Middle Creek engineering teacher Erik Schettig has received the High School Teacher Excellence Award from the North Carolina Technology Engineering and Design Educators.

Candidates for the Teacher Excellence Award are characterized as providing technology and engineering education instruction of high quality, learner centered and relevant to a study of technological literacy.

Schettig has taught a total of two years at Middle Creek and a total of four years in WCPSS.

The Teacher Excellence Award is one of the highest honors given to Technology and Engineering Education classroom teachers and is presented in recognition of their outstanding contributions to the profession and to their students.

• Brian Pittman, Senior Director for Middle School Programs, has been appointed Principal of Holly Springs High School
• Cynthia Yaeger, Teacher at Holly Grove Middle School, has been appointed Assistant Principal at Davis Drive Middle School
• Jena Wojdylo-Kehler, Teacher at Wildwood Forest Elementary School, has been appointed Assistant Principal at Cedar Fork Elementary School
• Cathy Williams, Retiree, has been appointed Interim Assistant Principal at Enloe High School
• Charles Langley, Retiree, has been appointed Interim Principal at Salem Middle School
• John R. Umstead, Jr., Retiree, has been appointed Interim Principal at Yates Mill Elementary School
• Thomas Dixon, Retiree, has been named Interim Principal at Apex High School
• Vicki Perry, Retiree, has been named Interim Principal at Harris Creek Elementary School
• Mary K. Warren, Retiree, has been appointed Interim Assistant Principal at Fuquay-Varina Elementary School
• R. Gregory Welsh, Retiree, has been named Interim Assistant Principal at Panther Creek High School
• Wiladean Thomas, Retiree, has been appointed Interim Assistant Principal at Banks Road Elementary School

• Please note – This list includes new appointments. The board also may have approved contract extensions or modifications to current contracts for employees to continue serving in their current roles.

These projects are part of the building program paid for in large part by voter approval of $840 million in school construction bonds last fall.

The board action authorizes design work for major renovation of Garner Magnet High, originally constructed in 1967. Renovation work is due to begin in 2016 when students and teachers move into swing space at the newly completed South Garner High campus. The Garner Magnet High students will return to the campus in August 2018 and South Garner High will open with its own students.

Construction is scheduled to begin in 2016 for renovations of Brooks Magnet Elementary, Lincoln Heights Elementary and Vandora Springs Elementary.

The new school projects include E28 elementary near the intersection of Poole and Barwell roads in east Raleigh, E33 elementary at O’Kelly Chapel and Yates Store roads in West Cary, E31 Bryan Road Elementary at 8213 Bryan Road in Garner and E40 elementary at 201 N. Rogers Lane in east Raleigh. These schools are scheduled to open for the 2017-18 school year.

Board approves

The Board of Education approved the following design teams and construction managers for pre-construction services:

Brooks Magnet Elementary
Architect: Moseley Architects PC
Construction Manager: W.M. Jordan / Bordeaux, A Joint Venture

Lincoln Heights Elementary
Architect: GMK of N.C., P.C.
Construction Manager: Skanska / Holt Brothers, A Joint Venture

Vandora Springs Elementary
Architect: Little Diversified Architectural Consulting, Inc.
Construction Manager: Rodgers Builders, Inc.

Garner Magnet High
Architect: Ratio Architects, Inc.
Construction Manager: Balfour Beatty Construction, LLC

E28 Elementary
Architect: Boomerang Design, PA
Construction Manager: Balfour Beatty Construction, LLC

E33 Elementary
Architect: Walter Robbs Callahan & Pierce Architects, PA.
Construction Manager: Gilbane Building Company

E31 Bryan Road Elementary
Architect: Clark Nexsen, Inc.
Construction Manager: New Atlantic Contracting, Inc.

E40 Elementary
Architect: Boomerang Design, PA
Construction Manager: Clancy & Theys Construction Company

For each of the new elementary schools, the design teams are re-using Wake County school designs.

CIP 2013 overview

The 2013 construction improvement program will build 16 new schools and renovate six schools. It also includes startup funding for renovation of three additional schools.

WCPSS will open three new schools in August 2015: Abbotts Creek and Scotts Ridge elementary schools (CIP 2013) and Apex Friendship High (CIP 2006).

