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  School Board Honors Spelling Bee Winners By Anne Waits Staff Report web posted February 15, 2013 JOHNSTON – The Edgefield County School Board met Tuesday night with a huge crowd in attendance. A Special Order of Business spotlighted the school spelling bee winners and the 2013 Edgefield County School District Spelling Bee Competition on Jan. 16. "If you have never attended this competition, I'd like to extend an invitation to the 2014 event," said Donna Strom, assistant superintendent of education. "These students exhibited amazing talents and spelling abilities. All of these students are winners!" School winners were recognized as follows: Jemerol Scott - Douglas Elementary School; Jaheim Mathis - Johnston Elementary School; Emma Pedersen - W.E. Parker Elementary School; Colby Welsh - Merriwether Elementary School; Andy Hoffman (First Runner Up) - Merriwether Middle School; and Tiaja Frazier (School and District Winner) - JET Middle School. Frazier will now advance to the Regional Spelling Bee competition on Saturday, March 2, at the Morris Auditorium in the Augusta Chronicle News Building. The winner there will advance to the National Finals in Washington, D.C. at the end of May. Several trips and projects were approved by the Board including a request by Vann Clark of Strom Thurmond High School to take students to the University of South Carolina in Columbia Feb. 14-17 to participate in the USC Band Clinic; a request by Diana Wintrow of Strom Thurmond Career Center to take students to HOSA State Leadership Conference in North Charleston March 13-15; and a request by Jackie Kennion of Strom Thurmond Career Center to take students to Atlanta to participate in the 2013 Bronner Brothers trade show Feb. 16-18. The Jan. 15 Board Meeting minutes approved and the Dec. 18 Discipline Hearing minutes were ratified. Under Instructional Services, the Board heard first from Candi Lalonde with the First Steps overview. Lalonde began first with the origin of First Steps in Edgefield County in 1999 with legislation from Gov. Hodges, and reminded attendees of the School Board meeting that many of them were in attendance at that first First Steps meeting. "We received a level planning grant in May, 2000 and full funding in 2001," she said. "When money was good, we had over half a million dollars." She added, "We don't have that kind of money now." Lalonde explained that First Steps is a comprehensive, results-oriented organization with needs assessments done every five years. "Our goal is to make sure that each child enters first grade healthy and ready to learn," she said. First Steps sponsors seven programs in Edgefield County. They are: Fatherhood - which works with fathers of young children and teaches them how to be a part of their child's life; Family Literacy - where parents get their GED and attend parenting classes; Imagination Library - that enrolls children from birth to age 5 and those who sign up receive a free book mailed to them each month. Low income families are targeted and sponsors support the program; Nurse Family Partnership - for first-time low-income mothers who receive nurse visits from pregnancy until the child is 2 years old. Edgefield shares a nurse with a BSN with McCormick and Saluda counties; Child Care Scholarships - where First Steps pays half of the weekly day care charges for low-income families. They also attend parenting workshops; Child Care Training - where workers go into child care centers and teach classes and offer assistance; and the Summer School - which is run by the School District for 4 and 5 year olds to make sure they don't get behind. First Steps provides transportation and meals. Also, run by a grant program is First Books which delivers books to each school, Head Start and day care centers three to four times a year. Lalonde said, "The School District has supported us since inception. We are located in the Chamber of Commerce, another vital partner. Carolina Health Center helps feed children in summer school." First Steps is going through major changes this year and Sen. Shane Massey is supporting a bill in the Senate to reauthorize the organization. Funding for the program comes primarily from S.C. First Steps, a grant from Zero to Three (a national child care organization), a grant from Community Foundation of the SCRA. Center for Child Career Development and the United Way. There are 60 sponsors for the Imagination Library. First grade detention has dropped by 18 percent in Edgefield County since 2001, said Lalonde. Anyone wishing further information can contact Lalonde at 803-275-0800. A Web-Based Laptop Technology Pilot Program, based on Google, was presented by three fifth-grade students from Johnston Elementary School. The students used ChromeBooks to create a presentation on inventions or inventors for Social Studies. Each student was given a different invention and they each did the research, made a study guide and taught it. The students also use ChromeBooks to do Web quests for Social Studies. The teacher said that in six weeks the program has been very successful. Next on the agenda was a Board Presentation on Freshman Academy by Strom Thurmond Principal Jill Jett. Freshman Academy's purpose is to improve student achievement; bring back interest in learning; build relationships with teachers, counselors, administrators and parentsin learning; and to create a support system as students transition to high school. Its vision is to make a community where each ninth grader will receive a college and career-relevant education built on relationships. The goals are to increase the number of ninth-graders who successfully complete ninth grade; to increase attendance rate; to decrease the number of referrals for discipline; to raise student achievement levels; to increase participation in extracurricular activities; to promote student awareness of post-secondary education and/or vocational needs in planning for a career; to assist socially promoted students to achieve on track status. It is believed to reduce drop-out rates; reduce ninth grade retention; reduce daily absenteeism; provide a rigorous and relevant student-driven curriculum incorporating technology; promote completion of a career component to establish a career direction; establish classroom rigor through the use of data analysis; and to provide concentrated assistance to socially promoted students and increase their chances of graduating with their peers. Jett expressed that the program would increase a love and desire for learning, reduce violence, change parents' involvement, increase teacher collaboration, increase test scores, and increase graduation rates as it aids in the transition from middle school to high school. James Courtney, facilities and operations director said the costs of implementing the program would involve $18,000 (the major cost) in facilities renovations including lockers, and extra entranceway from the parking lot, a total of $30,000 in cosmetic changes. Implementation would also involve the hiring of two new teachers, adding further professional costs. Jett provided information from other schools that have implemented the program. There were many questions and comments from Board members and no action as taken at this time. Fifteen policy changes were approved at one time on first reading by the School Board, including: Policy IHCA-Summer School; Policy IKAB-Report Cards; Policy IKB-Homework; Administrative Rule-Policy IKB-R--Homework; Administrative Rule-IKD-R-Honor Rolls; Policy JKC-Probation of Students; Policy JKD-Suspension of Students; Policy JKE-Expulsion of Students; Administrative Rule-JKE-R-Expulsion of Students; Policy IHBIB-Primary/Pre-Primary Education (Child Development); Administrative Rule IHBIB-R- Primary/Pre-Primary Education (Child Development); and Administrative Rule IHBIB-E-Primary/Pre-Primary Education (Child Development) Student Selection Criteria and Procedure. The Board also received as information Johnston Elementary School Priority Report "Challenge to Achieve Plan." Courtney gave an update to the Board on the Building Project status. "We're ahead on three buildings, but behind on the field house," he said. "Sixteen extra rain days have been granted. It has rained so much lately, it looks like they will be working on weekends some." Courtney also asked the Board for approval on a District Data Management Level Data Software Proposal, Giving a demonstration on how the proposal works, he stated that it would manage district data by importing information from the main system to areas where it needs to be more efficiently. This is a process that can take from a matter of minutes to 24 hours now, he said, and is done by different people. This is something that will need to be done along with the current building project to bring the district's data system up-to-date, he said. No action was taken at the time. The School Board has talked before about meeting once a month instead of twice a month, and School Superintendent Greg Anderson presented the idea of meeting the second Tuesday of each month. This was also tabled until next time. With no other business the meeting was adjourned. © Copyright 2012 - 2013 All material is property of
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