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Governor to visit local high school
North Carolina Gov. Beverly Perdue will visit Winterville’s South Central High School next week to discuss the state budget, school sources say.
The visit is tentatively scheduled for Monday at noon.
Perdue is expected to focus on what she wants the final state budget to include for public education.
Budget negotiations between the House and Senate are starting this week.
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School system adjusts feeding program dates
Pitt County Schools officials have made some revisions to the Summer Food Service Program.
The program offers a free breakfast and lunch to kids 18 and younger. The meals will be served at 21 local K-8 schools and the Greenville Cultural and Recreational Center.
Eight schools offering the service will offer it four additional days this month, a change officials announced last week.
A.G. Cox, Ayden Middle, C.M. Eppes, Creekside Elementary, Falkland, Northwest Elementary, Pactolus Elementary and Ridgewood Elementary will serve the meals June 15-29. It was originally planned that those schools would stop the service June 25.
Other locations will also start June 15 and serve through Aug. 7.
Breakfast will be served from 8-8:30 a.m. Lunch will be offered from 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. The meals are available Monday through Friday.
Find out which school are participating here.
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House budget would shorten school year
The budget presented Wednesday to the chairs of the state House education subcommittees is not a favorable one for school systems across the state.
Reflecting a worsening revenue picture, the budget recommends a cut of 11.1 percent in educational funding for 2009-10.
The House also recommends shortening the 2009-10 school year by five days and reducing the 20010-11 school year by 10 days. Legislators are contemplating having school districts extend the remaining school days to make up for the hours they would lose.
Other cuts proposed in the budget include: 6,005 classroom teaching positions (a move that would increase class size by two students per grade); 4,663 teacher assistant jobs; 354 instructional support positions; 187 assistant principals; and a 5 percent cut to non-instructional support staff such as secretaries and custodians.
The House proposal would also eliminate literacy coaches in schools, cut the More at Four program by 10 percent and redirect corporate sales tax funds which are currently used to help with school construction.
Pitt County Schools Spokeswoman Heather Mayo said school system leaders are still analyzing what impact the House proposal would have on the district.
You can view the proposals here.
Mayo said there is great concern about the potential loss of instructional time due to shortening the school year.
Mayo said the system is also concerned about the proposal calling for $22 million toward the expansion of some areas such as early college high school, dropout prevention, leadership academy and comprehensive school reform.
“There is no doubt that there is a compelling interest for many of these programs,” Mayo said. “However, given the potential job loss and/or salary reductions that many employees will potentially face next year, we question whether or not this is the appropriate time to make these expansions.”
Mayo said the district was pleased to learn that the elimination of low-wealth supplemental funding for some counties would not affect their system.
Pitt County school officials are scheduled to meet Friday with representatives of the Department of Public Instruction to further discuss the cuts.
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Some strings programs could be eliminated
A bleak financial outlook for next year has prompted Pitt County Schools officials to likely cancel orchestra programs for fourth- and fifth-graders.
In a letter sent Monday to fourth- and fifth-grade orchestra parents, Pitt County Schools Arts Education Coordinator Jane Austin Behan announced that current funding for their child’s programs has been redirected to sustain the program in grades 6-12.
“While we regret having to share this change with you, we wanted you to have ample time for making decisions regarding your child’s instrument,” Behan wrote.
Behan noted that the decision was determined through the consensus of building administrators and central office personnel. Pitt County has been fortunate to be able to offer orchestra to at the fourth and fifth grade levels, Behan wrote, but reductions in teaching allotments are forcing the change.
“We are committed to the orchestra program in our district and look forward to serving your child in the future,” Behan wrote.
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School system gets positive news from county manager
The Pitt County school system got some encouraging news today from the county manager during the unveiling of his 2009-10 county budget proposal.
Manager Scott Elliott recommended to the Board of Commissioners a $408,360 increase in funding for Pitt County Schools. The proposal would fully fund the system’s request submitted earlier this month.
Elliott’s proposal would increase the school system’s county allotment to $34.889 million.
School officials say the additional money is necessary to help them cover fixed cost increases such as those for benefits ($301,136), liability insurance ($27,314) and facility operations ($167,347).
According to the North Carolina Association of County Commissioners, Pitt County currently ranks 40th among counties in funding per student at $1,465 per child.
The new proposal would provide $1,469 per student.
School officials expect next year’s enrollment to be around 23,239 students.
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School system graduation times now available
Pitt County Schools has released the graduation schedule for its six high schools.
