SEPTEMBER 12 - The Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Board of Education met Tuesday as part of its regular schedule.
The board recognized:
Karen McNeil-Miller, President of the Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust, for the trust’s contributions to education, including funding for WS/FCS early education teachers in their training as part of a larger plan to improve children’s readiness for school.
Karel Chandler of the Forsyth Educational Partnership. Karel has been instrumental in getting the Educator Warehouse up and running for the 2012-13 school year. The warehouse provides free classroom supplies and materials to WS/FCS teachers.
Julie Merrill, Crystal Heyland and Sara Cook of Speas Elementary. The school was recognized as part of the SMART Exemplary Educatory Program.
Mallie Graham and Home Moravian Church for the Benevolence Funding for the Diggs-Latham partnership.
Laura Bilton, a teacher at Old Town Elementary School. Bilton won the Marcellus Waddill Excellence in Teaching Award from Wake Forest University.
The board also:
heard a back-to-school report, including updates on:
facilities. Improvements were made over the summer at Griffith Elementary, Philo-Hill Magnet, East Forsyth High, Easton Elementary and Glenn High. Renovations are also continuing at Northwest Middle and Vienna Elementary.
the summer feeding program. More than 85,000 meals were served this summer, and Forest Park, Griffith, Gibson and Kimberley Park also gave away fresh fruit.
transportation. The school system is using 353 buses to travel 37,399 miles each day. The department also bought 78 new buses to replace aging models.
Driver’s education. Starting this fall, students have to pay $45 to take driver’s education. The 2011 General Assembly cut funding for driver’s education in 2011-12 and began allowing school systems to charge a fee to cover the cost of the course. WS/FCS did not charge a fee last year and lost money on driver’s education, so it began charging $45 this fall.
Technology. About 85 classrooms at Vienna Elementary and Northwest Middle received new technology packages. The school system also has finished installing wireless infrastructure at all schools.
enrollment trends. Through 10 days of school, enrollment is 53,139 students, compared to 52,586 at the same point last year.
the BELL summer school program. More than 1,600 elementary and middle-school students attended summer school at one of five sites. Students received instruction in math and reading, as well as the arts and field trips to state parks and the N.C. Zoo. Tests are being given throughout September to students to see how effective the program was.
heard a summary of last year’s discipline report. The number of incidents decreased; the complete presentation can be seen here.
heard a summary of the scholarships earned by the Class of 2012. The Class of 2012 received a total of $65.7 million in scholarships, compared to $55.7 million for the Class of 2012. You can see the presentation here.
heard a report from the building-and-grounds committee meeting. Plans were presented for a proposed football stadium at Reynolds High School adjoining Hanes Park. The committee will continue to consider the pros and cons of a new stadium before making a decision to approve it.
unanimously approved an amendment to the 2012-13 budget. The amendment will allow the school system to buy class sets of laptops and additional technology for classrooms to prepare for online testing in science for grades 5 and 8 and high school biology. The technology will equip about 300 classrooms and cost about $3.9 million.
voted unanimously to award a contract worth $162,574 to Professional Air to replace the boiler at Parkland High School.
voted unanimously to approve a one-year contract with Winston-Salem Federal Credit Union to open a student-run credit union at Flat Rock Middle School. The contract is for one year and valued at $5,000 for the school. It will also provide a $1,000 annual stipend to one Flat Rock employee to supervise the credit union.
voted unanimously to approve a contract with the YMCA of Northwest North Carolina, Inc., to provide various services. The school system has a long relationship with the YMCA, and the contract includes a weekly swimming program for students with special needs, a free swimming program for students at the Downtown School and Winston-Salem Preparatory Academy, before- and after-school child care at several elementary schools, and access to swimming pools for selected high school swim teams.
voted unanimously to approve a contract with AlphaBEST Education, Inc., to provide after-school programs at Clemmons and Southwest elementary schools. The company will pay the school system $1,000 per month to rent the school programs and pay up to $3 a week for each student enrolled in the program.
heard a report about teachers use training in systems thinking in their classrooms with their students. Teachers shared examples of their planning and samples of student work.
voted unanimously to extend the contracts of Steve Oates, the assistant superintendent for elementary schools, and Betty Weycker, the assistant superintendent for technology, until 2015.