Construction is underway on South Garner High and Pine Hollow Middle (CIP 2013). Pine Hollow will open as a year-round middle school for 2016.

Design is underway on E36, E37, E38, E43 elementary schools, M13 middle school and the renovation of Green Magnet Elementary. The elementary schools are due to open in the fall of 2016. The middle school is due to open in the fall of 2017.

The school construction will serve the growing demand for public school space. WCPSS has 155,184 students this year compared with 143,289 in 2010-11 and 114,068 in 2004-05.

Follow the progress of CIP 2013 with the interactive map showing the status of various projects found at http://webarchive.wcpss.net/about-us/our-facilities/bonds/BuildingProgramDashboard.php?budget=4

The board named E36 Beaverdam Elementary. The school is a planned 2-story prototype elementary school in eastern Raleigh on the corner of Tarheel Clubhouse and Tarheel Club Roads. The Board of Education acquired the 21.5-acre site on August 29, 2014. The school is due to open in 2016.

The board named E37 White Oak Elementary. The school is a planned 3-story, 780-capacity prototype elementary school in southwest Cary near the planned Green Level High. The board acquired the 21.38-acre site on June 24, 2014. The school is due to open in 2016.

The board named E43 Oakview Elementary. The school is a planned 2-story, 800-student capacity prototype elementary school on Holly Springs-New Hill Road in Holly Springs. The board acquired the 23.1 acre site on September 19, 2014. The school is due to open in 2016.

The board named M13 River Bend Middle. The school is a planned 3-story, 1,280-student capacity prototype middle school in northeast Raleigh near Riverbend Elementary. The board acquired the 29.86-acre site on April 8, 2014. The school is due to open in 2017.

WCPSS officials presented an Elementary Support Model plan to the Board of Education at its work session this afternoon. Educators have been working to identify schools in need of extra attention around teaching and learning since last spring.

The team determined key factors in identifying schools included in the Elementary Support Model. They are school performance, teacher characteristics, demographics, school climate, school leadership and student achievement data.

After careful analyses of these factors, the leadership team met earlier this fall principals from schools preliminarily identified as in need of extra support. In these meetings, principals and their teams were asked to highlight specific challenge points and plans to address them.

From these presentations, WCPSS leadership is determining how to provide immediate support where needed. In addition, leadership will begin developing a model that will offer long-term support strategies.

Areas of support that will be considered are school governance, calendars and schedules, staffing, professional development, common resources and success measures.

Immediate needs that have been identified will require approximately $1 million in funding from the 2014-15 budget. Work on the elementary support plan begins next month. Funding from the 2015-16 budget will be needed to continue this work, along with a secondary support plan for middle and high schools in the near future.

For some children who are very sick with certain types of cancer or blood diseases, their only hope is to put blood or bone marrow from a healthy person into their bodies. The healthy blood or bone marrow, along with medicine gives the sick child’s body a chance to beat back the disease.

Each child who goes to Duke’s PBMT unit is given a welcome bag with things to help them with their long stay at the hospital.  Hats are included in the bag because some of the medicine they use causes them to lose their hair.

Lesher found that the hospital welcomes donations of hats for patients – infants up to age 22.  Fun hats, silly hats, ball caps, sport hats, fuzzy hats, homemade hats!  The Leesville Road students collected more than 30 hats. Many students worked with their families to knit hats or buy new ones. His classroom shelves were adorned with Flipeez, Olaf the Snowman, elf hats and even one with a pinwheel. The students were filled with compassion for the children at Duke they learned about in this holiday season lesson.

WCPSS encourages everyone who cares about their school to take the survey. You can do so by visiting http://www.speakup4schools.org/speakup2014/ and following the directions to select your category (parent, teacher, student, etc.), and then to select your school for the survey.

The following schools have been selected to participate at Pieces of Gold.

