Board gives preliminary approval to school improvement plans, asks for comparative review of two schools
Get AI-powered insights, summaries, and transcripts
Subscribe
Summary
Carrie Norris presented first-read school improvement plans and introduced principals; the board approved the plans as submitted but asked for an 'apples-to-apples' comparison for Brevard Elementary and Brevard Middle, to be revisited at the Dec. 15 meeting.
The Transylvania County Board of Education on Nov. 17 took a first read on school improvement plans and voted to approve them as submitted while requiring additional review for two schools that are time-sensitive.
Carrie Norris, presenting the plans, said the district uses the IndyStar platform for planning and reporting and noted that the instructional teams include staff, parents and instructional personnel. She said two low-performing schools (Brevard Elementary and Brevard Middle) are using the required IndyStar platform and that district teams continue to align school goals with the district strategic plan.
Principals for each building were introduced and seated to answer questions, including Mike Kirsch (Brevard Elementary), Amanda Lewis (Pisgah Forest), Bob Dinsdale (Rosman Elementary), Patrick Chapman (TC Henderson), Jessica McCall (Brevard Middle), Julie Queen (Rosman Middle), Dr. Rod Brown (Davidson River School), Mick Galloway and John Hogan (Brevard High School), and Jason Ormsby (Rosman High).
Several board members expressed concern that the new, condensed "direction" report loses granularity from the previous comprehensive report and makes it hard to compare past tasks and completion targets. A member said the new report format "doesn't tell me anything in comparison to the old report" and asked whether tasks previously marked as 'limited development' or with completion targets were still active. Carrie Norris said the underlying data remain the same but are displayed differently; she offered to pull the comprehensive report for comparison.
Because Brevard Elementary and Brevard Middle are due to the state by Dec. 5, the board voted to approve the plans as submitted to meet that deadline but directed staff to provide an apples-to-apples comparison for those two schools and to revisit them at the board's Dec. 15 meeting.
"Move to approve the plans as submitted with BES and BMS to have a secondary review in the December 15 meeting to allow us to move forward with meeting their deadlines," a board member moved; the motion was seconded and approved by voice vote.