September 4, 2009

Top News

Traditional Calendar Schools Open

At the September 1 Board of Education meeting, Superintendent Del Burns told board members the school year began with a smooth opening of traditional calendar schools. Burns offered his thanks to principals, teachers and staff for their work in beginning the school year for another 100,000 students. Dr. Burns began the school day talking to news reporters in front of Poe Elementary at 6 a.m. and visited a number of schools through the day.

“My perspective is that this was truly one of the smoothest openings we’ve ever had,” said Dr. Burns. “I think that’s remarkable because that is in the face of much uncertainty.”

The unofficial day 7 student count was 139,005. This is 2,177 more students in school than the 136,828 students who attended the seventh day of school in 2008-09. The official 20th day enrollment for 2008-09 was 137,706.

School Board Seeks to Fill District 6 Vacancy

The school board has received seven applications from persons interested in filling the District 6 school board seat left vacant by the resignation of Beverley Clark from the school board August 15. The board has received applications to date from Carolyn Bond Morrison, Julie Nau, Diane Payne, Stacy Arch, Christine Kushner, George Morgan and Etta Wilson.

The board will interview the candidates in the board room on September 8 and select one of the seven to serve out the balance of the term. The oath of office will be administered to the selected candidate at the board meeting on September 15.

Issue: Schools Work to Boost SAT Scores Wake County Public School System seniors continue to score well on the SAT and continue to outpace other large districts in North Carolina as well as the national average, according to results released today by the College Board. The WCPSS average score of 1585 is 76 points higher than the US average and 99 points higher than the North Carolina average. Principals discuss SAT preparations Several schools saw significant increases in average scores this year. Leesville Road High saw a 65 point gain with an average score of 1662 for 2009, compared with 1597 in 2008. Principal Scott Lyons says last year the school implemented Pride Period, a 20 minute daily activity after first period. Lyons says for one day of the week students silently read a book of their choice and for three days they took part in tutoring sessions. “Teachers assign students who need to strengthen their skills to Pride Period for peer tutoring,” said Lyons. “We believe this strengthens the skills for both students, the one offering help and the one seeking assistance.” Lyons says with teachers directing students to assistance for specific learning objectives, students receive the individualized instruction they need and can get help over the course of the school year in different classes during Pride Period. Sanderson High had a 60 point gain, with a 2009 average of 1604, compared with a 1544 average in 2008. While proud of his students’ success, Sanderson principal Greg Decker is more interested in seeing continued long term improvement, rather than a one time jump in scores. “I do believe that the Sanderson professionals are following all the best practices and we are better aligning our actions towards a common vision and focus,” said Decker. “I truly believe that this will benefit our students.” Decker said the current Sanderson behaviors that may have contributed to the growth in scores are: Teachers participating in high functioning professional learning teams focused on improving student learning Professional learning teams using common assessments to measure student success in learning Professional learning teams using achievement data from these common assessments to provide additional instruction or enrichment activities to meet the needs of individual students Decker says Sanderson teachers have shown a willingness to stay after school to help students, to build positive professional relationships with students; assist students to provide them structure and consistency; and to reflect on current teaching practices in responding to student issues of academic failure as well as absence and tardiness. Garner High saw a 40 point gain with an average score of 1412 for 2009, compared with 1372 in 2008. Principal Drew Cook says the school has encouraged students to take more rigorous courses and there has been a steady increase in the number of students taking Honors level, Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate courses. Cook says the school has implemented some specific strategies to improve the performance of students on the SAT. “Through the Magnet Schools Assistance Program Grant, we have been able to offer SAT Prep sessions after school and on Saturdays for interested students,” said Cook. “Our Guidance Department has focused on collaborating with parents, students, and teachers in an effort to provide more information about the SAT, application deadlines, and access to both in-school and online SAT preparation programs.   Events such as College Application Week and College Night have helped to increase awareness on the importance of the SAT to the futures of our students.” For the last two years, the school has offered an SAT Prep course to provide students access to SAT review materials, individual consultation, and skill-building exercises in all three components of the SAT.

More News

More WCPSS Students Taking AP Exams

Students in the Class of 2009 set records in the Wake County Public School System for the number of students taking Advanced Placement exams and the total number of exams taken. They had the highest average exam score in the last four years and the highest percentage of students earning a score of 3 or higher on the exam in the last four years.

WCPSS Participation and Performance in AP exams
	Number of students taking exams	Total number of exams taken	Percent of exams with scores of 3 or higher	Average exam score
2005-06	3,621	7,176	74.7%	3.30
2006-07	4,068	8,205	75.7%	3.35
2007-08	4,605	9,217	74.4%	3.30
2008-09	4,849	9,800	76.1%	3.36

In 2008-09, 4,849 students took 9,800 Advanced Placement exams with 76.1 percent achieving a score of 3 or higher on the exam. The average WCPSS exam score was 3.36.

For North Carolina, 58.9 percent of students taking Advanced Placement exams scored a 3 or higher. The average NC exam score was 2.88.

