Blythewood Online 691

Category: Schools

  • Teachers’ salaries down, administrators’ up

    BLYTHEWOOD—Administrators are making more and teachers are making less in the Richland Two School District.

    In 2017-18, the average teacher salaries dropped from $52,092 to $51,802, while average administrator salaries rose from $95,003 to $96,193, the South Carolina Department of Education Report Card data shows.

    A similar trend occurred in Fairfield County School District.

    In 2017-2018, average administrator salaries were $85,575, up from $84,833 the year before, according to report card data.

    Average Fairfield County School District teacher salaries, however, declined from last year, falling from $49,504 to $49,288.

    At the Dec. 18 Fairfield County School District meeting, Dr. J.R. Green, superintendent of Fairfield County schools, said in the past year he’s forgone receiving a pay raise.

    However, when board member Paula Hartman asked Green to state his salary, Green said he didn’t know the figure. The Voice has filed a Freedom of Information Act request for that information.

    In Fairfield County, the inverse relationship between administrator and teacher pay comes as district leaders continue pressing for the creation of a Teacher Village, a proposed subdivision catering to educators.

    Affordable housing, they say, is key to recruiting and retaining teachers.

    “People who live in a home are going to stay longer than in an apartment,” said Dr. Sue Rex, chairwoman of the Fairfield education foundation, which is working with the district on the Teacher Village project.

    Fairfield County lags behind Richland Two in most teacher retention categories.

    Richland Two reported 86 percent of teachers returning from the previous year, compared to 82.6 percent in Fairfield. Richland Two (86.6 percent) also leads Fairfield (81.3 percent) in teachers returning – three year average, according to report card data.

    Finally, only 63.2 percent of Fairfield teachers are on a continuing contract, compared to 75 percent in Richland Two.

    At the Fairfield County School District’s October meeting, the board voted to appropriate $1 million from its $3.5 million surplus for salaries.

    However, the money won’t be budgeted until 2018-2019 and it includes all district employees, not just teachers. The remaining $2.5 million was earmarked to fund facility needs.

  • EOC Director responds to Green’s criticism

    WINNSBORO – Instead of attacking school report cards, the Fairfield County School District leaders should be tackling ways to improve student achievement, according to a leading state education official.

    “Rather than complaining about the system, the best thing we can do is think about how we can improve the outcomes for kids,” said Melanie Barton, executive director of the S.C. Education Oversight Commission, which develops the annual report cards with the S.C. Department of Education.

    In a telephone interview Friday, Barton said report cards are designed to help identify how schools can improve, not to punish or embarrass them.

    “What I would tell board members is spend your energy focusing on where we can improve,” she said. “Not every school can be excellent. That just defies common logic.”

    Barton’s remarks came three days after the Fairfield school board members and staff blasted the report card methodology, calling them unfair and punitive.

    Dr. J.R. Green, district superintendent, disputed what he termed as a “forced distribution,” meaning a percentage of schools will always be rated unsatisfactory, regardless of performance.

    “It creates a model where one school doesn’t want to help another,” Green said. “I have a problem with a system when you have to have winners and you have to have losers.”

    Barton said Green’s assertions erroneously portray the purpose of the report cards.

    “To think of it as a competition, I just don’t see educators doing that,” she said. “If they do, they’re not serving children.”

    School districts sound off

    Fairfield County is not alone in voicing frustration over the report cards. Other superintendents have voiced concerns as well, said Ryan Brown, spokesman for the S.C. Department of Education.

    Brown deferred comment on report card methodology to the EOC, but he noted the Department of Education has some concerns of its own regarding the updated report cards.

    One issue, he said, is that standardized tests comprise 90 percent of an elementary school’s report card score, while the ratio is less for high school ratings.

    He said the Department of Education and other stakeholders hope to hash out any differences at a meeting next month. The meeting is slated for Jan. 28, and any revisions need to be finished by March 1 for U.S. Department of Education signoff.

    The new report cards were rolled out Nov. 29 following a two-week delay due to errors in reporting from a vendor, a Department of Education news release said.

    The report cards maintain previous ratings of Excellent, Good, Average, Below Average, and Unsatisfactory. What’s new is that only certain percentages of schools fit into each category.

    In 2017-2018, only the top 15 percent of schools were rated Excellent. The next 20 percent of schools were considered Good, while the middle 35 percent of schools were classified as Average.

