Steve Frey
Contributing writer
At Tuesday’s meeting, the Radford City School Board approved a special resolution honoring members of the news media, including Radford News Journal Editor Sam Wall and Sports Editor Marty Gordon, by selecting them for the statewide 2018 Virginia School Boards Association Media Honor Roll.
Criteria for honorees include the following: Makes the effort to get to know the superintendent and board chairman; understands the division’s mission and goals; reports school news in a manner that is fair, accurate and balanced; gives a high-profile position to good news about schools; regularly visits the schools, attends board meetings etc; and maintains a policy of “no surprises” by sharing information with school representatives.
In addition to Wall and Gordon, the board recognized Irisha Jones of WSLS 10 and Mike Gangloff of the Roanoke Times.
The resolution stated that “much of the community’s knowledge and opinions about the public schools rely on responsible reporting by local media representatives who decide which news to share with the community, how much attention will be focused on various issues and what the tone of the reporting will be.”
It goes on to say that this resolution recognizes “the ongoing responsible and exemplary nature of reporting on this community’s public schools. We express our appreciation for your balanced and accurate approach to sharing with this community both the challenges facing our schools and the successes achieved by the teachers and students. Your work has aided this community in focusing on the goal of providing the best public schools we can for the children who attend them.”
Other news
Superintendent Robert Graham informed the board that the opening of the new school year has gone very well. “Thank you to our students,…teachers and school community members for a wonderful opening. It went really, really smoothly,” Graham said.
The board approved the board meeting calendar for the new school year. It also approved a surplus equipment list. Some of these items can be sold, with the proceeds going back into the technology budget.
Cindy Martin was approved as a school counselor at McHarg Elementary School, and Annette Bishop was approved as for an administrative assistant/truancy position at Belle Heth and McHarg.
Enrollment for the division is over 1,590 students. It has been increasing since the first day of school.
The leadership team reviewed some components of the comprehensive plan for the division focusing on students in poverty and its effect on achievement. They shared various strategies that may be used to close the achievement gap for these students.
Discussed were concepts such as project-based learning; making curriculum content relevant to the students; extra instructional time; the need for a reading specialist at the high school; a Radford University graduate student/RCPS literacy program; data analysis and brainstorming techniques to improve instruction; discussions relative to discrepancies between SOL scores and final grades; a new scheduling model to provide additional instructional time; integration of instruction; grouping for intervention; small group instruction; technology-assisted instruction, etc.
Unfortunately, Belle Heth lost a grant for over $200,000 that provided for after-school remediation, which significantly improved student achievement. This program also offered some enrichment programs that provided students, especially impoverished students, with experiences they would not be exposed to otherwise. The division is exploring ways to reinstate the program.
Executive Director for Curriculum and Instruction Ellen Denny also reviewed various programs and instructional techniques that will be used with gifted students.
Government teachers Megan Thompson and Andrew Cox reviewed changes to the Students in Government Day program. This year there will be projects and activities throughout the year differentiated between the Advanced Placement and regular government courses. Activities will include creating potential projects for the city, working in groups with specific roles, interacting with government officials, having students understand the election process and electing individuals to positions, and, generally, being completely immersed in the city government process.
Graham reviewed revisions to the Virginia Standards of Accreditation. Assessment indicators for accreditation include areas such as adequate student performance in English, math and science; academic achievement gaps with subgroups including special education; graduation rates; the dropout rate; chronic absenteeism; and the college, career, and civic readiness index. A major improvement is that students who fail the SOL assessment but show appropriate growth will be given credit for that improvement. For example, a student who was two grade levels behind in reading may gain a year and a half of growth but not make the SOL passing cutoff. That student will now be given credit for the substantial growth he did make if he reaches a certain level of performance, even if it is below the SOL cutoff score.
Denny shared the professional development schedule of activities for the year and a leadership video outlining the vision for the district in the future.
The school cafeteria services will be implementing a new software program called My School Bucks which will significantly improve efficiency and accountability for the program. It will generate needed reports and be able to track sales for a la carte meals. Parents will be able to send in meal applications online now. Also, the high school will be receiving a Smoothie machine through a special grant!
