School Connection

December 21, 2006

Here’s a recap of some of the important events for the first half of the 2006-07 school year.

DR. BURNS TAKES OATH OF OFFICE AS SUPERINTENDENT
Dr. Del Burns took the oath of office during ceremonies July 18 when he was officially sworn into his new job as the seventh superintendent of the Wake County Public School System. With his wife Vickie holding the Bible, Dr. Burns was administered the oath of office by Retired Chief Judge Sidney Eagles, a 21-year veteran of the N.C. Court of Appeals.

After receiving a standing ovation from more than 100 people at the ceremony, Burns said he was proud to become the superintendent of one of the nation's leading school systems. He said he remained committed to the children of Wake County, just as when he began his career in the Wake County Schools in 1976.

VOTERS APPROVE BONDS TO BUILD SCHOOLS
Wake County voters approved the school bond referendum November 7, providing the funds to build the schools needed to relieve crowding, make needed improvements and serve thousands of new students. The vote was 53 percent "Yes" and 47 percent "No."

Wake voters approved a $970 million bond to pay for most of the $1.056 billion school construction plan that includes 17 new schools scheduled to open between 2008 and 2011, land and design start-up costs for another 13 schools, major renovations to 13 existing schools, and life-cycle replacements (air conditioning systems, roofs, etc.) at nearly 100 schools. It includes the conversion of 19 elementary schools and three middle schools to the multi-track year-round calendar beginning in 2007-08.

BOARD APPROVES RESOLUTION REQUESTING FUNDS
At its Nov. 21, meeting, the Board of Education approved a resolution that requests the Wake County Board of Commissioners provide the initial appropriation of funding for the design and construction of projects scheduled for completions in 2008-2010, in accordance with the master schedule.

The funds are needed to allow the school system to move forward with construction of Banks Road, Cary Park, Laurel Park and River Bend elementary schools, Heritage High and renovations to Aversboro and Lynn Road elementary schools and East Millbrook Middle. Work must begin early next year for the new elementary schools to be ready to open in July 2008 and for Heritage High to be completed for 2009.

The total CIP 2006 Building Program amount is $1,055,874,837. Total of this first quarterly appropriation request is $281,993,748. The second quarterly appropriation is planned for the February 20, 2007 Board meeting.

WCPSS TOPS 128,000 STUDENTS
The Wake County Public School System has 128,072 students for the 2006-07 school year. This is 7,568 more students than the 120,504 who attended on the 20th day last year. WCPSS's record growth for 2006-07 is more than double the average enrollment increase from 1998-2002. WCPSS has 36,646 high school students, 29,031 middle school students and 62,395 elementary school students.

WAKE COUNTY STUDENTS CONTINUE TO EXCEL ON 2006 SAT
SAT scores for 2006 Wake County Public School System seniors are the first to reflect the new scores of a three-section SAT with math, critical reading and writing. On the first administration of the new college entrance exam, WCPSS seniors averaged 544 on math, 522 on critical reading and 510 on writing. The combined average score is 1576.

The new writing section includes an essay and multiple-choice questions on writing. The old verbal section is now the critical reading section. Analogies have been eliminated, but analogical reasoning was not; questions of this nature are imbedded in the short reading passages. In the math section, Algebra II content has been added and quantitative comparisons have been eliminated.

The WCPSS average score of 1576 compares with an average score of 1518 in the U.S. and an average score of 1493 in North Carolina. The WCPSS average score is 58 points higher than the US average and 83 points higher than the North Carolina average.

WCPSS participation remained high with 77 percent of students taking the exam. The WCPSS participation is higher than the North Carolina participation rate of 71 percent and the U.S. participation rate of 48 percent.

WCPSS STUDENTS TAKE MORE ADVANCED PLACEMENT EXAMS
WCPSS efforts to encourage high school students to take challenging courses are having an impact. The number of WCPSS students taking Advanced Placement exams and the number of exams taken increased significantly.

In 2005-06, 3,621 WCPSS students took 7,176 Advanced Placement exams. WCPSS had 3,212 students take 6,365 AP exams in 2004-05.

The 3.30 exam average of WCPSS students is higher than the 2.90 worldwide exam average and the 2.76 exam average of NC students. While 74.7 percent of WCPSS students who took AP exams scored 3 or higher, 54.8 percent of NC students scored 3 or higher.