All ceremonies will be held in Williams Arena at Minges Coliseum. Tickets are required for admittance.
Here is the schedule:
Friday, June 12: Ayden-Grifton, 5 p.m.; J.H. Rose, 8 p.m.
Saturday, June 13: D.H. Conley, 9 a.m.; North Pitt, 1 p.m.; Farmville Central, 4 p.m.; South Central, 7 p.m.
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Educators to protest pay cuts
The North Carolina Association of Educators is planning a protest of recent pay cuts for Saturday at the NCAE Center in Raleigh.
The state announced nearly two weeks ago that it was implementing a half-percent pay cut for state employees, including teachers. The cuts are intended to help state government balance offset revenue shortfalls in this year’s budget.
“NCAE wants to put elected leaders on notice that tough economic times will turn into even tougher economic times if we try to balance our state’s budget on the backs of educators and public schools,” NCAE President Sheri Strickland said. “Educators were hit with a sudden, last minute pay cut to what for many will be their last pay check until August. We want the General Assembly to know that it needs to do the right thing for our schools.”
Anyone wanting to join the protest should arrive at the NCAE Center by noon Saturday. The protest lasts until 1 p.m. A motorcade will follow it.
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Report: State schools have more crime, less short-term suspensions
A report presented to the State Board of Education today says that crime and violence increased slightly last year in North Carolina schools while short-term suspensions declined.
School crimes and violence rose 1 percent in 2007-08 from the previous year. The rate of 7.85 incidents per 1,000 students was slightly higher than the 7.77 reported in 2006-07, the report said.
Violent crimes represented 3.8 percent of all reported school crimes. The total number of violent crimes decreased by 3.6 percent.
The report also revealed that the number of short-term suspensions declined in 2007-08 from 310,744 to 308,010.
Long-term suspensions of 11 days or more increased from 4,736 to 5,225.
Pitt County schools experienced an 11-percent decrease in its total number of suspensions for the 2007-08 school year after implementing several strategies to keep kids in school.
A review of the school year’s first grading period showed that trend continuing as the total number of out-of-school suspensions in Pitt County dropped by 7 percent during the first six weeks.
Simple affray suspensions during that time increased by 32 percent, however, up to 37 from 28 such cases during the same span last year.
You can find a summary of the report presented to the State Board of Education here.
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Schools to name top teacher tonight
Pitt County Schools will hold its Teacher of the Year ceremony this afternoon at South Central High School.
The program begins at 5 p.m. in the school’s auditorium.
There are seven finalists for this year’s prize: Leigh Swinson of C.M. Eppes Middle; Randy St. Clair of E.B. Aycock Middle; Jennifer Counterman of Farmville Middle; Heather Craddock of H.B. Sugg Elementary; Pamela Silverthorne of Stokes; Emily Walker of Third Street Pre-K; and Kim Jessup of Wintergreen Intermediate.
In addition to that award, school officials will also name the system’s top custodian, office employee and teacher assistant.
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Pitt decides on schools with open enrollment
Pitt County’s Board of Education voted Monday night to offer open enrollment next year at five schools.
Students living anywhere in the district will have the option of attending Farmville Central High, Ayden Grifton High, North Pitt High, Sadie Saulter Elementary or Bethel.
Bethel and Sadie Saulter have the district’s two lowest percentages of capacity.
The new list of schools is the same as the one offered for the 2006-07 school year.
Superintendent Beverly Reep said the open enrollment option is being taken away from four middle schools because of pending reassignment plans. Those schools include Ayden, Hope, C.M. Eppes and E.B. Aycock.
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School officials confident in growth projections
Pitt County Schools Superintendent Beverly Reep says she is confident in the growth projections used in crafting the district’s proposed long-range facility plan.
But officials are closely monitoring how the recession may impact them.
Last year, the school board entered into an agreement with OR/Ed. Laboratory at the North Carolina State University Institute for Transportation Research and Education to develop the projections.
OR/Ed. Laboratory was responsible for collecting and analyzing data, building a graphic representation of the school district and current demographics, quantifying land-use factors and constructing a 10-year forecast.
The district, according to the group, is projected to grow over the next 10 years by 5,624 students, an annual average of 562 students.
In the past 10 years, Pitt County Schools has grown by an average of 336 students per year.
In the executive summary of the long-range facility plan, officials say approximately 300 new students enter the system each year.
The district welcomed 241 new students for the current year, a lower number that Reep believes is the result of poor economic conditions.
