Tag Archive for: #vancecountyschools

Three Graduate Mid-Year from AdVance Academy

/by

Vance County Schools: For Immediate Release

Congratulations to the mid-year graduates from the AdVance Academy at Western Vance High School.

Chris Alston, Krystyna Stallings and Jose Hernandez, shown from left in the accompanying photo, have successfully completed their high school education.

They were honored at the academy’s mid-year commencement ceremony on January 26.

Alston and Hernandez are going into the local workforce. Stallings will continue her education at Vance-Granville Community College.

Vance County Schools Significantly Improves Dropout Rate

/by

The N.C. Department of Public Instruction has announced the 2015-2016 graduation rates and the 2015-2016 dropout rates for public school districts across the state.

Vance County Schools saw significant improvement over previous years in both areas.

With a four-year cohort graduation rate of 81.9 percent for the class of 2016, this is a record high for Vance County over the past five years. The class of 2015 had a four-year cohort graduation rate of 77.6 percent in Vance County.

Vance County Schools’ dropout rate for the 2015-2016 school year continues to improve as it has for the past six years. The dropout rate for the school system is 2.07 percent for the 2015-2016 school year, which is a 13-percent decrease from the 2014-2015 school year rate of 2.28 percent. This is a record low for Vance County over the past six years.

Improving the graduation rate and reducing dropouts are top priorities for Vance County Schools.  It is an ongoing and focused effort for the school system as we work to ensure that every student graduates prepared to meet the challenges of a rapidly changing local, regional and global economy.

Additionally, Vance County Schools currently provides students new and exciting opportunities for credit recovery through online and other non-traditional programs designed to help as many students as possible realize the goal of completion of high school with their peers.

The state data also reported that during the 2015-2016 school year our schools were among the safest in our region, with reportable incidents and student suspensions down or about the same as the previous year. We are pleased with these data and hope to see continued improvement.

As a school system, we will not be satisfied until all students, parents, staff members and community members feel safe coming into our schools; where all students are learning, expectations are high and students are graduating on time prepared to contribute positively to our community and be 21st Century global citizens.

We are excited to share this news with you and look forward to celebrating with our students and their parents in the future as we continue delivering on the promise that we will provide each student a high quality educational experience as we create a school system in which our community can be PROUD.  I am Vance County Proud … Are You?

Dr. Anthony D. Jackson, Superintendent

Vance County Public Schools

Vance County Schools awarded Grant from Golden Leaf

/by

Dr. Anthony Jackson, superintendent of Vance County Schools, announced at the Vance County Board of Education meeting January 18, that the school system has been awarded a $200,000 grant from the Golden Leaf Foundation for its “We Inspire” technology project.

The three-year grant will be used to fund training for educators throughout the school system. It also will be used to support teachers working with students to ensure effective use of latop computers and other technology as an enhancement tool for educational instruction at school and at home.

The “We Inspire” project involves an approximately 50-member team of local educators who are already receiving training on effective strategies to use in the classroom to better utilize technology in their daily instruction. The team is made up of school administrators, department directors, school media specialists, school system technology technicians, curriculum specialists, teachers and counselors. Training for the team began last summer and has been ongoing during this school year. The “We Inspire” cohort members also are facilitating training sessions for other educators in their schools.

The “We Inspire” project includes a close partnership with the Friday Institute at N.C. State University. Representatives of the Friday Institute have already led several training sessions with the “We Inspire” team and more trainings are planned.

Educators throughout the school system received new laptop computers at the beginning of this school year. The new laptops are being used as a focal point of the technology project. For effective use of the technology, ongoing training for all teachers and other educators in local schools is essential. The Golden Leaf Foundation grant funding will cover costs of the training over the next three years. To train all 500 teachers in the district, the school system will need to offer support to cohorts ranging in size from 75 to 100 teachers, each year. Those educators who have completed the training will lead sessions to offer refreshers to others not in an active cohort.

