Date: Tue, 12 Jan 2016 22:24:45 -0500
From: Mia Munn
Subject: My notes from the January 11, 2016 School Board Retreat
For more detail see BBS
http://chatham-county-nc.com/
Agenda with documents
https://eboard.
Attendees included parent Matt White (public comments), Jeffrey Starkweather, Karen Howard, and John Bonitz (all or part of morning session), John Hunter/Chatham News/Record (Chatham Park), and Mia Munn (all day until closed session)
Public Comments –
· Perry Harrison parent Matt White spoke about his daughter’s 3rd grade class, which started the year with rotating subs, had an interim teacher for a few weeks, and has had rotating subs for the past 6 weeks. He asked about the policy on substitutes for classes, and pointed out that
this one third grade class of students have had instability all year and have missed out on learning compared to the other three third grade classes at Perry Harrison.
· Jeffrey Starkweather said he has been speaking to the board about a Northeast high school for nine years, since his grandchildren were toddlers. Given the current schedule (2020/2022) the older grandchild will have graduated before the school opens. A new high school in the northeast part of the county will increase economic development, decrease travel time for students, and attract families back from charter schools.
Communities in Schools Presentation
Update on 2nd year of Communities in Schools at Chatham Middle:
schoolwide programs (4-6/year)
daily 30 minute behavior/academic support groups
1:1 support/counseling
Backpack program
afterschool yoga class
Vouchers for eye exams and glasses
clothes closet (warm clothes)
field trips
summer camp scholarships
Future:
fully accredited CIS site in May 2016
looking for funding (current budget 63k)
$15K from CCS
$12,500 startup funds from NC CIS – not available next yr
$25K from Sas (includes student visits to SAS and volunteers)
Next yr – could use Title 1 or Focus School funding ? (allowed)
hope to expand to Virginia Cross
https://eboard.
Update from Chatham Park
https://eboard.
Revised numbers for projections of student population/schools needed.
Total over build out: 7950 students
Elementary: 4778 students – 8 schools (600 students per school)
Middle: 1685 – 2 schools (850 students per school)
High: 1490 – 1.2 schools (1200 students per school)
Note: the numbers presented in July
http://chatham-county-nc.com/
were slightly lower, 7602, and the elementary and middle school populations were wrong because CP counted the K-8 schools as elementary in figuring the percentages. This split also seems off – if all grades had the same number of students, you would expect Elem 3670/6 schools, Middle 1835/2.2 schools, High 2446/2 schools. Mr. Blice will follow up with CP on the numbers.)
Thales Academy is slated to open in 2017/18. The construction projections show the need for a new elementary school due to CP students in 2025, with first students in the district starting in 2018. (Note: looking at slide 15 of the presentation, the Elementary impact is 764 in 2025, higher than the elementary capacity of 600. Since schools are usually opened before they
are full, it looks to me like the elementary would need to open in 2023 – impact 491 students – or earlier. The split by grades and increase by years on this slide doesn’t seem to make sense because prior grade growth doesn’t reflect in subsequent grades consistently – and 12th grade is higher than 9th grade 2019-2026.)
Board indicated they would like updates from CP more frequently (last one was July 2015) – plan on monthly/cancel if not needed.
There were a number of questions about private and charter schools and land for these schools. CP said the estimates are for total students, not CCS students. There is a mix of housing so they anticipate needing a mix of types of schools. Different types of schools need different sizes of land.
Thales location is driven by the timing – land inside the CP won’t have roads/utilities by the time they wanted to open (2017). They again committed to giving land for schools that are needed due to their impact, but they will not give the district land until it is buildable (roads and utilities available) and the district commits to build within a reasonable time period.
CP said they had calculated impact fee and tax revenue impact of their building, and by 2025, the county would have receive $11M in inpact fees and $9M annually in tax revenue – average elementary school built in NC recently costs $15M.
County Commissioners Chair Jim Crawford drafted a Memorandum of
Understanding for the school system and Chatham park around timing of transferring land for schools. CP revised it and sent it back to Chairman Crawford last week, and he requested they send it to the school board (recieved last Thursday). A bit of discussion about it – board/admin was surprised to receive it. Terms (from discussion) that once a school site is buildable (roads and uitilities available), school board would have 5 years to make a commitment to build a school on the site (commitment = spending money, beginning design, etc), or the site could be made available for another type of school. CP anticipates that when a school site is buildable, housing will be built to support the need for the school.
There were some questions about the proposed school locations, co-locate with parks or with multiple schools on one site. CP said that is their preference, but they would be happy to adjust if the board wants something different. (Note: as far as I can tell, the school board has never discussed their preferences for school size, configuration, or co-location of schools in CP.)
Strategic Planning
“CCS Flight Plan 2020”
https://eboard.
Strategic Plan Survey for staff, parents, community, business owners, will open for two weeks on January 14th
Equity & Excellence for Everyone
https://eboard.