“I think that is something we are all being very cognizant of,” Reep said. “I think some of the difference in growth from years prior to this year was an economic impact. If we have a slowing in the growth next year, then I think we may want to go back to (OR/Ed.) saying we have a two year pattern here so what impact does that have long term? “We are looking with caution as to where we go.”
Reep said school leaders have discussed delaying the entire long-range facility plan because of how the poor economy might impact school funding and growth.
Delaying the full plan is not likely, however, because she said the school system has an opportunity to receive funding quicker from the recently passed American Recovery and Reinvestment Act if it has projects that are “shovel ready.”
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Local man says taxes are the way to go
One Pitt County man has shown that he is willing to dig into his pockets to help out the Pitt County school district, but his ideas may not be allowed.
During the listening session held Thursday night for a proposed long-range facility plan in the Pitt County school district, Eastern Pines’ Chuck Boulineau proposed to the board of education a tier tax plan which he says would annually raise about $5.5 million for Pitt County schools.
Boulineau’s tax plan would be a tier system with a flat rate. Homeowners and those owning vehicles would pay a fixed amount depending on the range in value of their property or vehicle.
Boulineau presented the board with a check for $310 to cover his share of the plan. Heather Mayo, Pitt County Schools spokeswoman, said officials have not yet decided what they will do with the money.
“I think our children are worth this, and I am willing to pay this,” Boulineau said. “I just want to be the first in Pitt County to pay my taxes for this.”
Pitt County Manager Scott Elliott said he is not aware of any state legislation that would allow such a tax plan.
The Board of Education has no authority to impose such a tax. The plan would have to be approved by state legislators before it could be implemented at the county level.
Pitt County Schools currently receives a percentage of proceeds from the local sales tax and revenue from the state education lottery. Those funds can only be used for school construction.
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School principals responsible for address verification
Some parents during the past week have expressed concern to Pitt County Schools senior staff and Board of Education members about students attending schools outside of their attendance area.
The problem has been mentioned most by Chicod parents. They have said the school would not have an issue with overcrowding if the school district cracked down on such cases.
Heather Mayo, spokeswoman for Pitt County Schools, said the responsibility of verifying student addresses falls on school principals.
She said the central office requires a name when a claim is made there, and the investigation is then handled by school principals.
A student’s parent or guardian must present satisfactory information verifying the residence of the family and the student, Mayo said.
If they choose to, principals can use school social workers for home visits or other methods to verify home addresses.
Mayo said it is hard to estimate how many claims are made each year because some do not go through the central office.
She said there are times when students have been found to be attending a school outside of their attendance area but she did not have any statistics.
“There are a lot of instances where general accusations are made, but no one comes forward with an actual student’s name,” Mayo said. “We have to have a student’s name in order to investigate the claim.”
More information about student assignment can be found here.
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Tolmie: “We have to consider everyone.”
Pitt County Board of Education Vice Chairman Dick Tolmie said Monday he has not yet decided whether he will support a plan recommending the reconfiguration of three K-8 schools.
A listening session Monday at D.H. Conley High School attracted hundreds of people, including about 30 who spoke out against the proposal.
Afterward, Tolmie said he was looking forward to hearing from people at the final four listening sessions before making a decision. He noted, however, that the number of people favoring the K-8 format has been “much more numerous” than those against it.
Tolmie was one of six board members in 2005 to approve a controversial plan reassigning students at five Greenville elementary schools based on race.
“It is part of my experience, having gone through that redistricting in 2005,” Tolmie said. “At that one, I voted for what I thought would be best for the majority of people in Pitt County. One thing I will do this time again is vote in a way that I feel is best for the children of Pitt County. I think we have to consider everyone, the children of every one of the parents who spoke (Monday) and the rest of the children to do what will work.”
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School officials hear from Whitfield crowd
Nearly 100 people gathered at G.R. Whitfield last night for the last of three question-and-answer sessions held this week with Pitt County Schools leadership.
In each of the meetings held at Grifton, Chicod and G.R. Whitfield there was plenty of angst about proposals to change the grade configurations at each of the K-8 schools.
Here are a few notes from last night’s meeting in Grimesland:
-Superintendent Beverly Reep said her office during the last couple of weeks has been hearing that there may not be as much objection in the Whitfield community about going to some other configuration if that configuration is a K-5.
Current recommendations would change Whitfield from a K-8 to a 6-8 middle school.
-Reep and Beaulieu each said transportation of K-5 kids from the Whitfield area to another school is one of the issues greeted with the most resistance.
