December 5,2008

Top News

Board Cuts $11 Million to Meet Revenue Shortfall

At its Dec. 2 meeting, the Board of Education cut $11 million from its budget to return funds to the NC Department of Public Instruction and Wake County Commissioners, both short of revenue as national economic woes begin to affect North Carolina. State funding was reduced by 1.45 percent for Central Services and 0.73 percent for schools. Local funding was reduced 2.88 percent for Central Services and 0.49 percent for schools. WCPSS Chief Budget Officer David Neter said administrators worked to minimize the impact of the reductions on the classroom and on employees. For more details on the reductions, you can look here.

Multi-Year Student Assignment

More than 1,400 people have attended the four Community Engagement Meetings held by the school system on the multi-year student assignment proposal. Attendance was estimated at 200 at Knightdale High, 700 at Cary High, 250 at Wake Forest-Rolesville High and 250 at Holly Springs High. The final meeting will be held at Broughton in the school’s auditorium at 6:30 p.m., Monday, Dec. 8.

As of Dec. 5, the online proposal has drawn 472,319 page views and visitors have downloaded 41,513 pages. The school system has received 3,203 comments.

Issue: BOARD OF EDUCATION APPROVES NEW ACADEMIC GOAL After months of hard work, the Board of Education enacted a new academic goal for the school system during its Dec. 2 meeting. Listen to WCPSS Chief Academic Officer Donna Hargens talk about our new academic goal 9.45 minute mp3 file The goal focuses on high school graduation and calls for 100 percent of students graduating on time by 2014. WCPSS Chief Academic Officer Donna Hargens says the board sends a clear message in calling for 100 percent of students to graduate. “When you think about individual students, if the goal wasn’t 100 percent that would mean that it would be acceptable to us that students did not graduate on time,” said Hargens. “What I heard our board clearly say is that is simply not acceptable. We need to aspire that every student will graduate on time, and we need to ensure that we have strategies in place to help them do that.” Currently, WPCSS has one of the highest graduation rates in the nation for large urban school districts at 78.3 percent. Hargens said the school system will work to move that rate up to 100 percent by 2014. “Our hope is that from now until 2014 that we will make incremental gains to get to the 100 percent,” said Hargens. “One of the things that is very powerful that’s happening in the school system is the work of learning teams. Nobody is working in isolation any more. Everybody is working together to share strategies and share best practices about how to help students. I think that is really the vehicle that will get us to 100 percent graduation.” The goal includes a number of leading indicators, markers at different grade levels, that show the school system is making progress towards the goal. At the elementary school level, the indicators include: Increase in percent proficient in mathematics EOG Increase in percent proficient in reading EOG Increase in percent proficient in writing Increase in percent proficient in science Increase in number enrolling in second language courses Decrease in number of students at all grades missing more than 10 days Decrease in number of overage elementary grades students Hargens says there are similar indicators at the middle and high school level. “What the board expects is the superintendent will report annually on certain lead indicators,” said Hargens. “There are lots of key indicators that we will be charged with demonstrating that we’ve increased and all of these milestones along the way add up to the capacity to graduate on-time, prepared for the future.” Hargens says the new academic goal is important in the way that it will focus attention on the target and build support in the school system and community for students. “It focuses everybody on the same thing,” said Hargens. “It has everybody rowing in the same direction. We all know what we are shooting for. That’s critical. Without that goal, what are you rowing toward?”

More News

Broughton High Magnet Status Reconsidered

At its Dec. 2 committee of the whole meeting, the Board of Education agreed to rescind its decision on the magnet status for Broughton High, responding to parents' concerns about the impact of proposed student assignments from the school to create space for magnet students.

The board agreed to further discuss removing the International Baccalaureate Middle Years Programme and Diploma Programme from the school and the impact this would have on elementary and middle International Baccalaureate schools that feed Broughton. The board is seeking to make a decision that will be included in the multi-year student assignment proposal.

The board plans to meet at 9:30 a.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 10 in the board's conference room on the second floor of the Central Services Building at 3600 Wake Forest Road, Raleigh. Board members agreed to start the meeting with a 30 minute public hearing to allow the Broughton community time to comment with 15 minutes set for discussion in support of keeping the magnet program and 15 minutes for phasing it out. Speakers would have up to three minutes. The board then will receive information from WCPSS staff on the issue.

Community Engagement Meetings are being held by WCPSS on the staff student assignment proposal. One of the meetings will be held at Broughton in the school’s auditorium at 6:30 p.m., Monday, Dec. 8.

Taking a Look at Family Involvement Policy

For students to succeed, it’s important for families and schools to build a partnership that supports the child. To try and further foster those partnerships, the Board of Education has embraced standards of the National PTA. The PTA’s six standards for judging effective family-school partnerships are now included in Board Policy 2541. The six standards include: Welcoming all families into the school community, Communicating effectively, Supporting student success, Speaking up for every child, Sharing power, and Collaborating with community. You can read the first in a series of reports with Wake County PTA Council President Sarah Martin on the six standards here.

Board Finalizes Policy 1510 Revision

At its Dec. 2 meeting, the Board of Education gave final approval to a revision of Policy 1510 for policy development, following the curriculum management audit recommendation for updating board policies. The revised policy more clearly describes the role of the board and staff in developing, approving and implementing policy. The revision notes the need for periodic review, training of staff and the use of regulations and procedures (R&P) to provide staff with guidelines to assist in policy implementation.