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Randolph County Board of Education

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Randolph Board of Education recognizes educator award

ASHEBORO — The Randolph County Schools Board of Education met Monday, July 17, with primarily recognitions and informational items presented.

The board opened the meeting by welcoming Randolph County Schools’ new public information officer, Amber Ward, who joined the staff following Tim Moody’s retirement after nearly 10 years of service to the county.

“She’s going to be good,” said Board Chair Gary Cooke. “She’s one of us. We’ll miss Tim, though. He did a great job.”

The board was presented with an update on their FY 2023-24 local budget.

“The county commission approved our budget on the 19th of June,” said Superintendent Stephen Gainey. “I’m very excited to announce that they approved everything we asked for in our local budget. It was $1,428,000, and it was all current expense requests. Our annual current expense request funding has increased by $6,588,974 since the end of the 2013-2014 school year. So that’s a pretty big jump.

“What’s equally exciting is that over the last ten years, our current expense funding has averaged an increase of $658,897.40 per year, and last year at this time, it was $573,000. It has not only gone up considerably, but we’ve significantly increased the average. I’m very excited about that.”

An important time from the approved budget that Gainey also pointed out was the increase in classified supplements.

“One of the special items in that budget request was increasing our classified employee supplements,” Ganey said. “So now when we start this school year, our classified supplements will have risen from 2.5% to 5.25%.

The board also recognized Shanna Good, a math interventionist at Trinity Middle School, who was named an NCCAT Honored Educator Scholar for Randolph County.

“Shanna Good has been named a 2023-2024 Lynda Petty Honored Educator Scholar,” Gainey said. “With this scholarship, she gets to go to a program of her choice at the North Carolina Center for the Advancement of Teaching. The scholarship will cover all expenses for instruction, program material, food, lodging, travel to and from and cost of substitute teachers. She also receives a $250 monetary gift to use on supplies in her classroom. I just want to congratulate Dr. Good for earning this great honor named after Ms. Lynda Petty, who was one of the all-time great people that’s ever been associated with our school system.”

According to the NCCAT website, the Randolph County scholarship “honors the late Lynda Petty, who dedicated her life to improving public education for the children of Randolph County. Mrs. Petty, known as the “First Lady of NASCAR,” supported the Randolph County community in many ways, but most commendably, she served as a local leader in education. During her lifetime, Lynda served as a school volunteer, and from 1984 to 2000, served as a member of the Randolph County Board of Education, including taking on the role as its Chairperson for seven years. NCCAT’s Lynda Petty Honored Educator Scholarship pays tribute to her lifelong commitment to the teaching profession.”

“Lynda did a lot for this school board,” Cook said. “She wasn’t on here when I came on, but her mark was here.”

The Randolph County Schools Board of Education will next meet August 21.

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Randolph Board of Education approves proposed budget for 2023-24 school year

ASHEBORO – The Randolph County Schools Board of Education met Monday, April 17, with recognitions as well as budgetary matters as the central parts of the agenda. 

The board started the meeting by recognizing the two students from Randolph County who were selected for the North Carolina Governor’s School. 

“The North Carolina Governor’s School is a four-week summer residential program for gifted and talented high school students, integrating academic disciplines, the arts, and unique courses on each of two campuses,” said Public Information Officer Tim Moody. “The program is administered by the Public Schools of North Carolina, the State Board of Education, and the Department of Public Instruction through the Division of Advanced Learning and Gifted Education. Students are selected to attend the North Carolina Governor’s School through a competitive process after being nominated by their public school unit or non-public school.” 

The program, which is open to rising seniors, with exceptions made for rising juniors in selected performing/visual arts areas, is located on two campuses, Salem College in Winston-Salem and Meredith College in Raleigh, and has a maximum of 335 students at each location. Each student is also selected for a primary course of study that they will focus on while at the school. 

The two students who were selected were Noelle Swaim from Providence Grove High School for the primary course of study of Natural Science and Jaiden Collins-Russell from Trinity High School for the primary course of study of Visual Arts. 