-Someone asked whether making Chicod and Whitfield K-5 schools and sending their middle grade students to Hope Middle would be a possibility.
They said Hope, which currently is at 80 percent of its capacity, would have to be expanded from a 810-seat school to one that could hold 1,200-1,300 students.
Reep said a middle school of that size is larger than the district prefers.
“I think when you get to more than 1,000 kids in a middle school environment, you have the increased issues of adolescence, hormones and all of those types of things that just don’t contribute to a good school environment,” Reep said.
-Beaulieu said the plan’s designer, Hite Associates, has not been paid for any services related to the current proposals.
He was responding to concern from some that the district was moving ahead with the plan regardless of what the public was saying.
The plan’s two sewer projects at Pactolus and Stokes were previously approved by the Board of Education, he said. They recently went out to bid.
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What about the teachers?
This is a question that has been mentioned in a couple of recent e-mails.
Pitt County Schools Superintendent Beverly Reep said Wednesday night that any teachers affected by proposed changes in grade configurations would get first priority for a transfer.
“Teachers displaced as a result of the changes, if they are approved, would have preference for the vacancies out there,” Reep said. “Obviously we are going to need more teachers at the schools where the students are moving. We would not be assigning teachers on the front end of it. They would be given a chance to request a transfer and, if we can’t accommodate that, then we will assign them to another school.”
When the long-range facility plan was unveiled last month, Reep said no teacher in the district would lose their job as a result of the plan.
Based on the current recommendations, the teachers most likely to be impacted are K-5 instructors at G.R. Whitfield and Sadie Saulter and 6-8 teachers at Chicod and Grifton.
There would be K-5 openings at the new elementary school officials have recommended for Greenville.
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Chicod parents plead their case
More than 200 parents piled into the Chicod School gymnasium Wednesday night for a meeting with Pitt County school officials.
Attendees spent nearly two hours discussing with district office representatives the ways a proposed $55 million long-range facility plan might affect their attendance area.
Pitt County Schools Superintendent Beverly Reep and Associate Superintendent of Operations Aaron Beaulieu fielded questions from the group which was strongly opposed to a recommended grade reconfiguration at Chicod.
Here’s a brief summary of some responses:
When asked why the district would want to change one of its most successful schools, Reep said, “The goal here is not to distract from that success, but we have certain challenges we are facing. Our goal was to never look at this and say, ‘Oh, let’s take one of our best performing schools and tear it apart,’ even though it may sometimes feel that way to you. What we are saying is we have to do something about a structure that is 80 years old.”
She went on to say that since launching the plan Jan. 12 she has come to understand how much the school means to the community, but that is not a reason for school officials to do nothing about its facilities.
One parent asked why the district couldn’t invest more into the construction at Chicod to ensure it remains a K-8 population. Beaulieu said it could be done and it would increase the price tag by about $4 million, but it would not allow enough space to accommodate future growth projected for the area.
“It is not really a long-range plan if the school is full the first day you open the doors,” Beaulieu said.
When asked how the long-range facility plan would affect student assignment, Reep said those decisions are yet to be discussed but she thinks the bulk of student reassignment would come from Hope Middle and G.R. Whitfield.
Middle grade students at Chicod likely will land at Whitfield or Hope, which sits in the Chicod attendance area.
There was no indication of where Whitfield’s K-5 population would go although in previous meetings officials have mentioned Wintergreen.
Reep said tonight that they are looking at moving about 400 Wintergreen students who currently reside in the J.H. Rose attendance area to another school.
A couple of other tidbits from the meeting:
-Beaulieu said the central office gets called “three or four” times a year by county officials threatening to shut down Chicod if sewer improvements aren’t made. The proposed project for Chicod calls for tying the school into municipal sewer.
-Reep assured the crowd that a pending federal court decision on what criteria the district can use for redistricting would not have any effect on the facility plan.
-PTA leader Liz Hamilton announced during the meeting that she has formed a committee to find a better solution. She asked anyone wanting to join her to call the school for her contact information.
“This type of meeting is a very important one for us to learn more as we try to find a better solution,” Hamilton said. “I believe there is a better solution and we will find it, but we need to get to work because we only have about a one-month window.”
The board is hoping to approve the facility plan in mid-March.
Another meeting with the staff and parents from G.R. Whitfield is planned for tonight at 6.
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A look at middle school athletic programs
While Pitt County Schools officials have said several times that athletics were not a driving force behind some proposals in the district’s long-range facility plan, there are inequities when it comes to middle school sports in the county and they have asked folks to consider them as well.
