Education Summit Webpage

"It Takes a Village to Educate a Child"

Appendix 2a - Preplanning Input from SCS Staff

1. Quantity, quality, and capacity of staff

1. Not enough training for para-educators around remedial instruction, behavior

management, technology.

2. Many paras have little classroom (teaching) experience.
3. SLP- need for teachers and staff to understand " language" component of SLP’s work. More shared effort between SLP and teachers needed to address reading and writing skills development- help from Nancy Gear- Essex?
4. More special educators needed ( ratio of students to special educator- gr.3-5 is 3 times as high as in most schools.)
5. More custodians needed for keeping the building clean.
6. Part- time assistant administrative bookkeeper needed to help Pat (Smith) with volume of work.
7. Employees not performing to standards need to be fired. System of checks and balances needed to determine when job performance standards not being met.
8. We need peer coaching for teachers and paras.
9. Young teachers aren’t mentored.

    B. Identification of measurable results, assessments and accountability to all stakeholders

1. Teachers don’t evaluate their students using consistent expectations.
2. Lack of consistent use of language - " Kids don’t have words to talk about their writing."

1. Poor reading and spelling skills among third graders

1. Communication of important information to students by teachers is inhibited by lack of enthusiasm of teachers. School-wide or level (k-5,6-8) assemblies are warranted for common issues.
2. Need to change "society’s perception of mathematics"- not just skill, but problem solving, reasoning, and thinking, too.

1. SCS is so HUGE!... too big. Teams are essential to "community spirit" environment.
2. Transition/placement process needs much work - teachers don’t know teams they are receiving from/sending to.
3. Planning Room system not working.
4. Coordination of special services-process/ system needed which is understood and supported by all teachers, and meets legal criteria... for meeting times, referrals, follow-ups, etc..
5. Students’ emotional problems need more than present classroom team support and guidance department are providing. North Carolina has a unique system to address this.
6. " ... We need special educators (working) on the teams, not consulting and leaving."
7. Discipline aspect of education needs some work. Children not prepared with homework, or unable to focus, are sent to guidance office where problems remain unresolved.
8. School climate- adults not treating other adults with respect.
9. Bus drivers should have input into discussion of students, especially that relating to students they " write up."
10. People/teachers don’t share their resources and ideas.
11. Lack of flexibility among staff- " I am sick of one person being able to stop the system..." ( "I won’t plan or ever stay late" attitude sabotages the system.")

6. Board Relations with all stakeholders

1. Bus drivers should be represented in contract negotiations.
2. Present Contract "plans" do not represent bus drivers

7. Programs

1. Reading instruction for k-8 needed.
2. Daily, small-group writer’s workshop needed for portfolio writing, expository writing etc., on a rotating basis, to accommodate all grade 6-8 students.
3. "Morals and values" ongoing, instructional program, to coincide with Act 51 and Mc Donalds guidance classes-a way to deal with violence of movies and games to which children are being exposed.

8. Facilities

1. A quiet place to test students needed.
2. Planning room should be solely used for that purpose.
3. Need student support center allowing both "respite /tutorial and private space where kids could be in restraint ( if needed)."
4. a space large enough for work with a small group of 6-8 grade students, instead of an office allowing only one-to-one.
5. Icy, as well as muddy, conditions on playground limit play spaces, when they exist. Playground equipment, alone, not sufficient when students outside number three hundred.
6. Sizable amount of materials are "lost" from library each year. Lack of walls allow people to come and go and take(materials) when library not supervised by staff.
7. Enclose breezeway to permit safe movement despite bad weather conditions, and to eliminate distractions created by students in hallway used as a alternative to breezeway.
8. Build 2 conference rooms (adjacent to the lobby and on each side of the proposed, enclosed breezeway) for testing of children, counseling and meeting.
9. We can’t use staples.
10. The building is too cold.

9. Financials

1. Impossible to find and keep "good" paras because of low pay.

10. Technology

1. Computers not used to "any meaningful extent" -because not seen as part of school’s primary mission and because teachers ill-prepared to integrate them into classroom.
2. Jostens Lab - drill and practice device that only benefits small percentage of low-level students. Integrate technology into the curriculum.
3. Second computer lab needed for students’ access to " engaged learning opportunities"... for employ of information technologies to investigate problems which parallel curriculum questions and topics.

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Last updated:  May 05, 1999