Elementary schools: Banks Road, Briarcliff, Combs, Conn, Fuller, Hunter, Leesville Road, Millbrook, Mills Park, North Ridge, Oak Grove, Sycamore Creek, Underwood, Walnut Creek, Washington, Zebulon

Middle Schools: Apex, Centennial (Dance & Chorus), Heritage, Ligon (Dance & Orchestra), Martin, Rolesville, West Cary

High schools: Athens Drive, Broughton, Enloe, Garner, Leesville Road, Mary E. Phillips, Sanderson, Southeast Raleigh, Wake Forest

Pieces of Gold began in 1983 as a fund-raiser for the Wake Education Foundation (now known as Wake Education Partnership).  Now co-sponsored by United Arts Council of Raleigh/Wake County, with continued support from the City of Raleigh Arts Commission (Gifts of Gold Visual Art Show) and Wake Education Partnership, the funds generated from ticket sales provide direct support for WCPSS Arts Education programs.  This is a wonderful opportunity for our students to share their talents and skills in an elegant performance venue for members of the corporate community and parents.

Sanderson collected 233,285.61 pounds ($45,194 and 7,314 pounds in cans). The poundage is equivalent to 225,971 meals, enough food to feed the entire town of Cary almost twice. As a result the Sanderson Executive Council will appear on WTVD on December 12 to discuss the school’s participation in the food drive.

In the high school division, Leesville Road finished second, Broughton third, Millbrook fourth and Cary fifth.

In the middle school division, Durant Road was first, Mills Park second and Reedy Creek third.

In the elementary school division, Fuller finished third and Penny Road fourth.
This year, a total of 121 schools came together to raise 94,136 pounds and $54,429.91, equivalent to 350,851 meals.

Food Bank Special Events Coordinator Lauren Landis congratulated the schools. “This is such an amazing amount and we greatly appreciate your generosity,” Landis said.

Thanks to Sanderson Principal Greg Decker for sharing this story.

There were 11,205 suspensions in 2013-14, compared to 15,723 the previous year. That’s a 29 percent drop, and a 45% reduction since the 2009-10 school year, when there were 20,244 suspensions. It’s important to note that the actual number of suspensions has gone down – not just the percentage – even as the student population has continued to grow steadily.

Short-term suspensions dropped from 15,378 in 2012-13 to 10,938 in 2013-14, a 29% reduction. That’s down 44% from the 19,396 short-term suspensions in 2009-10.

There was also a marked decrease in long-term suspensions, 267 last year compared to 345 the year before. That marked a 23% reduction year to year, and a 69% reduction from the 848 long-term suspensions in 2009-10.

Big picture: 95.5% of the district’s 150,000+ students were NOT suspended last year.

WCPSS figures compare favorably with other North Carolina school districts. Wake County had a suspension rate of 16.18 suspensions per 100 students, compared to a 39.95 per 100 rate in Charlotte-Mecklenburg, 20.66 in Guilford and 30.76 in Cumberland.

District and school leaders have engaged a number of strategies to reduce suspensions, aimed at both preventing misbehavior and intervening more effectively.

On the prevention front, for example, more than 100 schools use the Positive Behavioral Intervention & Supports (PBIS) framework. This is a school-wide effort to demonstrate to students what good behavior does and doesn’t look like. It rewards students who perform well.

On the intervention front, schools in the district also have been making more and better use of Alternative Learning Centers (ALCs), designed for students who temporarily need to work outside the regular classroom, either because of behavior problems or because they are behind academically. ALC teachers have received more training on helping students stay on track academically while also addressing behavioral issues.

WCPSS revised its student code of conduct five years ago to encourage school leaders to avoid using out-of-school suspension for minor, non-violent infractions.

“We understand that if kids aren’t in school, they’re not learning,” says Brenda Elliott, assistant superintendent for student support services.
  
“However, if their behavior is disruptive to the school environment, then we have to address it. And our goal is to address the behavior in a way that is instructive and limits the chance that the student will fall behind academically.”

Going forward, district officials want to work closely with parents, community leaders including police and student leadership to continue to improve prevention and intervention.

District and school leaders will look to address the disproportionate numbers of African-American students who are suspended. They make up 25% of the total student body but 62% of students suspended.

WCPSS has enacted a district action plan that includes community and family outreach and guidelines to support equitable discipline practices.

“Our top priority this year will be examining our data to better understand why we have disparities between subgroups and implementing strategies to address those disparities,” Elliott says.

Click here to find the full report.