By WILLIAM PAINE
Patriot Publishing
Newly elected members of the Pulaski County College Board gathered for his or her first official assembly on Thursday Jan. 18. The assembly was held within the Pulaski County Center College Auditorium and included a welcoming reception which befell within the college cafeteria.
Earlier than the reception, incoming college board members held a corporation session to elect management and make committee appointments. It needs to be famous that each one votes taken at Thursday night’s assembly had been unanimous.
Of their first official motion, Josh Taylor was elected as College Board Chairman and Gina Paine was subsequently elected as Vice Chair.
Teresa Porter was reappointed as College Board Clerk, as was Brenda Crawford in her place as Deputy Clerk.
Pulaski County Public College Superintendent Rob Graham was then appointed as Parliamentarian of the Pulaski County College Board.
Two members of the varsity board had been appointed to fill the position of agent of the Virginia College Board Affiliation, which meets yearly in Williamsburg to set VSBA coverage. The board elected Sabrina Cox as VSBA Agent and Gina Paine as VSBA Deputy Agent.
Paine was subsequently appointed because the Consultant to the Southwest Virginia Governor’s College Governing Board.
In a minor break from precedent, Jake Worth and Billy Williams had been appointed as board representatives for the College Safety Committee. Usually these positions are held by the Chair and Vice Chair of the varsity board however Gina Paine really helpful Worth due to his prior expertise as an SRO and Williams due to his familiarity with the subject and the board agreed.
Following these organizational appointments, a reception was held within the college lunchroom that includes a buffet ready by the Pulaski County Excessive College Culinary class. The assembly and reception had been attended by the whole thing of the PCPS Administration, in addition to all seven Pulaski County Public College principals.
A couple of minutes later the varsity board gathered once more to name for a closed session. The board and administration then consulted with authorized counsel on a matter that was not disclosed. Roughly 50 minutes after coming into closed session, college board members re-entered the auditorium, once more took their seats and opened the assembly.
The following part of the agenda known as for the popularity of remarkable college students and workers of Pulaski County Public Colleges. As soon as acknowledged, honorary certificates had been distributed and pictures had been taken with college board members offering a backdrop.
Center College College students Jonathan “Hunter” Tolley, Allisha Justice and Gracianna “Gracie” Wimberly had been acknowledged for his or her excellent citizenship.
Subsequent, Pulaski County Center College Librarian Karen Brown, a 32-year veteran of the PCPS system who has served in three completely different roles, was awarded Worker of the Month.
Charles Shelton, who presently teaches Math 8 and Algebra I at PCMS, and who has additionally taught civics and science over his 27-year yr profession at PCPS, was awarded the consideration of Trainer of the Month.
January’s Scholar of the Month certificates was given to Kameron Carden, who performed a key position in bringing the Fellowship of Christian Athletes again to PCHS.
Sydney Proctor, the PCHS Captain of the Coloration Guard, was acknowledged because the PCHS Senior of the Month of November 2023, as Sydney wasn’t capable of attend November’s assembly.
The varsity board then handed a consent agenda, which included the hiring of Richard (Ritchie) Thomas because the Director of PCPS Human Assets, following the current resignation of Ashley Coble . Thomas was Principal of Fort Chiswell Excessive College for a few years earlier than briefly serving as interim Principal for Pulaski County Excessive College. Earlier than accepting this place, Thomas was most not too long ago employed as an educational aide at Pulaski County Center College.
Following the recognitions, Assistant Superintendent of Instruction Tara Grant gave the board an summary of PCHS attendance and tutorial standing.
Grant started by saying that six of the seven faculties in Pulaski County had been absolutely accredited with Pulaski County Center College being “accredited with situations.”
Based on Grant, acquiring full accreditation for PCMS will likely be a significant purpose for PCPS within the coming yr.
Grant said that Pulaski County Public College college students averaged a 65% passing fee for the studying portion of the Requirements of Studying (SOL) exams, and solely 53% of Pulaski County Public College college students had been capable of go (SOL) Writing exams.
The purpose is to have at the very least 75% of scholars go the English studying/writing sections of the SOL exams.
PCPS college students common a 60% passing fee in each arithmetic and Historical past Social Science SOL exams and solely a 57% passing fee for the science portion. All three figures symbolize a slight lower in proficiency from the earlier yr. The purpose for PCPS is to carry a passing fee of 70% is these topic areas.
“I’m pointing this out as a result of, though we’re 96th out of 131 college divisions, which could be very uncomfortable for us, all of us work very, very exhausting and so do our academics,” stated Grant.
Grant is now working with the Virginia Board of Training and a consortium of 61 public college divisions which shaped a Complete Tutorial Program to enhance pupil achievement. A part of this course of includes utilizing benchmarks to watch college students’ progress in core topics earlier than taking the take a look at.
As well as, as a part of Virginia’s All In Tutoring initiative, beginning this time period studying loss instructing assistants have been employed for every of the county’s faculties (two for the center college) to assist with tutoring.
These tutoring classes are to happen throughout college hours and academics who presently work within the faculties may have the chance to offer tutoring classes to college students earlier than college begins.
“I simply need you to be inspired that we’re on it,” stated Grant. “We’re going to maneuver ahead and we’ll be high twenty within the state earlier than too lengthy.”