Students in the Vance County Early College High School and the STEM Early High School received new laptop computers this school year. The student laptops were obtained through a lease program. Students in additional schools are set to receive new laptop computers at the beginning of the 2017-2018 school year.

The “We Inspire” project is the catalyst for use of technology in Vance County Schools for years to come. The Golden Leaf Foundation grant to cover costs of training educators over the next three years is crucial to the success of teachers and students using technology as an educational enhancement tool.

Pre-K and Kindergarten Registration begins for Vance County Schools

/by

Parents should begin now applying for their child to attend pre-kindergarten and registering their child for kindergarten classes for the 2017-2018 school year.

Parents should contact the elementary school in the area where they live to get registration information.

We urge parents also to watch out for more information soon on special events and activities at our elementary schools for children who will be eligible to attend pre-kindergarten and kindergarten next school year.

Any child who will be four years old by August 31 of this year is eligible for pre-kindergarten for the new year and any child who will be five years old by August 31 is eligible to attend kindergarten.

(Vance County Schools News Release)

Vance County Schools cancels all after school activities

/by

All after school activities scheduled for today in Vance County Schools have been cancelled due to the forecast for inclement weather.

Thank you,

Terri Hedrick

Public Information Officer

Anderson and Reece lead the way in E.O. Young Angel Tree Project

/by

Nicole Anderson and Karen Reece have led a tremendous Angel Tree project at E.O. Young Jr. Elementary School that is helping to make the holidays a joyous time for over 75 students at the school.

Anderson, the school’s counselor, and Reece, the school’s social worker, have worked closely with school staff members, community supporters and church partners over the last two months to collect donations of toys, other gifts and food, for needy students and their families.

They have worked together to deliver the many bags of gifts and boxes of food donated to the students’ homes. In many cases, even younger siblings not yet in school have been given new clothing and gifts.

“Doing something like this makes you feel that you are doing the right thing,” Anderson said. “It fills your heart.”

Reece added that all of the hard work is worth it when you see the smiles on the students’ faces.

“When we gave them the letters to take home to their parents to let them know we wanted to help them, we had to tell the students that these were good letters and they weren’t in trouble,” Reece laughed. “It’s been a really rewarding experience and we so appreciate the support we’ve gotten from everyone.”

They said they want to especially thank the generous members of Flat Rock United Methodist Church and Guiding Star Holiness Church for their many donations to the students and their families.

“We’ve had wonderful donations from our school staff members, but without the help of these two great churches the success of the project wouldn’t have been possible,” Anderson said.

On the last day of school before the Christmas break on December 20, Anderson and Reece still had a few more gifts to deliver and they planned to do just that over the next couple of days.

“What a great thing for our students and their families,” Anderson added. “We are so fortunate to have such a caring school family.”

Anderson, left, and Reece, right, are shown in the accompanying photo with the last gifts scheduled for delivery.

Emeron Cash Honored by local Educators

/by

Members of the Vance County Board of Education were joined by people from throughout the school system and local community in honoring Emeron J. Cash Sr. on December 12 as he retired after 24 years of service on the board.

They attended a nice reception held in the Administrative Services Center prior to the board’s regular monthly meeting to pay tribute to the former teacher, coach and retiring board member. During the reception and at the beginning of the meeting, colleagues, educators and friends visited with Cash, his wife, Patricia, and their son, Chris. They all praised a man who has dedicated his life to helping youth across Vance County and beyond.

Gloria J. White, chairwoman of the board, presented Cash with a resolution by the board recognizing his many contributions. She also joined Superintendent Anthony Jackson with

giving him a handsome, framed collage featuring his many achievements over the years. He also received a wooden, rocking chair with the school system’s seal engraved on the headrest. Vance County Commissioner Dan Brummitt gave Cash a framed certificate of appreciation from his board.

White led comments shared with the audience at the meeting in praising Cash as a great colleague and someone who truly cares about children and education.

Cash thanked everyone for their support over the years and for the many gifts he was presented.

Chris Cash also spoke and thanked everyone for their great relationships and positive work with his father.