    Below Average schools made up 20 percent while the bottom 10 percent were automatically rated Unsatisfactory. There were 116 schools that fit into this category.

    No Fairfield County school was rated Unsatisfactory. Two schools – Fairfield Elementary and Fairfield Middle – were rated Below Average. While Fairfield Central High School was rated Below Average in Academic Achievement and Prepared for Success, the Good rating for Graduation rate, Average rating for College and Career Readiness and Excellent rating for School Quality (subjective ratings by students, parents and teachers concerning such areas as school safety)brought the overall average for the school to Average.

    At Tuesday’s board meeting, Green likened the state report card system to “The Hunger Games,” a science fiction movie about a dystopian future in which teenagers fight to the death on live television.

    “This system has negatively impacted all kinds of districts with all kinds of populations,” Green said. “It creates a ‘Hunger Games’ mentality. Everyone is scrambling to the top and to reach the top.”

    Board chairman William Frick described the report cards as “rigging the game,” saying 30 percent of schools in the state are destined to score either Below Average or Unsatisfactory.

    “We’re rigging the game by saying 30 percent of the schools, 30 percent of the teachers, 30 percent of our students have to be below average or unsatisfactory,” Frick said. “I just don’t understand it. I, for the life of me, don’t understand why we want to continue to say our schools are bad in South Carolina.”

    Board member Carl Jackson was more blunt.

    “It’s almost as though somebody’s getting a kickback to make this thing look bad,” Jackson said.

    Comparing area high schools

    Earlier at the Dec. 19 meeting, Dr. Claudia Avery, deputy superintendent of academics for Fairfield County schools, detailed report card highlights for the board.

    Green interjected several times during the presentation to express his disapproval of various aspects of the report card system.

    “All schools can’t experience growth,” Green said. “Even if everyone does a good job of moving kids, everyone can’t receive positive points.”

    Barton said the purpose of the report cards is to identify schools that are struggling, and to develop ways to help them improve. For that to occur, she said, report cards need to be transparent and frank.

    “The point of the system is to identify what we’re doing well and what we’re not, and get the resources needed to change it,” Barton said. “We’re not where we need to be in the state.”

    In her presentation, Avery said the district exceeded the state average in graduation rate (86.2 percent vs. 81 percent). She also noted the district’s percent of English Learners making progress toward proficiency (57.7 percent) outpaced the state (48.6 percent).

    In addition, Avery said the district was represented well on student survey questions.

    Nearly 89 percent of parents agreed or strongly agreed that their child feels safe at school. Another 78.4 percent thought school staff prevents or stops bullying.

    Report card data, however, reported several noteworthy statistics in the report card’s “unsafe incident” table.

    For example, the district reported seven incidents of “sexual assault (not rape).” There were also eight incidents of “physical attack without weapon,” and 45 threats of physical violence to Fairfield Central High School students, report cards state.

    Academically, Fairfield County still lagged behind the state in several key areas.

    Only 27 percent of students (303 of 1,121) met or exceeded criteria on SC Ready-English/Language Arts. Statewide, the figure was 41.7 percent. On math, only 31.2 percent of Fairfield students met or exceeded the criteria compared to 44.6 percent at the state level.

    Fairfield also trailed the state in SCPASS Science and SCPASS Social Studies, as well as in end of course tests for Biology and U.S. History and Constitution.

  • Is District driving Teacher Village?

    WINNSBORO – A proposed “Teacher Village” has been portrayed as primarily a function of the Fairfield County School District Education Foundation, and not the school district office.

    In reality, the district has been just as hands-on, if not more.

    Whether it’s filing startup documents, lobbying public officials or soliciting taxpayer money, district office personnel have been intimately involved in the Teacher Village, public records show.

    If approved, the Teacher Village would begin with 30 homes on 22 acres of land the district owns behind the administration building off U.S. 321 Bypass. Taxpayer money would provide rent subsidies to teachers living there.

    Gorelick Brothers Financial, a Charlotte, North Carolina firm that would build the development, is also seeking a $600,000 property tax waiver.

    Documents obtained through the state’s Freedom of Information Act show the district office has been deeply involved in creating the foundation, registering it and working hand-in-hand with the foundation on the Teacher Village.

    The symbiotic relationship between the district and foundation differs from how Dr. J.R. Green, district superintendent, described the relationship in a November 2016 interview with The Voice.

    “The School District’s Board establishes the Foundation, but after that, the District has no oversight or control over the Foundation,” Green told The Voice.

