Volunteers Needed - Math Staff Development

The math training that Velvet Simington describes below is a year long, 24 hour training. it will take place on RC days throughout the year and on several 2-hour sessions after school. I need two volunteers from each grade level. Please discuss this among your peers and determine who will attend from each grade level. Please let me know and I will let the individuals know when the participants can register for this training.

Ms. Simington wrote:
Each of your schools is receiving a total of 12 training slots--two slots per grade level. Therefore, please select your twelve participants ( two per grade level) and email me those names, by grade level so that we will know who to enroll for your school. I will need to know whether or not you plan to use all of your school's allotted slots.

Also, please remind the participants that this is a 24 hour training that begins on August 20th and continues with other sessions. The training dates and locations are included in the staff development handout that I provided during last Thursday's K-5 Math update.

Finally, please remind your staff that only those teachers that you designate should attend the 24-hour training. I will notify you via email once these Grade Band trainings (K-1, 2-3, and 4-5) are available for online registration.

Preliminary Results (AYP and ABC) 2008-2009

We received an advance listing of our performance on the 2008-2009 End of Grade Tests yesterday. This information will be announced to the general public at 10:00 AM today. None of this information is final until the State Board of Education approves it at its August meeting.


According to the preliminary report Speas met "Expected Growth" under the North Carolina ABC's with a performance composite of 61.7% and is recognized as a "School of Progress." This is an increase of 16.7% in our performance composite from 2007-2008. It reflects the highest growth in performance composite in WS/FCS, elementary, middle and high.

As far as AYP is concerned, Speas met 17 of 17 targets and therefore made AYP for the 2008-2009 school year. This means that we remain where we are in Title-1 School Improvement. We stay at year two for math and do not have to offer Supplemental Educational Services (SES) which is a really good thing. We were on the "watch list" for reading and remain there. We have to make AYP for another year in reading and math in order to exit School Improvement completely.


All in all this is great news and each of you should be very proud. It sets the stage for next year because it gives us both something to celebrate and some specific targets to aim for. We will go into the specifics of performance as a school, each grade level and teacher as we begin the year. Thanks for all the hard work. This is the payoff.

AYP Announcement - July 21

The Department of Public Instruction will announce preliminary AYP results on July 21. Stay tuned for further information.

Workshop for Leveled Literacy Intervention

Ms. Billingsley, Ms. Falor, Ms. Say and Ms. Wooten attended a two day workshop July 09-10 on the Leveled Literacy Intervention program at Ibraham Elementary. We will be implementing this intensive remediation program for struggling readers this year focusing on K-1. We will also be providing additional support and assistance to 2nd grade students. Ms. Billingsley comes to our school from Bolton Elementary and she will be responsible for the LLI program.

Congratulations Ms. Higgins

A big "Congratulations" goe to Karen Higgins. Speas annual audit was done on Monday and we had a perfect audit with no exceptions. Ms. Chisolm was very pleased with the audit and said that it was a pleasure to audit books that were so well maintained.

Terms of Employment for 2009-2010

Job Title
Principal (12 months) 1 July - 30 June
School Secretary (12 months) 1 July - 30 June
NC Wise Data Manager (10 mo/4 wks) 3 Aug - 30 June
Assistant Principal (10 mo/2 wk) 10 Aug - 23 June
Curriculum Coordinator (10 mo/2 wk) 10 Aug - 23 June
School based Clerical (10 mo/1 wk) 10 Aug - 16 June
Teachers, Teacher Asst.’s,
Home School Coord.,
Media Coordinator,
Media Assistant,
Guidance Counselor (10 months) 17 Aug - 16 June

Request for Proctors for Reading EOG Retest

Brian Brookshire from Jefferson Elementary is serving as Summer Academy principal at Petree Elementary this summer. He has 29 classes of 3rd and 5th grade students. Catharine Lowe is working there and Billie Hoots is assisting as a sub and proctor for the EOG. Because of the large number of classes he is in need of teachers or assistants to serve as proctors for testing on July 17. If you would consider helping out with this monumental task, I would be happy to offer you time off on a workday at a rate of 1.5 hours for each hour worked. Mr. Brookshire is providing training for proctors on July 16 at 12:45 PM in the media center at Petree Elementary at 3815 Old Greensboro Rd., Winston-Salem, NC 27101. Time spent in training and proctoring would both qualify for time off. If you can help out with this request or need more information, you can reach Mr. Brookshire at 748-3454 (w) or 462-0075 (c). Directions to Petree are listed below

Petree Elementary:
From Business I-40 east, take US 158 exit (Reidsville Rd.). Go to first light and turn left onto Old Greensboro Rd. School is about 1/3 mile on right.

Prayer Request

Chris Say has requested your prayers for her infant granddaughter who was born July 1, two months premature. Please keep Chris and Ben, her daughter and son-in-law, and little Amelia (Daisy) in your thoughts and prayers. Amelia weighed just 1 lb. 12 oz.

Updating Personnel Information

All principals have been asked to make sure that all employees aware of this requirement.

The majority of WS/FCS employees have not provided updated emergency contact information to WS/FCS. WS/FCS is also requesting this information in order to notify designated emergency contacts on behalf of the employee, particularly in the event of a medical emergency. An electronic Employee Self Service page has been developed for purposes of capturing and routing this information to Human Resources.

As a reminder, name changes can only be accomplished in person and upon presentation of an updated Social Security card reflecting the new name.

Links to the Employee Self Service Employee Contact Change can be found on the WS/FCS website. Links are being enabled through the Human Resources page, on the "Information for Employees" tab, and from the Employee page under the Personnel section of the Online Resources page.

To use this automated contact change page:

* Log in using the assigned lotusnotes remote login id and password, also sometimes known as "internet" login and password
* Select the Employee Contact Change option.
* The employee is automatically directed to the page assigned to him/her. The employee's SSN and user name is autofilled. NOTE: An employee not having been issued a system login should ask an office staff member to report updated information on his/her behalf. The assisting staff member should enter the employee's SSN for the employee in order to report changed information.
* Verify the name of the employee is correct, then click on the bar at the lower portion of the screen to proceed.
* Verify all contact information by typing address and telephone information into the fields as designated.
* An employee who does not have a land line/home telephone number should include his/her primary telephone/cell phone number as the "Home Phone".
* Please note, the employee should select the "Yes" indicator if the home telephone number is unlisted.
* Address and telephone fields must be completed before the transaction can be completed. Use the dropdown selections to choose "RD", "ST", "PKWY" etc. within the address fields.
* Select the "Submit" button near the bottom of the page when complete to transmit the information.
* As mentioned earlier, every employee should take this opportunity to update the Emergency Contact portion of this page.
* As changes occur, policy requires the employee to be responsible for providing timely notification to WS/FCS Human Resources for any future address and/or telephone number or other contact changes.
* The employee's site-based contact will be notified of the change through the Electronic Personnel Action System.