AP exam grades determine whether a student is qualified to receive college credit or advanced placement into a higher level course in college. The scores are reported on a 5-point scale. A score of 3 or above is required to be qualified.

Board Approves Funds to Maintain 2009-10 Salary Schedules

At its September 1 meeting, the Board of Education approved using $420,000 in local funds to allow certified employees to move to the higher supplement percentages at steps 5, 10, 15, 20, and 25. This enables WCPSS to maintain a local salary supplement structure consistent with past
years and sustainable for future years.

Certified and non-certified employees are not provided any salary increases for the 2009-10 school year. Employees moving up one step on the salary schedule will receive the same monthly or hourly amount in 2009-10 as they received in 2008-09, and receive a higher local supplement percentage.

Additionally, the following are in effect for 2009-10:
1). Certified employees who were at the highest step of the 2008-2009 salary schedule will not receive a top of the scale bonus.
2). Substitute teacher rates remain at 2008-09 school year levels.
3). No ABC bonus payments will be made in the fall of 2009 from meeting or exceeding test goals in the 2008-09 school year
4). No bonus leave provisions are included with the 2009-10 budget

WCPSS Offers Students Healthier Choices in the School Cafeteria

Students are being offered healthier options in the Wake County Public School System Child Nutrition Services cafeterias thanks to changes providing local produce and vending machine options with fewer calories.

This week WCPSS received a shipment of cantaloupe and watermelon that were delivered to schools. By subscribing to the NC Farm to School program, the NC Department of Agriculture assumes the responsibility of procuring produce from NC farmers, insuring that its safe and delivering it to WCPSS for delivery to schools.

WCPSS vending machines, provided by Pepsi Bottling Ventures under an exclusive contract, will be in compliance with guidelines set forward by the American Beverage Association and the Alliance for a Healthier Generation, offering bottled water, 100 percent juice with no added sweeteners and no or low calorie beverages.

High school vending machine options with fewer calories mean water, zero or low calorie fruit flavored waters, flavored vitamin waters, and smaller serving sizes of sports drinks will be available. Middle schools will only offer water in vending machines. Vending machines in WCPSS schools were changed this week to serve these drinks.

“We want to provide students healthier options and help them think about making healthier choices,” said Marilyn Moody of WCPSS Child Nutrition Services. “We believe removing more popular higher calorie drinks from the vending machines will mean less revenue for Child Nutrition Services, but it’s the right thing to do for children.”

WCPSS Offers New Full Circle TV Program

Sometimes the most important issues aren't always the ones that can be covered in a 90-second news story. WCPSS's newest television program, Full Circle, is able to explore a wide range of topics and issues during an enlightening half-hour of discussion. Viewers will learn about a single topic affecting Wake County schools, students and teachers that might not get covered in the news media. Guests from WCPSS classrooms and administration share their expertise and offer unique perspectives that help bring these issues full circle!

Full Circle is produced every month. Programming is carried by cable providers in Raleigh and Cary on channel 11. In Cary, tune in on Thursdays at 1 p.m. and Saturdays and Sundays at 8 a.m.
Raleigh residents can watch the program on Thursdays and Fridays at noon and Sundays at 9:30 p.m. Each month's edition can be viewed online at www.wcpss.net along with past episodes of The School Connection.

Board reviews policy updates

At its meeting September 1, the Board of Education gave first reading approval to revisions of
Policy 1200 – Duties of Officers
Policy 1214 – Attorney
Policy 1300 – Board Meetings
Policy 1323 – Rules of Order
Policy 2100 – Employment of Superintendent
Policy 2150 – Job description of Superintendent

After a review of the board’s Policy Committee, the board gave first reading approval to deletion of the following policies that have been incorporated into other revised policies

-Deletion of Policy 1315 – Public Hearings - incorporated into Policy 1300 Board Meetings
-Deletion of Policy 1316 – Hearing Panels - incorporated into Policy 1300 Board Meetings
-Deletion of Policy 2110 – Qualifications of Superintendent – incorporated into Policy 2100 Employment of the Superintendent
-Deletion of Policy 2120 – Recruitment of Superintendent – incorporated into Policy 2100 Employment of the Superintendent
-Deletion of Policy 2130 – Election of Superintendent – incorporated into Policy 2100 Employment of the Superintendent
-Deletion of Policy 2140 – Oath or Affirmation of Superintendent – incorporated into Policy 2100 Employment of the Superintendent
-Deletion of Policy 2160 – Compensation and Benefits of Superintendent – incorporated into Policy 2100 Employment of the Superintendent
-Deletion of Policy 2170 – Expenses of Superintendent – incorporated into Policy 2100 Employment of the Superintendent
-Deletion of Policy 2180 – Evaluation of Superintendent – incorporated into Policy 2100 Employment of the Superintendent
-Deletion of Policy 2190 – Separation of Superintendent – incorporated into Policy 2100 Employment of the Superintendent
-Deletion of Policy 7133 - Duties and Responsibilities of School Bus Passengers

The review of board policies is based on a recommendation from the curriculum management audit.