SEVEN WCPSS HIGH SCHOOLS HONORED BY ABCs OF PUBLIC EDUCATION
For the second year in a row, Green Hope High School was recognized as an Honor School of Excellence, according to the high school results of the 2005-06 state ABCs of Public Education.

Green Hope was one of only three schools in the state recognized as an Honor School of Excellence and was the only one of those three to achieve high growth. More than 90 percent of Green Hope High students were successful on the state's assessments, even though two new assessments were figured into high school scores and the state made adjustments to its growth standards. In order to achieve Honor School of Excellence standards, Green Hope also had to make Annual Yearly Progress (AYP) under the federal No Child Left Behind Act and to meet their state-specified expected growth standards.

Six WCPSS high schools were honored as Schools of Distinction. The schools had more than 80 percent of students scoring proficient on state assessments and met growth standards. Apex High and Athens Drive High were recognized as Honor Schools of Distinction for reaching the 80 percent mark and meeting high growth. Broughton High, Cary High, Leesville Road High and Wakefield High were recognized as Schools of Distinction for reaching the 80 percent mark and meeting expected growth.

Under the new, more stringent state standards, five WCPSS high schools - Green Hope High, Apex High, Athens Drive High, Fuquay-Varina High and Wake Forest-Rolesville High - achieved high growth.

Nine WCPSS high schools - Broughton High, Cary High, Garner High, Leesville Road High, Millbrook High, Philips High, Sanderson High, Wakefield High and East Wake School of Health Sciences - met expected growth.

NEW CHIEF BUSINESS OFFICER, CHIEF ACADEMIC OFFICER NAMED
The Board of Education named David Neter as Chief Business Officer and Donna Hargens as Chief Academic Officer, two new members of Superintendent Del Burns leadership team.

Neter is a certified public accountant who comes to the school system after 20 years of leading local corporations. Neter was the Vice President and General Manager of two Companion Technologies subsidiaries of Blue Cross Blue Shield of South Carolina. The Research Triangle Park and Pennsylvania subsidiaries offer business and clinical information system solutions to health care organizations. In this position, he led sales, marketing, client professional services and accounting services. Prior to that he held a similar position with Dataflow Companies, Inc. in Durham.

Dr. Hargens, a Wake County leader and educator, has been named Chief Academic Officer. For most of her 15-year career at WCPSS, Hargens served as principal of Cary and Green Hope high schools. She was named Wake County PTA Outstanding Principal in 2002-03 and WCPSS Principal of the Year in 1996-97. Recently, she has served as one of the system's top instructional leaders and the manager of western Wake County schools.

CHIEF ACADEMIC OFFICER ORGANIZES TEAM TO BEST SERVE STUDENTS
The organization of the Wake County Public School System Instructional Services Division leadership has been realigned into a flatter and more efficient team, according to WCPSS Chief Academic Officer Donna Hargens.

As Chief Academic Officer, Dr. Hargens and the Instructional Services Division work collaboratively with school principals and teachers to provide effective instruction for all students. While the new team still includes two Assistant Superintendents, the re-organization eliminates a level of an assistant superintendent and repurposes a senior director position, which in the past focused in many areas.

The elementary and secondary teams will have a single clear focus - the support and promotion of effective instruction for all students. Dr. Hargens will work with six senior directors overseeing the Office of Secondary Education; the Office of Elementary Education; Magnet Programs; State and Federal Programs; the Office of Continuous Improvement and Professional Development; and the Office of 21st Century Learning, formerly known as Instructional Technology and Library Media. 

NEW CHIEF BUSINESS OFFICER SIZES UP WCPSS
After a little more than four months on the job, new Chief Business Officer David Neter has worked with the Board of Education and the board's new Audit Committee in reporting out the school system's annual financial audit and presenting the 2005-06 Comprehensive Financial Audit Report.

In Neter's view, WCPSS has established good business practices throughout its administration. The school system has initiated cost saving measures such as self-insurance and energy management technology. The financial staff includes people with MBAs, who are CPAs, and who have substantial private sector business experience. Internal controls and processes are in place and inspected by internal and external auditors. The new superintendent flattened the structure of the senior management team by eliminating 10 percent of the former Cabinet.

There is a strong, clear tone of integrity at the top, according to Neter.

Neter is working to strengthen WCPSS contracts with sole-source companies, find ways to automate more accounting processes, and toughen standards for independent contractor rates. Since Neter arrived, WCPSS has made a major revision to the Construction Manager at Risk contract, sole-source contracts are being renegotiated, annual increases to contracts are not automatically being approved and fair market values for end of lease valuations are now being established up front.