The board then went over the RCS proposed budget for the 2023-24 school year. 

The proposed budget includes a request for a $1,428,000 increase –  6.39% – in local funding, making the total budgetary request $24,762,040. 

Those additional costs include continuation costs totaling $711,000, salary increases for lead custodians and school treasurers totaling $173,000, funding for additional SROs totaling $114,000, and a 1.5% supplement increase for classified employees totaling $430,000. 

“We’ve spent quite a bit of time this afternoon discussing this and going over it,” said Board Chair Gary Cook. “If you notice, Todd’s voice is weak. His voice was as deep as Johnny Cash earlier in the day, but he’s kind of lost his voice going over it.” 

The board approved the proposed budget, and the next step is for it to be presented to the County Commission.  

The final action the board took was the approval and acceptance of a grant. 

“Wheatmore High School received an NRA Foundation Grant in the amount of $1,536.00,” said Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction Cathy Waddell. “This grant was received on March 9, 2023, and will provide funding for clay targets for the Hunter Safety team. 

The Randolph County Schools Board of Education will next meet May 15. 

 

 

 

 

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Randolph Board of Education approves SRO contracts for additional elementary school support

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ASHEBORO — The Randolph County Schools Board of Education met Monday, November 21, where they were given an update on SRO contracts, school improvement plans, and a potential calendar plan for future school years.

The board was given an update on the school system’s new SRO contracts.  

“It’s been in the works for a while to add some SRO presence at the elementary schools,” said Superintendent Stephen Gainey. “We wanted to make sure we could get the officers trained and recruited, and that was handled by the Sheriff’s Department. Just the need to have some presence there. Right now, we have 13 SROs between our middle and high schools, and they are all assigned to an elementary school. So these will be additional support. There will be four officers divided between the 17 elementary schools. One officer will have five, and the other three [schools] will have four apiece and just provide additional support as we can and build additional relationships between children and officers. These officers, these elementary schools will be their sole roles.”

The contract will pay a sum total of $119,007 which includes the cost of salaries, benefits, training, and supplies.

The board also heard a naming request for the Trinity High School Gymnasium.

“The Randolph County Schools System has been approached about naming the Trinity High School gymnasium after Tim Kelly,” said Executive Director of Operations Dale Brinkley. “Tim Kelly is the current boy’s basketball head coach at Trinity High School and has served in this role for 34 seasons. Since starting his career in 1989-90 as Trinity High School’s head boys basketball coach, Coach Kelly’s teams have won various conference, sectional, and state-level championships. He also has received various coaching awards and has served as a role model and mentor. The request is to name it Tim Kelly Gymnasium.”

Since Kelly is technically currently classified as a volunteer and is no longer an employee, there would be no conflict with the naming rights should the board approve the request at their next meeting.

The board was also given an update on a grant that was received by one of the district’s elementary schools.

“Tabernacle Elementary School received the North Carolina Outdoor Heritage Advisory Go Outside Grant in the amount of $1,800,” said Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction Cathy Waddell. “The grant was received on September 28, and it will go towards the funding for 5th-grade students to attend Camp Caraway for outdoor science activities.”

The board then approved the first reading of the 2024-25 school calendar.

“The Calendar Committee met and developed a draft of the 2024-2025 school calendar,” Brinkley said. “The calendar includes 180 student days, 14 teacher workdays, 11 holidays, and ten annual leave days for a total of 215 days as required by the calendar guidelines. It also includes an inclement weather makeup plan, similar to the 2023-2024 school calendar.”

In accordance with the calendar, the school year will begin August 26, the first semester will end January 17, the second semester will begin January 23, and the school year will end June 10.

The calendar will now go out for public comment before being voted on again at the next meeting.

The board also approved the school improvement plans for the 17 schools that were not designated as low performing. The other 15 schools that were designated as low performing are still undergoing board review.

The Randolph County Schools Board of Education will next meet December 19.

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15 schools designated as low-performing by state assessment

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ASHEBORO — The Randolph County Board of Education met Monday, where they were presented with the state assessments for all the schools in the district, particularly the low-performing schools.

