Menu

virtual academy

RandolphCountySchools-01

Board expresses concerns over middle school athletics

, , ,

ASHEBORO — The Randolph County Schools Board of Education met Thursday, June 29, with primarily discussions and presentations on the agenda.

The board was given an update on the status of the Randolph Virtual Academy following the decision to emphasize endorsing the school rather than closing it.

“Since May 1, enrollment has continued to grow,” said Superintendent Stephen Gainey. “On May 10, it had grown to 59, and it has continued to grow since. [On] May 17, it went to 70. May 24, to 83. June 4, to 86, and the last enrollment number I have for this week is June 27. We have grown to 94 students, and the number of students who will be new to the school next year continues to grow as well. We are up to 45.7% of those 94 students being new to that school next year.

“Obviously, there’s been some big changes in the growth from 35 students since May 10. In 2021-22, there were four in-person activities on the campus. We were still dealing with a lot of pandemic restrictions then. For 2022-23, that number increased to six. The staff is working to further increase those in-person events as well.”

Gainey discussed that even though it’s a virtual academy, the staff believes that an increase in the availability of in-person events can only help the school grow and continue to build that school’s culture.

“We’re in a very different position than we were on May 15,” Gainey said. “There’s still a lot of work to do, and we’ll continue to work at it. We’ll continue working to promote it.”

The enrollment deadline for the Randolph Virtual Academy is August 1.

The board was also presented with the quarterly student assignment report, which showed that as of June 9, there were 15,227 students enrolled in RCS.

Also in the report was the fact that RCS has a net loss of 18 students between releases to other school systems of students within RCS’ attendance zone and additions to their school systems from outside attendance zones.

“When we started down this road with this report and the student assignment rules were put in place in 2014-15, in the first quarter of 14-15, we had a difference of 153 students,” Gainey said. “So, it’s been pulled in. It’s taken a while, but we’ve worked with people that have been released and tried to work with them.”

Finally, the board discussed some of the growing concerns with middle school athletics involving discrepancies in team size and overall consistency of participation.

“High school athletics are governed by the North Carolina High School Athletic Association. Middle school athletics are governed by the Department of Public Instruction,” Gainey said. “There are a lot of similarities. Right now, we have our seven middle schools, two from Asheboro City Schools and Uwharrie Charter Middle School, that gives us a 10-team conference.”

According to Gainey, rules from the NCDPI dictate that all middle school sports other than football can play up to 14 games plus a single-elimination tournament or 16 games overall. For football, teams are allowed to play in seven games plus a tournament or eight games overall.

“We will talk to the leadership of the other school system because that comprises their representation in the conference, to share our concerns about the teams and how we’ve had some situations where we’ve had low participation and either our teams didn’t participate or played with the low numbers, and we want to talk about our concern with the longevity of this conference should it continue,” Gainey informed the board. “I think that we need to talk to the conference members about if we get to the point where we know a team is not going to be fielded, we don’t want our kids missing play dates any more than we want their kids missing play dates. If it means playing somebody three times, then sure, because that’s really what middle school athletics is about. More than winning. I get they want to win and win championships, but you need kids at that level playing.”

The Randolph County Schools Board of Education will next meet July 17.

Randolph County Schools meeting

RCS to change focus surrounding Virtual Academy

, , , ,

ASHEBORO — The Randolph County Schools Board of Education met Monday, June 5, with presentations on the Virtual Academy and various grants as the main items on the agenda.

Following up on a recommendation to consider closing the Virtual Academy made at last month’s board meeting by Superintendent Stephen Gainey, the superintendent instead recommended that RCS change its focus in relation to the school after an uptick in enrollments.

“Looking at some of the things we talked about last month and where the school is, there’s been a pretty strong jump in the last couple of weeks,” Gainey said. “So, I would recommend a couple of things. One is that we shift our focus as leadership of the school system from the longevity of the school, to promoting the school and see what happens as we go into 23-24 with some more promotion of the school.

“Another recommendation is that we look for additional in-person activities to try and increase the culture and development of the school. It’s a different school, a virtual school, and it’s not like in-person school, but I think you can see that there’s plenty of enthusiasm with staff.”

According to Gainey, between the May and June meetings, the Virtual Academy saw its enrollment increase to 86 students.

“As of May 30, there were also 10 additional potential candidates whose paperwork had not been completed,” Gainey said. “So, we’ve got 10 more that are at least out there that gives us possibly 96. It’s not a sure thing, but that’s a pretty strong improvement from May 10, where we had 59.”

“Not everybody is set up to go into a public setting,” said Board Chair Gary Cook. “I think if we looked at any other approach, we would be letting down, what is right now, 86 students, and I don’t want to be a part of anything like that.”

The board was then presented with seven different grants that Randolph County Schools had applied for and received. They were the following:

** RCS received two North Carolina Outdoor Heritage Advisory Council Go Outside Grants, one to Coleridge Elementary in the amount of $1,755 and the other to Franklinville Elementary in the amount of $1,650, both of which provide funding for students to attend Camp Caraway for outdoor science activities.

** The Farm Bureau Going Local Teacher Grant to John Lawrence Elementary for $500 was presented to RCS with the goal of providing funding for a raised garden bed for students to learn about plants and soil.

** An NCAE Mini Grant to Coleridge Elementary in the amount of $500 to provide funding for A-Z graphic dividers that will assist students in locating books in the media center

** Two Donors Choose Grants, both to Randleman Middle School in the amounts of $605.75 to provide books and items to create learning stations and $569.22 to provide two classroom sets of headphones

** A Randolph County Association of Educators Grant to Southeastern Randolph Middle School in the amount of $250 to provide funding to purchase writing journals and pens.

The board also approved the renaming of the Eastern Randolph High School Wrestling Room to the Greg Hardin Wrestling Room after the former coach.

“The Randolph County School System has been approached about naming the Eastern Randolph High School Wrestling Room after Greg Hardin,” said Executive Director of Operations Dale Brinkley. “During his tenure, Greg Hardin served as a track coach, teacher, state champion football coach, and state champion wrestling coach. Under his leadership, his wrestling teams and individual wrestlers acquired numerous state titles, conference titles, and multiple recognitions, which are noted on the attached memorandum. The request is to name the wrestling room: Greg Hardin Wrestling Room.”

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