Oliver assists Vance County Schools Administrators through workshops

/by

Bruce Oliver, an education consultant with the Just ASK professional development organization, has just completed six sessions of intense educational workshops with local school administrators.

Oliver, shown in the accompanying photo during the final session,  came to Vance County for two days of workshops on six different occasions beginning on April 20 and ending on December 9. About half of the district’s school administrators each time attended one of the all-day sessions and the remaining administrators would attend the other day.

Oliver used his considerable knowledge and experience in education as a teacher, assistant principal and principal, prior to his retirement in Virginia to lead each of the sessions. He shared proven strategies with administrators on a variety of educational topics to assist them in being more effective as the instructional leaders in their schools.

Administrators also had access to a wide variety of educational publications and resource materials throughout all of the workshops. Resources were shared in both written form and through online publications.

One of many essential questions Oliver’s presentations focused on was, “What do schools and classrooms look like when they are organized around a commitment to the achievement of high standards by all students?”

Throughout the workshops, Oliver stressed strategies including: standards-based education; learning centered classrooms; project based learning; collegial collaboration; literacy leadership; and growth producing feedback for teachers.

Vance County Schools support staff to benefit from State’s Merit Bonus Pay

/by

The Vance County Board of Education approved their local plan for the distribution of the State’s Merit Bonus Pay for the 2016-17 school year last night at their December 12, 2016 meeting.

In the State budget for this fiscal year only, districts across the state received allocations to implement a district level merit bonus plan for non-educators. Vance County Schools received $106,000 to be used exclusively for this purpose.  Non-educators are those staff members who are not paid on the state certified salary schedules and are not school administrators (Teacher Assistants, Bus Drivers, Maintenance, IT Technicians, Child Nutrition, Custodial, Office Support, School Technical Support, and Central Services Support).  The law required each school district to develop a plan for the use of these funds meeting the minimum criteria for distribution set by the state.

The most restrictive requirement by the state was that the bonus could not be distributed across the board to eligible employees.

Vance County Schools (VCS) formed a task force comprised of staff that represented all the groups eligible for this merit bonus.  The task force worked to develop the district’s plan that would provide a meaningful and fair merit award to eligible employees, ranging from $750 to $1000, for the top 10% of the performers in each non-educator group.    With the Board of Education’s approval of the plan, staff will work in January to identify staff members eligible to receive the bonus based on the criteria in the plan.

A copy of the full plan can be found on the district’s website at www.vcs.k12.nc.us.   For questions please contact Jennifer Bennett, Assistant Superintendent for Business & Finance, jbennett@vcs.k12.nc.us.

Hunter to attend first Board of Education Meeting Tonight

/by

Clementine Hunter will attend her first meeting as a new member of the Vance County Board of Education on Monday, December 12, in the Vance County Schools’ Administrative Services Center.

Hunter was officially sworn in to office on December 5, by the Honorable Judge Henry Banks, who also administered the oath to Dorothy Gooche and Ed Wilson. Gooche and Wilson were re-elected in November to their seats on the board of education.

Hunter replaces Emeron J. Cash Sr. on the board. Cash chose not to seek re-election in the November 2016 election and is retiring from the board after 24 years of service to Vance County Schools’ students and educators.

A resident of Henderson, Hunter has experience as a teacher assistant and substitute teacher with the Morris School District in New Jersey. She also has worked as a substitute teacher with Vance, Granville and Warren county schools. Her volunteer work in this area includes: Free Clinic Board member; Area Christians Together in Service (ACTS); Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA); and participation in local theater.

She has a master’s degree in education and training and is continuing studies in pursuit of a doctorate degree in education.

Hunter says as a board of education member she wants to help maintain and develop quality education through programs of inclusivity, diversity and the challenges of global education readiness for present and future generations of learners in Vance County. She sees her role as a board member as a way to help advance the organization of education while partnering with learners, parents, educators, school staff, business leaders, civic leaders, religious leaders and law enforcement officials.