    Green couldn’t be reached for comment.

    During the school board’s October 2018 meeting, Green said the district’s only investment in the Teacher Village is providing land for the project.

    “The school district has deeded the 22 acres of land to the foundation,” Green said. “All the conversation, all the agreements and all the arrangements moving forward are between the foundation and Gorelick Brothers.”

    Others, however, think the lines are blurred between the foundation and school board.

    “It may not be your sister, but it’s your stepsister,” said Winnsboro Mayor Roger Gaddy.

    Building a Foundation

    The school district’s board of trustees voted to establish the foundation in November 2016.

    At the time, Green said the district would pay the roughly $1,000 needed to establish the foundation as a 501(c)(3) organization.

    He also told the board of trustees that he would want to appoint the foundation’s board members, but later told The Voice the foundation would elect its own officers.

    In March 2017, the district formally registered with the Secretary of State’s office, according to incorporation documents obtained by The Voice.

    Kevin Robinson, the district’s director of finance, is listed in those documents as the foundation’s original registered agent.

    Documents also show the foundation and school district share the same street address – 1226 U.S. Highway 321 Bypass South.

    Dr. Sue Rex, wife of former State Superintendent of Education Jim Rex, was appointed chair of the foundation board at the April 2017 foundation meeting, according to the minutes.

    Robinson, however, remained the registered agent until June 2017, when the district filed paperwork transferring that role to Rex.

    In 2016, when the board of trustees voted to create the foundation, Board Chairman William Frick said forming a foundation was beneficial because it would encourage donations to help fund the Teacher Village.

    At first, that’s the direction the foundation pursued.

    “Foundation board members discussed potential fundraising ideas to include a capital campaign and Go Fund me,” the April 2017 minutes state.

    Minutes in subsequent meetings show the foundation actively discussed working with Fairfield County and S.C. Uplift Community Outreach in seeking state and federal grant opportunities.

    The September 2017 minutes state BB&T expressed interest in the Teacher Village, and there were also detailed discussions about HUD grants. However, the latter option proved to be a challenge.

    “After talking with lending institutions, we realized the only way we could put together the project was with HUD money,” Rex said during an October presentation to Fairfield County Council.

    HUD has a $64,000 cap per household, which would eliminate virtually any teacher with a working spouse.

    “The only problem with HUD money is there’s a limit on how much people in that household can earn in order to live there,” Rex said. “HUD housing isn’t really going to work for us.”

    District seeks taxpayer help

    There wasn’t any public mention of taxpayer support for the Teacher Village until Green mentioned it during a recent County Council meeting.

    On Oct. 22, under questioning from Councilman Jimmy Ray Douglas, Green acknowledged taxpayer money would subsidize $300 in monthly rent reductions for teachers living in the village.

    “I’m interested in how you plan to rent these houses for no more than $600 to $900 a month. It seems low for what the tenants would be getting based on the square footage,” Douglas said. “How will the houses be rented for rates this low? Is it possible the school district will be subsidizing the rental fees?”

    Green said the subsidies come from a proviso state lawmakers inserted into the state budget, which is mostly supported by state income taxes.

    The proviso allocates millions of dollars to the S.C. Center for Educator Recruitment, Retention & Advancement, or CERRA.

    In 2017-2018, CERRA received $9.5 million via the proviso. The rest of its nearly $19 million budget came from other expenditures, according to the organization’s annual report.

    Jane Turner, executive director of CERRA, said she and Green have discussed using state funds for the Teacher Village.

    Turner said the district has previously requested funds from CERRA, but not for the Teacher Village. She and Green have discussed the Teacher Village, though.

    “It [the Teacher Village] is an appropriate use of the funds,” she said. “They haven’t yet requested funds. I’ve talked to the superintendent briefly about it.”

    Turner said a special formula is used to determine a district’s allocation. Using that formula, she said the district is eligible to receive $150,600.

    “There’s just a form that has to be filled out and sent to my organization and I approve it if it’s an appropriate allocation,” Turner said.

    Green, Rex and Gorelick

    With HUD eliminated as an option to fund the Teacher Village, the foundation turned to the private sector.

    Rex said that’s when she was introduced to Gorelick Brothers, which was willing to fund most of the project – with a catch.

    Gorelick would front $3 million of the $3.6 million necessary to build the Teacher Village. In exchange, it wanted a $600,000, seven-year tax abatement. That would require a County Council vote to establish a multicounty business park.