More than just “closing gaps” – focus on student growth in all subgroups
Focus on what schools can effect – instruction and teaching (not fixing all of society’s problems)
primary goals:
1.To explore barriers that our schools and school system have in place which limit students’ success
2. To take ownership for the factors that schools can control that create the greatest opportunities for student success
3. To foster community partnerships that help engage families and address external barriers to school success Instruction & Student Support will be the primary focus of the District Equity Team. While we can’t control all of the factors impacting student success; we can control what happens in
the school building during the instructional day.
Innovative High School Planning Process
https://eboard.
targets students who are at risk of dropping out of high school, first – generation college students, and/or students who would benefit from accelerated learning opportunities.
Letter of intent – last spring one of 13 approved to go forward to next step (work with Community College)
Ask for waiver from co-locate with community college (use SAGE)
If approved – to start in 2016-17
Proposed CIHS Design
â— SAGE Academy campus as our hub of options for non – traditional learning opportunities
â— Students enroll in 9th grade in a cohort model of 25 students
â— Students begin full – time CCCC coursework by 11th grade
â— High school diploma of 22 credits that is purposefully accelerated
â— By year 5, students attain Associate in Science (Engineering Focus) from CCCC (minimum 60 credit hours)
â— Additional options for internships and apprenticeships
â— Additional options for college enrollment Eligibility for Bachelor of Science in Engineering transfer credit
Transportation Challenges
https://eboard.
Chatham Population per sq mile = 93.1
Efficiency rating for CCS transportation systm – 95.41% (higher than state average 94.25%) even though we are larger than most. less dense population than most, no cities, and Jordan Lake (which restricts east/west access).
Efficiency is % state pays of transportation cost, so CCS pays only 4.49%)- 1%= ~$25k
Efficiency down only slightly from 2013/14 95.83%.
â— Average AM Ride Times (from home to school)
Chatham = 28 minutes Range of LEA Responses = 11 min. to 81 min.
â— Longest 5% of Student AM Ride Times (from home to school)
Chatham = 93 minutes Range of LEA Responses = 10 min. to 200 min
â— Average Student to Stop Distances (from home to bus stop)
Chatham = 651 feet Range of LEA Responses = 66 ft. to 1,090 ft.
â— Earliest AM Pickup Times
Chatham = 5:11 am Range of LEA Responses = 4:27 am to 6:44 am
â— Percentage of Routes with Multiple Runs from the Same School
Chatham = 9.78% Range of LEA Responses = 0% to 46.8%
Would cost $1M to eliminate double/triple routes with kids getting to school before 7:20. (Note: Average teacher salary/benefits = $60k, so this would be the cost of 16.6 teachers)
Would cost $600K to split routes so no one gets on bus before 6am and all return home by 5pm. (Note: this would be the cost of 10 teachers)
Or/ed projected growth over 10 years (including Chatham Park, and other growth) is 2,540. This would require 27 additional buses ($2.16M for buses, plus personnel).
State recommended staggered start times so buses can be shared between schools. Would not work for most of county due to distance between schools,but could be continued in Siler City for VCE/SCE and Chatham Middle.
The Impact of the National Teacher Shortage/Recruitment Strategies and Retention Efforts in Chatham
https://eboard.
causes: low pay in NC (10K below national average), declining enrollment in teacher education programs nationwide, increase in teacher licensure requirements (additional tests – Ms. Frazier questioned the testing requirements), difficulty in retaining teachers. Not unique to Chatham or NC – nationwide issue.
district is doing more nationwide recruiting (job fairs, national job websites, virtual job fairs, student teacher/university partnerships, tuition reimbursement for certified and classified staff and lateral entry (commit to staying in district 2 years), visiting international faculty,
increase in local supplement (competitive with many counties), policy advocacy at state level (Dr. Jordan on task force on teacher recruitment, credentialing, and retention)
district has 23 international faculty (can stay up to 5 years)
NC does not have true reciprocity with other states on teacher licensure (teachers have to take NC tests or meet other requirements, even if licensed in other state)
(Note: after the meeting I suggested that openings be posted on the district’s facebook and twitter, and that the district maintain contact with graduates planning on going into education, maybe even offering them job-shadowing opportunities)
Summer Feeding Update “more than just a meal”
https://eboard.
2015 – 3623 breakfasts, 4077 lunches at 4 sites (Pittsboro Elementary, Bonlee, Virginia Cross, Jordan Matthews) and 1668 snacks (bookmobile) –
summer reading camps, YMCA summer program.
down from previous summer (4658 breakfasts, 5687 lunches, 1976 snacks).
Needs: Nature Trails (north Chatham Elem), Pittsboro Village Apartments (PES), Moncure.
Goal – increase 10%, increase community partnerships (use church vans, day camp programs), increase resources (buy mobile dining bus)
Additional Items for Discussion – How to create a Welcoming Environment for all Stakeholders (slides from presentation one by Wilson County Schools) –
shared by Del Turner from presentation at school board conference.
https://eboard.
References National PTA standards for Family School Partnerships
Mia Munn