Two schools to receive $2.6 million
By Phyllis Moore
Published in News on November 2, 2016 10:53 AM
Wayne County Public Schools has been chosen to receive $2.6 million worth of School Improvement Grants, to be used by Brogden Middle and Carver Heights Elementary schools.
Ken Derksen, director of communication services for the district, helped write the grant application for the federal funding. He made the announcement during a presentation at the school board Monday.
"The grants are funding supplements for schools that are low-performing and at risk of high needs that have a commitment to improving themselves," he said. "Brogden Middle and Carver Heights were eligible to apply for these grants because, first and foremost, they're among the lowest performing schools in the state of North Carolina."
The schools are also a federal Title I-designated "priority school," he said.
Each school will receive $1.3 million, to be spread out over the next five years.
As part of the application process, Derksen said there were several federal intervention models the district would have to pick from in implementing the funding. The requirements ranged from closing the school or replacing the principal and teachers to bringing in an outside organization.
The Transformation Model was deemed the most effective, Derksen said. While that model included the option to replace the principal, that proved not to be necessary in the case of the two schools chosen, he said.
"We had already replaced one principal (Sylvester Townsend, at Brogden Middle) who retired, and Cortrina Smith (at Carver Heights, formerly at School Street Elementary) was transferred through the school regrouping," he explained. "So we're excited to have two new principals in place."
The Transformation Model requirements are "pretty strict," Derksen said, and there will be challenges ahead.
But ultimately, the idea is to provide support for teachers at the schools and implement comprehensive reform strategies.
"This is a planning year. We have a lot of work between now and the start of the next school year," Derksen said of the grant, which runs from 2016 to 2021.
Among the logistics will be the hiring of a full-time SIG specialist at each of the schools, to oversee the grant and facilitate leadership coaching.
"We feel like these coaching options will bring (the schools) to a higher level and help support the teachers," he said.
Another component is the Instructional Leadership Institute, incorporating state and national experts and focusing on curriculum engineering and design and purposeful instruction for high needs/at risk students.
There is also an incentive program that could be beneficial to not only core area teachers but educators in every area at the schools, Derksen said.
The three-tiered stipend system offers the possibility of $1,000 for completion of work and a capstone project for each year of the Instructional Leadership Institute, $500 for core area and EC teachers who complete annual requirements and demonstrate exceeded growth on the end-of-grade and end-of-course assessments, and $500 to all instructional staff, support staff and administrators if the school as a whole demonstrates exceeded growth on the state EOC or EOG assessments.
"We're trying to create a school buy-in," Derksen said. "It's certainly creating a financial opportunity (for all teachers)."
Other offerings under the grant include Summer Academic Enrichment Camps, which are not categorized as summer school but rather an additional opportunity during the school break, at no cost to the students for the program, meals or transportation.
Parents are not left out of the mix, he added.
"For our children to be successful, we need to have our parents involved," he said, explaining the quarterly thematic focused parent engagement nights that will be planned.
The funding will also shore up technology infrastructure upgrades at Brogden Middle, including new teacher workstations and increased student access to mobile learning devices.
"We were already working on beefing up technology at Brogden Middle, which had (previously) been done at Carver Heights," Derksen said. "We're excited to be able to use these grants to complement things at both schools."