make them more competitive in the global job market.
Vaughan began investigating the global school concept last school year, and visited several global schools to see the model in action. Once school staff, parents and the community were onboard with the concept, the school came to the board for approval.
As a global school, Vaughan Elementary’s teachers will integrate multiple dimensions, perspectives, and citizenships into the daily lessons within the curriculum, giving students a global education.
Students will learn about international communities, social justice issues, global events, and international ideas in their regular classroom setting.
To assist with the transition, parents and board members were asked for support, to help secure materials that represent various countries, for connections to people in other countries, to share their international experiences, to lend a hand with helping the school look global and volunteer continuously.
The school has already pulled together its global committee. Now that the board has approved the change, Vaughan will set times to meet with Participate, formerly Visiting International Faculty (VIF), then plan and launch a global kickoff.
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The board was presented with the CTE Technical Attainment Improvement Plan by Ernie Conner, director of technology and career and technical education.
Conner said one of the most visible goals of the CTE program is technical skill attainment. The N.C. Department of Public Instruction requires all school districts with scores more than 10 percent below the state benchmarks to complete a Technical Attainment Improvement Plan.
The school district’s overall CTE proficiency dropped from 94.8 Percent to 41.2 percent during the 2014-15 school year. For the 2015-16 school year, proficiency increased to 54.9 percent, but is still 25 percent below the state benchmark.
The Technical Attainment Improvement Plan outlines four strategies that will improve technical skill attainment: supporting three of the career academies, continued implementation of Building Assets Reducing Risks (BARR) program, implementation of the Restart Model of School Improvement at Warren County High School, and participation in the Southern Regional Education Board’s Project Based Learning in Career Pathway Courses program.
Conner presented the local CTE plan during the May 9 regular board meeting and it was approved by the board.
Both plans had to be approved by the school board and submitted to DPI no later than June 30.
The Warren County Board of Education will hold its next regular meeting at 7PM on Tuesday, June 13 at the Central Office.