    Green said the foundation has been handling most of the discussions with Gorelick, though the district and foundation have both relayed Gorelick’s request to the county.

    “We’re just advocating on behalf of the investor at this point in time,” he said.

    As for the development itself, Green said the district has been handling efforts to get the Teacher Village property rezoned from commercial to residential.

    “The school district is attempting to rezone the property before it’s transferred,” to the foundation, Green said. “So a formal request will come from the school district relating to the zoning.”

    Both Green and Rex have been meeting with Fairfield County staff and elected leaders, privately and publicly.

    The most recent meeting between the government agencies occurred last month in which the county voiced concerns with the multicounty business park request.

    Council Chairman Billy Smith told Green and Rex if the county approves the business park before the Teacher Village property is rezoned, he wants Gorelick to agree to an indemnification clause to shield the county from legal liabilities.

    Green said Monday night was the first he’d heard of the indemnification clause, though Rex and Smith said they’ve been discussing it.

    “In terms of this indemnification clause, it’s the first that I’ve heard that,” Green said.

    “Let me just say this, I’ve never spoken to anyone at Gorelick directly. The communication I’ve had has been with Dr. Rex,” Smith replied. “I’m sure she will tell you that we’ve discussed that a number of times for two plus weeks now, the idea of indemnification.”

    “I have brought that up to Gorelick,” Rex affirmed. “They know you’re asking that. They haven’t responded about it.”

  • R2 Schools locked down as precaution

    BLYTHEWOOD – An incident that involved shots fired impacted several Richland Two schools in Blythewood on Monday after deputies began looking for a suspect in the Highlands neighborhood in Northeast Columbia. The shooting incident, which happened in the 4800 block of Hardscrabble Road, caused increased patrols in the area around Hardscrabble and prompted the Richland County Sheriff’s Department to place a limited lockdown on several Richland Two schools Monday afternoon.

    Due to the possibility that the suspect was within the community, the following schools were placed on a short delay for bus riders and walkers only: Bridge Creek Elementary, Rice Creek Elementary, Lake Carolina Elementary Upper and Lower, Center for Inquiry, Center for Achievement, Kelly Mill Middle, Blythewood Middle, Summit Parkway Middle and Ridge View High.

    Car riders were released on schedule.

    In an email on Monday afternoon, Sgt. Amanda Jordon with the Richland County Sheriff’s Public Information Office, stated that at about 2:30 p.m., deputies determined that the public was no longer in danger and the buses were released.

    Westwood Threat

    Across town, a threat that was allegedly made towards students and faculty members at Westwood High School last week has been deemed “not credible” by Richland County authorities.

    According to Deputy Alexis Aarons with the Richland County Sheriff’s Department public information office, a child with intellectual disabilities overheard a conversation and misunderstood what was being said in regards to a post on social media last week.

    “There was no intent to do harm in the post. No charges will be filed in this case,” Aarons stated.

    On Friday morning, Dec 14, at approximately 10 a.m., school officials notified parents that a morning assembly planned at the school was being cancelled after they were alerted that a threatening message was being sent through Snapchat.

    According to officials, the message said that a boy with a gun had threatened to cause harm during the assembly.

    By Friday afternoon, officials informed parents that the threat was already not appearing to be credible and that the faculty was continuing the day as normal on campus.

    Principal Cheryl Guy released a message to parents Friday afternoon saying that there had been no credible threats made against any student or the school, and that officials had acted swiftly when receiving the initial complaint.

    “I am thankful that we have students who immediately reported it to staff, and our School Resource Officer and our administrators were able to quickly investigate,” she stated in the notice.

    “A threat of any nature is not a joke to us,” she added in another notice.

    The assembly was rescheduled for Monday morning, and was held without incident.

    Barbara Ball contributed to this article.

  • Advanced middle schoolers score well

    BLYTHEWOOD/FAIRFIELD – Advanced middle school students who are able to take high school courses in the eighth grade also are subject to the end of course (EOC) tests.

    As a group, the mean or average scores for these high-achieving middle schoolers were better than the state and district averages and area high schools.

    Students in three Richland 2 middle schools in the Blythewood area – Blythewood Middle, Kelly Mill, and Muller Road – as well as Fairfield Middle School in the Fairfield School District, took the end-of-course test for Algebra1 and Mathematics for the Technologies. Also, Fairfield allows high achieving students to take English 1 in middle school, and 35 students at Fairfield Middle completed that course and were subsequently tested.

