School board, county commissioners will hold joint session
By Joey Pitchford
Published in News on March 21, 2017 6:50 AM
The Wayne County Board of Education will discuss numerous policies at its work session today, followed by a joint session with the Wayne County Board of Commissioners in which Wayne County Public Schools staff will update the commissioners on district programs.
The work session will begin at 9 a.m. in the WCPS central office executive board room, and will include presentations on grant applications, grading scale changes and a beginning teacher support program.
The grant application requests funding from Duke Energy to help expand Camp Kilowatt, an annual summer day camp for high school and middle school students interested in green alternative energy. The program, hosted by Wayne Community College, is seeking to expand to Brogden Middle School, Spring Creek Middle School, Grantham Middle School and Carver Heights Elementary school this year.
The board will also hear a presentation on the effects of the grading scale change that went in to effect in the 2015-2016 school year. The district switched to a 10-point grading scale that year as mandated by the State Board of Education, and Tuesday's presentation will clarify the effects of those changes.
The third presentation will discuss the WCPS Beginning Teacher Support Program, which is designed to help new teachers acclimate to the profession and find experienced mentors. The presentation will go over the latest version of the program, which was updated this month.
Among the policies to be discussed are the districts school improvement plans, the district recently transferred to the online NCSTAR system. The board will also tackle head lice policies, as well as emergency care and concussion injury policies.
The joint session, to start around noon, will address a surplus property at 612 S. Breazeale Ave. in Mount Olive. The Board of Education has said that it intends to return the property to the town, but it must offer the county first right of refusal before doing so.
The session will consist primarily of updates to the county commissioners on various WCPS projects. District department heads will present on topics that were discussed at last years joint session.
David Lewis, assistant superintendent for accountability/information & technology, said that he will present on some technology initiatives the district has worked on since the last joint session. The district has made upgrades to its wireless network across all high schools and some middle schools, and is on track to extend those upgrades to the entire district.
Lewis said that this is the first time WCPS will have been able to make district-wide upgrades in around 10 years.
The board will hear similar updates on Pre-K expansion, district communication and human resources.