Grant then went over the accreditation statistics for every college within the county and revealed that tutorial achievement ranges for English and math had been categorized as Stage 1 (greatest) in all the county’s elementary faculties. The identical might be stated for science, excepting Critzer and Riverlawn Elementary faculties, which earned a Stage 2 Tutorial grade for his or her science instruction.
Achievement gaps for college kids with disabilities had been a difficulty for all elementary faculties aside from Snowville and Riverlawn, which registered no achievement gaps.
English and arithmetic got the Stage 1 Tutorial Achievement designation at Pulaski County Excessive College, with Science score a Stage 2 grade.
Pulaski County Center College was the outlier in these accreditation rankings with solely arithmetic receiving the very best Stage 1 designation. English at PCMS was given a Stage 2 Tutorial Achievement designation and Science scored the bottom Stage 3 designation.
College students with disabilities even have a big Achievement hole in math at PCHS and math and English at PCMS.
Each college within the county has points with power absenteeism however, in keeping with Grant, that is an ongoing drawback for the state of Virginia and the nation as an entire, particularly in highschool.
Subsequent, Tonia Singleton, Pre-Ok Coordinator of Elementary Curriculum and Instruction, defined how the insurance policies of the Virginia Literacy Act, which was handed to fight a ‘literacy crises’ of Virginia college kids, will likely be employed within the college system.
This literacy program, which makes use of benchmarks and ‘evidence-based literacy and educational practices’ focuses on Ok by means of third grade college students and is about to start in fall of 2024.
The Informational section of the assembly started with a report from Jeremiah Turner, who’s the Scholar Consultant to the varsity board.
After being advised that pupil SOL take a look at scores are decrease than they need to be, Turner gave the board two solutions on easy methods to probably elevate SOL scores.
Turner first instructed that every pupil be allotted plenty of psychological well being days every semester however that safeguards needs to be put in place in order that not each pupil within the college would take the identical days off.
Turner then proposed a pupil mentoring program the place upper-class college students would help youthful college students who had been struggling.
Board members Josh Taylor and Sabrina Cox voiced their approval of the coed mentoring proposal.
PCPS Director of Operations Jess Shull subsequent gave the board a Capital Enchancment precedence checklist.
The highest precedence listed by Shull was a sewer line break beneath the concrete slab in Riverlawn Elementary College’s kitchen. This was found firstly of the varsity yr and resulted within the closure of two of the varsity’s restrooms.
The second precedence was changing the water provide traces at Dublin Elementary College, the place extreme buildup of water stress has compromised a number of fixtures.
“We might be in actual bother if we don’t repair that quickly,” Shull warned.
Different capital enchancment priorities embrace ending the substitute of exterior doorways at PCHS and ongoing safety upgrades involving reworking vestibules in any respect PCPS elementary faculties.
Shull really helpful a extra detailed assembly with the board within the coming weeks to higher clarify the funding and feasibility of PCPS upcoming capital enchancment tasks.
Mike Wade of New River Valley Group Providers and Mandi Ackerman of United Approach of Southwest Virginia then introduced the board with a threat conduct survey. Wade and Ackerman careworn that at the moment’s youth are extra in danger than ever and requested the board to permit them to offer the 66 query survey to 7th, 9th and 11th graders.
After stipulating {that a} youngster should have parental approval to take the survey, the board agreed to maneuver this informational merchandise into an motion merchandise later within the assembly. The board then voted unanimously to permit the survey to happen.
Superintendent Rob Graham then up to date the varsity board on attendance and self-discipline. To obtain accreditation, faculties want a 94% attendance fee, with PCPS coming in with just below 93% attendance fee on common.
“Our academics and workers are doing an impressive job with power absenteeism,” said Graham.
“When you have a look at our pupil conduct report for December, I used to be actually, actually happy with this,” stated Graham.
There have been whole of 144 self-discipline associated incidents in PCPS for December, with 9 incidents falling into essentially the most severe “endangerment” class.
“Those we actually want to look at are persistently harmful behaviors and fortuitously, we don’t have any of these and we haven’t had any of these this yr … That would come with carrying a weapon to highschool or severe bodily harm leading to hospitalization. These issues must be reported and so your college can be labeled a persistently harmful college and we don’t have any of that.”
Graham additionally talked about that college directors have been given extra autonomy to take care of self-discipline points than within the current previous.
“The Restorative Justice piece has a variety of optimistic purposes to it however if you get all the way down to actuality, there needs to be some kind of consequence,” stated Graham. “You’ll be able to’t hit a trainer or cuss a trainer out and exit for an hour and speak to that youngster and attempt to present them some restorative justice after which return within the classroom an hour later, it merely … we haven’t seen it work right here or once I was in Radford. So, we’ve actually given the directors the autonomy and in case you speak to directors, they really feel just like the adults are working the colleges as a substitute of the opposite method round.”
Motion Objects included the approval for upcoming college area journeys and a suggestion to submit a Request for Proposals for insurance coverage firm consulting companies to assist reduce an anticipated hike in insurance coverage charges.
The board unanimously handed the sphere journeys, the RFP for insurance coverage consulting companies and the youth in danger survey.
The following assembly of the Pulaski County College Board is scheduled to happen at 6 p.m. Tuesday February 13 on the college board places of work in downtown Pulaski.
