Parent Advisory Council
November 15, 2011
1. Darrell Walker, the assistant superintendent of operations, called the meeting to order, and PTA Council President Aleta Bitting gave a brief welcome. Superintendent Don Martin was unable to come to the meeting because he was at a meeting in Greensboro.
2. Janie Costello, the program manager for language arts in elementary grades, gave a presentation on DIBELS. The acronym stands for Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills. It's a national test given to students in grades KG-2 designed to quickly measure literacy skills of young children. It gives the school system an idea of how prepared students are when they arrive in kindergarten, and how well students do as they go through their first years of school.
3. Kim Morrison, the director of federal programs, gave a presentation about the STAR3 grant. The $19 million federal grant is examining whether performance pay and training methods makes a difference in students' test scores in 16 elementary and middle schools.
4. Dana Wrights, the director of accountability services, gave a presentation about how the school system is doing at eliminating the achievement gap.
5. Kerry Crutchfield, the budget director, gave a presentation about the budget outlook for 2012-13.
6. Theo Helm, the director of marketing and communications, talked about the waiver the Board of Education requested from the State Board of Education. A new state law requires the school year for students to increase from 180 to 185 days in 2012-13, and the school board asked for a waiver that would allow the school system to add one student day and use the other four days for teacher training.
The next meeting is Jan. 17 in Room 219 of the Education Building. For more information, please call the Office of Marketing and Communications at 727-2696.