The board was given an update on the procedures for the preliminary plans for improvement/school improvement plans for schools that were designated as low-performing by the recent state assessments.

The Department of Public Instruction identified 15 schools within the district that are designated as low-performing schools.

Those schools are Coleridge Elementary School, Eastern Randolph High School, Franklinville Elementary School, Liberty Elementary School, Northeastern Randolph Middle School, Ramseur Elementary School, Randleman Elementary School, Randleman Middle School, Southeastern Randolph Middle School, Southwestern Randolph High School, Southwestern Randolph Middle School, Trinity Elementary School, Trinity Middle School, Uwharrie Ridge Six-Twelve, and The Virtual Academy.

“I’m responsible for this school system, and as I told principals, we’re going to take this as our baseline and work to get better from where we are,” Superintendent Dr. Stephen Gainey said. “That’s what we’ll do, and that’s our plan moving forward. Our actions will be driven by our school improvement plans, as it’s what drives all schools academically, and we will continue to work with our principals and staff and go from there. This is our new baseline, and we’re going to move forward and minimize any backward movement.”

According to Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction Cathy Waddell, there will be a few requirements from the state in relation to these low-performing schools. 

“The State Board of Education and the local board of education shall continue to provide online access to each low-performing school’s plan for improvement,” Waddell said. “Furthermore, each of the low-performing schools has written a parental notice that is required to be provided to parents and guardians of students attending each low-performing school. Those parental letters will go home tomorrow. Finally, local boards of education of low-performing schools shall include with their online plans a brief explanation that states how the low-performing identification shall continue pending assessment data from the 2022-2023 school year.”

However, most of the board felt that the assessments were unfair, especially with how the pandemic affected education.

“This a good lesson in how they screw you in Raleigh,” said chairman Gary Cook. “They wouldn’t let us keep our kids in school, they forced us to send them and teachers home, forced us to do it their way, but they’re holding us hostage now by continuing to grade us when we were set up to fail anyway. We don’t have any failing schools, I can promise you. We just have victims of a poor system that was thrown in our lap. Our kids, our schools, our parents, we all got a screw job. I can’t even believe they would have the nerve to grade us after all of this.”

The board also took action to approve a revision to the substitute teacher requirements for the district.

“Back in 2016, we went in and required anybody with a substitute teaching license to do one of two trainings,” said Gainey. “One was called the Basic Orientation Course. They paid $39 for that or the Basic Orientation plus the Substitute Training Course, which was $49. The second one had effective teacher training in it. So if you just did the basic orientation course, you were paid $104 per day last year. If you did the one with effective substitute training course, you were at a rate of $117 per day. And also, last year, certified teachers were paid $134 per day. That was all prior to September 14.”

“What we did on September 14 was make a decision to move everybody to the at least $117 per day rate, and so we cut out the $39 course. And now everybody is going to be expected to take the $49 basic orientation plus effective substitute teacher training course. That’s only for new subs because if they’ve been with us, they don’t have to do it again.”

According to Gainey, part of the reason for the change was that with the new $15 an hour minimum set by the state for all state employees, the $104 per day rate would not meet that criteria, so the district elected to just go with the singular requirement option.

Finally, the board selected voting delegates for the 54th Annual North Carolina School Boards Association conference in November 2022.

The approved delegates are Chairman Gary Cook, Tracy Boyles, Fred Burgess, and Mike Sink, with Sharon Petty Farlow serving as the alternate.

The Randolph County Board of Education will next meet November 21.

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Randolph County School System employees to receive bonus pay

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ASHEBORO – The Randolph County Board of Education met Monday and was presented with a resolution to provide bonus pay to nearly all of its employees.

The board approved the resolution to provide COVID-19 Premium Pay to Randolph County School System Employees due to pandemic-related disturbances and staff shortages through the ESSER funds.

