Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Staffs busy during summer

Just because school ended in May doesnt mean faculty and staffs in the Prescott School District havent been busy.

Janet Gordon, principal at Prescott Elementary School, said the faculty and staff have been working to get their professional development hours for the coming school year.

All reading teachers and para-professionals attended training on levelized reading in June. According to Gordon, this is a new reading adoption the district is going with.

In addition, all para-professionals working with students in reading have been trained in Effective Literacy or Ella, this summer. Two new teachers, Tammy Jackson and Tina Barras, received this training also.

Kathie Janes and Gordon attended the Arkansas Supervision and Curriculum Development workshop in Hot Springs in June.

Janes, Shannon Henderson, Melanie Yates, Angie Barbaree and Teresa Bell attended the Smart Start program in Little Rock.

Gordon said all staff members are responsible for getting six hours of technology on their own this summer. Most, she added, attended sessions at the Southwest Arkansas Educational Cooperative.

Additional staff development days have been scheduled at PES. These days are Aug. 11,12 and 17,18. The teachers will be going over AIP writing, curriculum alignment, data analysis and parent involvement.

PES received the raw scores for the ACTAAP tests for grades three and four, but cant surmise who will be proficient or above from them. We do know the third grades average raw score in math and literacy was equal to the state average, and the fourth grade raw scores in math and literacy were above the state and regional average.

This was the first year for these teachers to attend the Smart Start workshop. They reported to the Board they learned a lot and found some great strategies for K-12.

The main topic, they agreed, was on collaboration on students and what and how they learn. Basically, they said, everyone benefits from working together as a team.

Open House at PES will be Thursday, Aug. 18, starting at 6 p.m. School will start at 7:35 a.m. Friday, Aug. 19.

Jamie Barnes, principal at McRae Middle School, also reported to the Board, saying several members of the staff attended the Smart Step workshop in Little Rock over the summer.

Others went to the literacy lab at Harding University in Conway. This is a three-year program to install reading in a flexible curriculum. The district, she said, will receive $600 a year for this program.

Roy Nell Gober, who attended the literacy lab, said it was established in 1999 and shows how important it is for children to read.

Students, she said, need to do extensive and intensive reading. The teachers will be focusing on motivation initially to get students to read more. Teachers will recommend books for students to read, along with letting them choose books themselves. The program also incorporates writing.

Barnes said MMS received raw scores from the Iowa Test of Basic Skills for grades 5-8.

In the fifth grade, with 69 students, 66 percent were above the 50th percentile in reading, with 64 percent above in math.

Of the 66 students in the sixth grade, 53 percent were above the norm in reading and 52 percent in math. There are 94 students in the seventh grade, with 47 percent above the 50th percentile in reading and 53 percent in math.

For the eight grade, with 92 students, the figures were 51 percent in reading and 50 percent in math.