Five of 13 schools in the district with middle grade levels are able to sustain athletic programs on their own while others share at least one team with another school.
That means extra travel in some instances for students wanting to participate in some sports.
A.G. Cox, C.M. Eppes, E.B. Aycock, Farmville and Hope Middle each field teams in football, volleyball, soccer, girls’ and boys’ basketball, softball, baseball and cheerleading.
Other arrangements in the county include Grifton students traveling to Ayden Middle and G.R. Whitfield students joining with Chicod to form a team. Ayden Middle also combines with A.G. Cox for soccer.
North of the Tar River there is much more sharing with Bethel, Pactolus, Stokes and Wellcome working out arrangements among them for each of the eight sports.
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Where do the schools rank?
Since the long-range facility plan for Pitt County schools was unveiled last month, several parents and teachers have been concerned with how the moves might impact academic performance.
With that in mind, I thought it might be interesting to look at where the elementary and middle schools mentioned in the plan’s first phase rank among others in the district.
Based on the school report cards offered by the N.C. Department of Public Instruction here, these are the percentages of students scoring at or above grade level last year on reading and math tests at each school with construction or grade reconfiguration proposed for it.
Reading results are listed first with the school’s district ranking among the 26 elementary and middle schools in parentheses.
Ayden Middle: 43.9 (15), 61.6 (13); Belvoir Elementary: 37.4 (22), 65.4 (9); Chicod (K-8): 67.9 (T-1), 84.3 (1); Creekside Elementary: 53.1 (6), 68.9 (6); Eastern Elementary: 47.7 (10), 59.5 (16); G.R. Whitfield: 40.7 (20), 62.2 (12); Grifton (K-8): 45.3 (12), 58.0 (20); Sadie Saulter Elementary: 23.3 (26), 34.9 (26).
Chicod and G.R. Whitfield each made Adequate Yearly Progress in 2007-08.
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PCS officials meeting with staff and parents
Pitt County school officials are meeting with the staff and parents from three schools this week to discuss proposals in the $55 million long-range facility plan.
The meetings began yesterday at Grifton School and continue today at 6 p.m. at Chicod and Thursday at 6 p.m. at G.R. Whitfield.
Pitt County Schools Superintendent Beverly Reep, Public Information Officer Heather Mayo and Associate Superintendent of Operations Aaron Beaulieu are attending, and school board members also have been invited.
Much of the discussion so far about the plan has centered around Chicod, Grifton and G.R. Whitfield because planners are recommending changes in grade configurations at each.
Chicod and Grifton would go from K-8 facilities to K-5 while Whitfield would become a 6-8 middle school if the plan is approved.
Four people out of about 50 attending a listening session Monday night spoke out against the plan, citing the proposed changes to grade configurations as their biggest concerns.
School officials have said changing the grade levels at each school would help with student transitions to high school, alleviate overcrowding and help them provide equitable middle school programming countywide.
The changes also would be consistent with one of the facility plan’s guiding principles that calls for a consistent configuration of grade levels countywide.
Officials have weighed the research for K-8 versus K-5 to 6-8 configurations, but it does not consistently favor one over the other.
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Welcome to the new blog
One thing I have often noticed during my time in the newsroom is that schools can be a hot topic in the community.
Just the mention of student assignment or end-of-grade testing is all it takes in some pockets to stir up a hive of parents aimed at ensuring a quality education for their children.
Whether we are reporting from a Board of Education meeting, focusing on school statistics or featuring special programs or educators in the district, we typically receive plenty of feedback about education.
Some of those who respond have legitimate concerns. They raise questions and often call on us to answer them.
With this blog, we will try to do just that while providing other tidbits about the Pitt County school district along the way.
Anyone who has a question or just wants to vent about local schools should e-mail me at bletchworth@coxnc.com.
Enjoy the blog.
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Очень признателен, по-настоящему полезная информация.
... read the full comment by Алан | Comment on Chicod parents plead their case Read Chicod parents plead their case
Это прямо в точку!!! Иными словами и не скажешь! :)
... read the full comment by Рустам Карпин | Comment on Chicod parents plead their case Read Chicod parents plead their case
Круто :) Надо это сообщение использовать в корыстных целях. Обязательно!
... read the full comment by Феликс | Comment on Chicod parents plead their case Read Chicod parents plead their case
Да уж… Финиш… Наверное пора расслабиться и отдохнуть :)
... read the full comment by Матвей Рыбин | Comment on Chicod parents plead their case Read Chicod parents plead their case