“We have great staff members, they’re highly qualified, and they are loved and appreciated by our school system’s leadership and the board of education,” said Superintendent Dr. Stephen Gainey. “And so we want to present this tonight as a recommendation to try and keep staff members with us and bring other ones to us.”

For current employees that are employed by September 30, they will receive a one-time payment of $500, and if they stay on by the end of the year, they will receive an additional $500, according to Gainey.

“The beauty of this is that it doesn’t matter what position you’re in,” Gainey said. “There’s a $1,000 bonus for you.”

The bonus pay is also being utilized to recruit new hires. Anybody who is hired by the board of education between October 1 and January 9, will have a recruitment bonus of $500 in their first paycheck, and if they stay till the end of the year, they will also get the additional $500 as well.

Finally, substitutes are going to be able to receive bonus pay as well if they work the equivalent of 20 full-time days from October 1 through January 31. The bonus for substitutes that reach this marker will be a $500 bonus.“This school system, in many ways, survives and has survived many staff shortages because of substitute teachers, but also substitute bus drivers, substitute child nutrition staff members, substitute custodians, substitute clerical staff,” Gainey said. “It’s not just substitute teachers.”

The board was also given an updated local testing report.

“This is a new report that will be coming before the board in the fall of even-numbered years based on some legislation passed by the state of North Carolina in 2019,” said Director of Testing and Accountability Meredith Weipert. “Districts are submitting information about the number of standardized tests and the amount of time that students spend on standardized tests during the school year. Based on Randolph County School Systems numbers over the 2020-21 and 2021-22 school years, we are currently over the state average both in the number of tests and total number of time.”

Based on the general statute, when a district is above the state average, the local board of education must submit a plan to the Department of Public Instruction to eliminate certain local standardized testing in order to ensure neither the number of tests nor the number of hours spent on standardized testing exceeds the state average.

According to Weipert, in response to the results of the report, Randolph County Schools has created a plan that will see a decrease of 39 tests and 23.8 testing hours.

The board then approved facility improvements at Southwestern Randolph Middle School. The improvements include the installation of a concession stand building with restrooms near the baseball/softball field and the football/soccer field, funded by the athletics booster club.

The board also approved the acceptance of a change order from Trinity Middle School to credit back $727,800.90 in unused funds and a grant that was awarded to Southwestern Randolph High School.

“The name of the grant is the Rachael Ray Grow Grant in the amount of $5,000,” said Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction Cathy Waddell. “The grant was received on August 25, 2022 and will provide funding for classroom kitchen tools and a Clear Touch Panel.”

The Randolph County Board of Education will next meet October 17.

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Randolph County Board of Education approves pay increase for School Nutrition Department staff

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ASHEBORO — The Randolph County Board of Education met June 29, when it approved pay increases for school nutrition department staff to fill vacancies and retain staff.

“The school nutrition department is proposing an increase of 6.2-9.4% for all school-based School Nutrition classified employees, including school nutrition assistants, school nutrition assistant managers, and school nutrition managers,” said executive director of operations Dale Brinkley. “In addition, the school nutrition department is proposing a 5% increase for all school nutrition central services support staff. This increase will help prevent the compression in the salary schedule once the $15 minimum or 2.5% increase is passed in the 2022-23 budget.”

The total annual cost of this increase will be $340,000, including matching FICA and retirement, with the cost being funded solely by the School Nutrition Budget. It will become effective on August 1, 2022, according to Brinkley.

Randolph County Schools has 32 openings for School Nutrition positions and according to director of school nutrition Kelly Green. That number is significantly up from March 2020, when there were just nine openings.

“The new pay adjustment will allow the School Nutrition Department to better retain current employees, recruit for current vacant positions, and remain competitive with surrounding school systems,” Brinkley said.

The board then approved the submission to the State Board, the Randolph County AIG Plan for 2022-25. A new plan has to be submitted every three years to the state, and this was the year for the new plan.