    According to the Department of Education website, the EOCEP “encourages instruction in the specific academic standards for the courses, encourages student achievement, and documents the level of students’ mastery of the academic standards.”

    In other words, it is a standard way of measuring how well students are learning the subjects taught in the state’s public schools.

    EOCEP examination scores count 20 percent in the calculation of the student’s final grade in “gateway courses” (i.e., courses every student must take before graduation). These currently include: Algebra 1, Intermediate Algebra, Biology 1, English 1, and United States History and the Constitution.  To meet federal accountability requirements, the EOCEP in mathematics, English/language arts and science is administered to all public school students by the third year of high school.

    For school year 2018, all four area middle schools exceeded both state and district averages for Algebra 1, and Fairfield Middle exceeded state and district averages for English 1 as well.  This is how they did:

    Blythewood Middle:  For the 2018-2018 school year, 96 students took the Algebra 1 test, with an average score of 88.3 (out of one hundred points.)  Almost 44% scored A on the test; another 40.6 scored B; 13.5% scored C, and only 2.1% scored D.  These scores were down from the previous year, when the mean score in Algebra 1 was 90.8, with 58.7% of the students scoring an A and no student scoring below a C.

    Kelly Mill Middle: Eighty-eight students took the Algebra 1 test for 2017-2018, with a mean score of 78.9; 20.5% scored an A, while 25% received a B, 33% received a C, 11.4% received a D, and 10.2% received an F.  Overall 78.5% received a C or better.  Kelly Mill’s scores showed an improvement over the previous year, when the mean was 75.5 and only 7.7% scored A, and about 70% scored a C or better.

    Muller Road Middle:  Seventy-eight students took the Algebra 1 test for 2017-2018, achieving a mean score of 84 and with 28.2% of the students receiving an A; 35.9% a B; 29.5% a C, and only 6.4% receiving a D or F. These scores were down slightly from the previous year, when the mean was 86.2 with more than 30% scoring an A and almost 98% passing the course with a C or better.

    Fairfield Middle: Of the 29 middle schoolers who took the Algebra 1 test in Fairfield School District for the 2017-2018 school year, 24.1% scored an A; 10.3% a B; 17.2% a C; 27.6% a D; and 20.7% an F. The mean score was 74.8 out of a possible 100.  These scores were down from the previous year, when the average score was 76 and about 64% of students taking the test received a C or above.

    For English 1, the mean score was 79.2, with 25.7% receiving an A; 17.1% a B; 34.3% a C; 20% a D; and only 2.9% an F.  These scores, however, were an improvement over the 2016-2017 school year, when the mean score was 76.8, with 18.2% of the students receiving an A and more than a third receiving a D or an F.

  • R2 Chair McKie’s ‘lost’ ethics filings questioned

    BLYTHEWOOD – Nearly a month after the November elections, two Richland 2 school board members still had not filed ethics disclosure forms required by state law, according to the South Carolina Ethics Commission.

    As of 1 p.m. Tuesday, the ethics commission’s online Statements of Economic Interest database listed all of the school board candidates who filed except for two notables – new board member Teresa Jones Holmes and board chairwoman Amelia McKie.

    Holmes couldn’t be reached for comment Tuesday.

    McKie expressed shock that her name wasn’t listed online for public viewing.

    “I’ll try to find out where the disconnect was,” McKie said during a 4:30 p.m. phone interview. “There shouldn’t have been a problem. Certainly I want to get to the bottom of whatever the disconnect is.”

    McKie contacted The Voice about an hour later to say that the ethics commission had her forms, saying they had been submitted weeks ago.

    The ethics commission website listed McKie’s time of filing at 5:26 p.m. Tuesday. Holmes filed at 4:50 p.m., after The Voice telephoned her at 1:07 p.m.

    At 11:02 a.m. Tuesday, an unidentified ethics commission representative said via email that the agency’s website was “up to date and accurate” as of that time.

    The spokesperson declined further comment.

    “The statements were filed on the date and time shown on the website,” the ethics commission said via email Wednesday morning. “I am aware of no glitch in the application that would cause a document to become ‘lost’ in the system.”

    The ethics commission website says all candidates must electronically file Statements of Economic Interests forms, and that they’re posted online immediately.“Upon filing, the information is immediately available to the public through public reporting,” the website states.

    The apparently late filings come months after the Richland 2 board voted to modify the procurement code.

