Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

School indicates progress part 2

Certifications achieved were: Crystal Locklear, journalism; and ALP on file, waiver granted. Debbie White was certified for survey of fine arts, art first nine weeks by White, and music second nine weeks by Alan Wimberly. In addition, Henry (Hank) Lewis, social studies, ALP on file, waiver granted, reassigned; John Pace, coaching, coding changed by ADE; Rita Guthrie, coding error, changed; Rusty Ross, no certification for special education, reassigned; Misty Calley, world history class size, students moved to another class; Cindi Escalante, certification expired, test scores faxed 1-30 and 4-26. New certification received on April 27; Shannon Harp, not certified in special education, reassigned; and Rhea Ruggles, no certification in English 11, ALP on file, waiver granted.

Gills also reported the end of the course geometry scores as students coming out 61 percent in the proficiency section.

He said there will be summer school offered for those who do not pass English and math.

Middle School

A report on progress was given by Libby White, middle school principal. She said Cabe Middle School has 260 students enrolled in grades five through eight. There are 21 teachers, four paraprofessionals and four coaches (two basketball and two football).

Last year, the school received a Comprehensive School Reform grant from the state department. White said the local middle school is working closely with a middle school reform model, Middle Start. It is a design for effective school functioning, including: instruction, assessment, classroom management, professional development, parental involvement and school management

White said, "The changes we have made are proven strategies recommended by middle level educators for the improvement of discipline and scores."

She said the middle school is using a modified block schedule this year. Math and literacy both have 90-minute blocks, and other classes are 45 minutes. Each grade has four courses that students rotate through during the year. To this rotation, we have added classes such as drama, tools for learning, art and various music classes.

Through a grant from the Cabe Foundation, Bruce Burson has started a music keyboarding class that incorporates music, science and math. The band teacher was able to buy keyboards for fifth grade and primary school. Before the year is out, every fifth grader will have gone through the program.

The middle school met the State Adequate Yearly Progress in Literacy and Math for 2003-2004 school year. However, the middle school was on alert last year, so it is on school improvement year 1 for 2004-2005. To be removed from this list, the middle school must meet State Adequate Yearly Progress again this year.

White said, "We believe it will be less difficult this year to meet the state progress requirements than it was for us last year. We were cited last year for two teachers who were teaching out of their area of certification. Debbie Davies and Stephanie Manning are now both certified. Shannon Hays was also cited but no longer works at the middle school."

In addition, Cabe Middle School received a 21sth Century grant for tutoring, the ACE program is available, seventh grade parents had to sign off for Smart Care or Common Core this year to prepare students for high school and now has the following new teachers: Lori Capps in fifth and sixth grade social studies, Wilma House, special education, and Jamie Jester, special education aide.

There is co-teaching with special education teachers and regular classroom teachers.

Primary School

Principal Rita Rowe gave the annual progress report for primary school. She said the beginning enrollment for this year was 312, down from last year's start-up total of 321. Rowe said ending enrollment was 340 last year.

"We have 29 certified staff and 12 have a master's degree. We also have seven paraprofessionals," Rowe said.

There are four sections of first, third and fourth grades, three sections of kindergarten and second grade. Shannon Hays is at the school in the morning and teaching math and reading in the second grade to reduce class size.

The primary school received an Arkansas Better Chance for School Success grant to begin a pre-kindergarten program for four-year-olds. The program started with 20 students, with about a dozen more on a waiting list.

The curriculum includes: Step Up to Writing, McGraw Hill Reading and Language, Saxon Math, Accelerated Reading and Math, Early Literacy Learning in Arkansas and Effective Literacy.

The students are involved in many new activities for physical education and there are now 10 new keyboards for music through a grant written by school band teacher Bruce Burson.

The second through fourth grades go to the compute lab once a week and use the A+ program. Kindergarten and first grade go to the lab three times a week and use the SuccessMaker program, which was purchased though an International Paper grant and the Parent Teacher Organization (PTO) last year. The pre-K class will also go to the lab once a week.

Rowe said, "We met the State Adequate Yearly Progress in Literacy and Math on the fourth grade Benchmark last year."

The primary school was cited for two teachers teaching out of area of certification; Polly Ferguson in special education  she is teaching third grade this year and is certified  and Charla Renfro as media specialist  she is working toward her master's in library science and will finish this next summer.