First Day of Traditional Calendar Schools
August 25, 2008 - Thousands of students return to classes today for the first day of the Traditional calendar school year. They join roughly 40,000 year round students who returned to classes on July 7New Schools
There are three new schools in Wake County this year: Laurel Park Elementary, Mills Park Elementary and Sycamore Creek Elementary, and some changes at several other facilities.
Smith Elementary will move to the Banks Road campus at 10225 Chambers Road in Raleigh for a year while the Smith campus is renovated. Smith will return to its renovated campus and Banks Road will open with its own students in 2009.
Students from Aversboro Elementary move into their newly renovated building this year. WCPSS began constructing a new school behind the existing school for Aversboro students to occupy in 2008-09.
Root Elementary opens in a temporary modular campus at North Hills, while the Root campus undergoes renovation. River Bend Elementary continues in its temporary modular campus on Spring Forest Road and will move into its permanent facility when it’s ready later this year.
There’s been a lot of work that’s gone into preparing for the school openings. While the school facilities are built, principals are appointed to begin the job of pulling together the staff, academic programs, books and equipment the new schools will need. They work to finalize classroom, teacher and track assignments, as well as serving as instructional leaders. Then they welcome new students and families into the newest school facilities in Wake County.
Strengthening Instruction
With the state making greater academic demands of students, the school system is working to strengthen instruction. Teachers are meeting in learning teams, or professional learning communities, at schools to work as a team to meet student needs. They study student academic data from classwork and assessments to find the best ways to teach lessons and help students learn. School administrators are using the recommendations from the curriculum management audit, a review of the school system’s instructional policies and practices by an outside group of education experts, to better provide the support teachers need.
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