Steve Frey
Contributing writer
The Radford City School Board selected board goals for the 2018-2019 school year at its August 21 “retreat” meeting.
Goals were designated for the following areas: school safety, reaching and maintaining full accreditation according to the new school quality indicators, achievement gaps and the impact of poverty, the five-year comprehensive plan, professional development, and facility improvements. Superintendent Robert Graham emphasized that these were goals “we need to have” included.
Under school safety, which Graham stressed is always the “top priority,” the board will continue to work with Chiefs Goodman and Haywood and Sheriff Armentrout as well as crisis prevention and threat assessment teams to increase security measures and practices to ensure all campuses are safe and secure.
Graham explained that most of the schools have participated in “tabletop” emergency scenarios for practice in handling a crisis situation.
The division also plans to apply for grants to increase security equipment such as cameras and communication devices and to add full-time resource officers to Belle Heth and McHarg.
The school system is planning to provide walkie-talkies for all campuses that will allow principals and other school officials to communicate on one dedicated channel in the case of an emergency situation.
Board Member Liz Altieri brought up the question of how the district is planning to be proactive in preventing problems.
She shared that “nationally we are looking at this issue of identifying students who are significantly isolated, lonely, bullied…and that’s got to be as much of a priority” as appropriately reacting to situations.
Graham mentioned that each school is designing a crisis intervention plan and that the district is planning school mass evacuation drills for later in the fall.
He also shared that he has worked with the police chief and sheriff, and there will be a police officer, though not necessarily a school resource officer, in every school throughout the year.
Reaching and maintaining full accreditation according to the new state school quality indicators relates primarily to instruction. Sub-goals include 75 percent of Radford students passing the math Standards of Learning assessments; 80 percent passing the English SOLs; no more than 15 percent of students missing 10 percent of the school year; and providing personalized learning for all students.
To reduce academic gaps and the impact of poverty, students identified as economically disadvantaged, special education, and African-American will, at the very least, have failure rates reduced by 10 percent.
The primary goal is for all subgroups to reach accreditation percentages. The division also plans to “embrace a collaborative culture by maximizing parent and community partnerships to support accelerated student success.”
Next, the division plans quarterly reviews of the 2015-2021 Comprehensive Plan with an emphasis on facilities and the budget.
The board will focus on a collaborative budget process, continued enhancement of a global learning environment and an increase in the number of course offerings and certifications for students involved in Career Technical Education, with an exploration of new Health Sciences and Health Information Technology courses a priority.
In the area of professional development, the staff will continue to research new school schedules for the intermediate and high schools, bringing a recommendation to the board by the regular October school board meeting.
The division will continue providing innovative and integrated professional development at all schools through collaboration with Radford University, Virginia Tech and New River Community College.
Another goal is in the area of facility improvements. The board plans to work with the city council to develop a plan to upgrade all RCPS facilities, including renovating McHarg with a new gym and cafeteria (significantly, Graham noted that because of the age of the schools, in the first five school days the division spent $160,000 in repairs). All upgrades will be completed by 2020.
This plan will also include having a fully renovated and ready to use Innovative Teaching and Learning Center on the high school campus by the 2020-2021 school year.
Additionally, the board plans to meet with the Radford City Council quarterly to work on funding for facility upgrades and have short-term and long-term joint plans for moving forward (it was noted that the division is 105 out of 132 in school expenditures). The first joint meeting is set for September 10.
In addition to the preceding, board members discussed several additional goals to place in the plan.
The board will investigate putting seat belts on all school buses. The potential cost for this will be approximately $20,000 per bus, and there are presently 10 buses in use.
Seatbelts on buses are currently required by law in eight states, but not yet in Virginia.
There was a discussion about moving back to a seven-point grading scale that was changed in 2015.
However, the board decided to leave it at a 10-point scale, citing the fact that this seemed to be a Virginia and national direction in schools; with project-based, integrated learning, a greater emphasis is on content, rigor and the attainment of learning rather than just a final grade; and the students and staff are now fully acclimated to the 10-point scale.
“I think what we need to take from your discussion though… [is that] it’s important to the school board that we have rigor in our schools, and that’s very much appreciated because we all want that,” said Graham.
Executive Director for Curriculum and Instruction Ellen Denny pointed out that rigor is embedded in the instructional process, and that is done by the classroom teacher every day.
Another goal was to continue to work on the employee pay scales. Graham emphasized that the board should be looking at a two percent increase at a minimum for teachers, but other staff scales need to be examined, also. Board Member Joe Hester said, “I just want to see us having a long-range plan.”
The board agreed to implement Robert’s Rules of Order to increase the efficiency of conducting school board meetings. It was also stressed to try to keep presentations to the board to about 10 minutes, although that could be extended if requested.
The administration will work on making the Student Code of Conduct more reader/user-friendly for parents and students.
Board members also agreed to explore working with area school districts on a possible regional CTE program.