“Our plan is a comprehensive plan that involves stakeholders from across the district, parents, and AIG teachers,” said assistant superintendent Cathy Waddell. “They came together to talk about what needed to be in the plan, and the focal points of the plan are as follows: We have a criteria by which we identify students that are AIG, we provide services, practices, and strategies for the students that are identified, we try to provide a rigorous and relevant curriculum for AIG students, we recruit and retain highly qualified professionals to teach AIG students, we continuously engage stakeholders in the planning and implementation processes and then we monitor what we do.”

The board of education also had the option to approve the contribution of funds to the North Carolina School Boards Action Center, which is a separate part of the North Carolina School Board Association that focuses on advocacy and lobbying to support local school boards.

“It’s basically another avenue for lobbying,” said superintendent Stephen Gainey. “They try to help school boards with local bills and different bills they work with. I think we get a lot of good services from the school boards association. It’s the same rate. We were a member of the action center group last year, and it’s the same rate as last year, $5,000.”

However, the board declined to contribute to the North Carolina Schools Boards Action Center for the 2022-23 year. The board cited prior issues and lack of advocacy dating back to the masking debates in schools as the primary factor for refusal to contribute this year.

“If you look at the benefits, it hasn’t changed for several years,” said board member Todd Cutler. “It’s the same things. The people down at the North Carolina School Board Association, they’re great. They’re a good group of people, but we also found out that when we needed help dealing with the masks and stuff, they weren’t there. They were not there. They didn’t want to touch that at all.”

The Randolph County Board of Education will next meet July 18.

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Randolph Board of Education reverses tiered bus plan

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ASHEBORO – The Randolph County Board of Education met Monday, June 20 with the agenda consisting of a reversal of the new proposed busing plan and a revision to next year’s calendar. 

At their last meeting, the board approved a pilot plan by the Transportation Department that would have changed how busing worked. 

The plan would have been a pilot program involving Coleridge Elementary School, Farmer Elementary School, Franklinville Elementary School, Ramseur Elementary School, Tabernacle Elementary School, Southeastern Randolph Middle School, and Uwharrie Ridge 6-12 and would have changed pickup and drop off time for those students.

The tiered plan would reduce the number of required buses from 141 to 108 and would help to address the county’s shortage of bus drivers. 

However, after the board started to receive negative feedback from parents and guardians, the board decided to reverse that decision.

“We had asked the Transportation Department to go out and find a good plan to save money,” said Chairman Gary Cook. “We’re short on bus drivers and they did just that. They brought a plan back and we approved it that night. But we should have gotten a little more input from parents and taken in some more consideration.”

A couple of the issues brought up were parents and guardians who had long drives into work and wouldn’t be able to wait the extra time especially in the face of time missed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and how the pilot would have middle schoolers leaving before elementary schoolers so they couldn’t be able to watch over the young ones either.  

“Maybe we rushed into this a little too fast,” Cook said. “We represent the people and we should listen to them. As a board we have to take into consideration what works best for the people. I knew we’d get comments either way. Whether you put it out to the people or not, if people aren’t satisfied, people will leave comments. We got the comments and I think if you make a mistake, you fix it.”

The board addressed how they will have to continue to work out a solution for the bus driver shortage with one of the potential ideas being floated would be to increase incentives and pay for drivers in order to compete with the more competitive market. 

The other agenda item that the board took action on was a revision to the 2022-23 school calendar in order to add four early release days.

Due to the introduction of the statewide required LETRS curriculum, K-5 teachers and some additional staff have to go through eight three-hour training sessions over the year in order to prepare for its implementation. 

“We brought up the question of whether we could insert four of those eight three-hour sessions as early release days to give the teachers a break,” said Superintendent Dr. Stephen Gainey. “Those eight three-hour sessions right now are from 3:30 to 6:30 and I’m proposing that on four of those days – September 15, November 17, January 19 and March 16 – we have the session from 1:00 to 4:00. It’ll give our teachers a little bit of a break, because they do have to do the training.” 

On those early release days, there will be a hard 12:30 p.m. release time and for other staff such as middle and high school teachers, there will be staff development training as well as professional learning committee training to make up for lost time during the pandemic.

The Randolph County Board of Education will next meet June 29.