WCPSS ESTABLISHES AUDIT COMMITTEE
WCPSS recently became one of the first school systems in the nation to establish an independent Audit Committee, similar to the Sarbanes-Oxley requirements for publicly held companies, with the purpose of having independent financial and legal professionals review the annual external audit process, audit findings, and WCPSS's management response.

The Audit Committee includes Gordon Brown (Chair), Gary Ashworth, Cam Frazier, Ben Goldstein, Gray Hutchison, Tom Oxholm, Phyllis Pearson (Vice Chair), Board of Education member Carol Parker and Neter.

At the Dec. 5 meeting of the Board of Education, Gordon Brown told board members the Audit Committee formed in November and got right to work. In their second session, they reviewed the detailed audit report for 2005-06 and questioned representatives of Cherry, Bekaert & Holland, who performed the audit, and WCPSS Administrative Services staff. Brown said the committee approved a resolution accepting the audit findings. He noted the committee would work to help continue improved understanding of the school system's financial information.

WAKE ADDS NEW SCHOOL SPACE
The Wake County Public School System added more than 900,000 square feet of permanent new school space for the 2006-07 school year: Barwell Road, Brier Creek, Carpenter and Harris Creek elementary schools; and Holly Springs and Panther Creek high schools.

Two new comprehensive high schools opened for 2006-07, one elementary school moved to its permanent facility, one high school will add a ninth-grade center, and eight schools wrapped up major renovation projects. WCPSS also opened two high schools as part of the small learning community concept; and in July, Wake opened five new year-round elementary schools, including two "early start" schools in temporary facilities.

Holly Springs and Panther Creek high schools opened with ninth through 10th grades on the traditional calendar, and will add a grade each of the next two school years.

Wake Early College of Health and Sciences and the East Wake School of Integrated Technology opened as part of the small learning community concept.

Five new year-round elementary schools opened with kindergarten through fifth-graders July 10, including Barwell Road, Brier Creek and Carpenter elementary schools in permanent facilities and Holly Grove Elementary and River Bend Elementary in temporary facilities.

Harris Creek Elementary School moved to its permanent facility at 3829 Forestville Road in Raleigh after spending last school year at the temporary modular campus on Spring Forest Road.

Garner High School will gradually add modular units on campus for a ninth-grade center

East Cary Middle will continue to serve as a ninth-grade center for Cary High School for the 2006-07 school year.

WAKE LEADERS CELEBRATE SCHOOL MERGER ANNIVERSARY
More than 600 people gathered Oct. 12 to remember the courageous founding of the Wake County Public School System 30 years ago and to call for continued courageous leadership in meeting today's education challenges at the annual meeting of the Wake Education Partnership.
School board members, school administrators, county commissioners and county lawmakers from 1976 were recognized as special guests and applauded at the meeting for their work to unite the Raleigh City and Wake County schools districts into the Wake County Public School System.

As part of the 30th anniversary celebration, a special award was presented to John Murphy, first superintendent of the Wake County Public School System in 1976. This was Murphy's first trip to Raleigh since moving to Florida after his tenure as superintendent.

DAVIS DRIVE ELEMENTARY EARNS BLUE RIBBON
Congratulations to Davis Drive Elementary, selected by the U.S. Department of Education as a 2006 No Child Left Behind-Blue Ribbon School. The Blue Ribbon program "honors public and private K-12 schools that are either academically superior in their states or that demonstrate dramatic gains in student achievement." This is the eleventh time a WCPSS school has been named a Blue Ribbon school -- counting Davis Drive Elementary's previous turn as a Blue Ribbon school in 2001.

HONORS EARNED

HAPPY HOLIDAYS
As you can see, the first half of the school year has been busy. Congratulations and thanks are in order. Congratulations to Principal Pat Andrews and Davis Drive Elementary and the WCPSS educators who earned honors this year including Jamee Lynch and Gloria Jones. And thanks to all those who have worked hard to make this year such a successful one for each child served by the Wake County Public School System. We wish you a happy and safe holiday.

School Connection is published electronically every other week for everyone interested in the Wake County Public School System. Is what you read in this edition helpful? What information would you like to see in future editions? Contact me by calling 850-1829 or e-mailing bposton@wcpss.net.

Bill Poston
Wake County Public School System
Communications Department
3600 Wake Forest Road
Raleigh, North Carolina 27611
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