    In July, the board voted to strike several provisions from the code, including one that prohibited the district from doing business with board members.

    At the time of the vote, Dr. Harry Miley, the district’s chief financial officer, said via email that the prohibition already exists elsewhere in the board’s policy.

    “We are undertaking a comprehensive review and update of all of our policies with particular attention to trying to eliminate places where the same topic is addressed in multiple policies,” Miley said. “We are also undertaking a review of our procurement code to see if revisions are needed.”

    McKie’s form lists $9,600 in personal income from her position on the school board. She receives additional income from consulting, but those amounts are not included on the online forms.

    NextEra also purchased $15,000 in consulting services from McKie, according to ethics documents.

    Holmes reported $83,000 in personal income from a position with the Fairfield County School District, documents show.

    Neither McKie nor Holmes listed any property interests, business interests, gifts or government contracts, according to the forms.

    Nearly all of the other seven school board candidates filed their economic interest forms by August, according to state ethics records.

    One candidate, a challenger and not an incumbent, filed his in October, records show.

    State law requires all elected officials to file Statements of Economic Interest and campaign contribution reports.

    Forms document a candidate’s income sources, including any sources doing business with the government agency the elected office oversees.

    High-ranking appointed officials, such as city administrators, superintendents and chief financial officers, must also file, according to the ethics commission website.

    Candidates who fail to file, or who file late, face a variety of civil and criminal penalties.

    Civil penalties begin at $100 for reports not filed within five days after the deadline. Fine amounts increase by $10 per calendar day for the first 10 days after notice is provided by certified or registered mail.

    Daily fines increase to $100 for every day the form isn’t filed, with total fines capping at $5,000.

    If forms still aren’t filed, failing to file becomes a criminal violation, with violators facing additional fines and possible prison time.

    In addition, state law prohibits public officials who haven’t filed Statements of Economic Interest from being sworn in.

    “No public official, regardless of compensation, and no public member or public employee as designated in subsection (B) may take the oath of office or enter upon his official responsibilities unless he has filed a statement of economic interests in accordance with the provisions of this chapter with the appropriate supervisory office,” the law states.

    This requirement still exists even if a public official has no economic interests to disclose.

    “He shall nevertheless file a statement of inactivity to that effect with the appropriate supervisory office,” the statute states.

  • Breaking Legs

    Cast includes, from left: Sophie Pirich, Jesse Elliott, Anne Heiler, Jennifer Warner, AJ Jacobs, Ellie Feuerstein and Jerry Windhorn.

    BLYTHEWOOD – Blythewood High School’s drama class’s one-act play, Elephant’s Graveyard, has been named one of the two top state winners at SC Theater Association competition. BHS will now compete (for the fifth year) in the Southeastern Theater Conference in Knoxville, TN against the top two winners from 10 states. To pay for the trip, the cast will perform at the Farm on Dec. 19 & 20, at 7 p.m. Tickets are $10, available at the BHS office.

  • Fairfield EOC, Ready to Work scores decline, lag behind

    WINNSBORO – Fairfield County schools experienced a setback in a key assessment that counts as 20 percent of a student’s final grade in core subjects, mirroring a similar slide in statewide results.

    The Fairfield County School District scores declined from spring, 2017 to spring, 2018 in three of four core subjects on the End-of-Course Examination Program (EOCEP), according to data the S.C. Department of Education released in October. Fairfield Central High School’s mean scores on the EOCEP declined from last year in all four subjects.

    Core subjects of testing consist of Algebra 1, English 1, Biology 1 and U.S. History and the Constitution. Students must pass each course at some point before they are awarded a high school diploma.

    The district also struggled on the Ready to Work exam, a new career-readiness exam that all 11th graders are required to take.

    The generally declining performances on the EOCEP and the lagging Ready to Work scores come in spite of the district leading the state in per pupil revenues, at $21,803 per student in 2017-2018, according to Department of Education figures.

    Dr. J.R. Green, district superintendent, couldn’t be reached for comment.

    At the district’s board of trustees meeting Nov. 13, Green said that students are being over-tested.

    “We have been on this hyper assessment wheel for 20-plus years now. It has been absolutely counterproductive,” Green said. “This is going to be controversial, but the testing industry is a business. It’s a business to keep us on the hyper-accountability movement.

    “People think that is how you measure schools,” Green continued. “People think that is how you improve schools.”

    Fairfield’s performance stands in contrast to the district’s SAT scores for 2018, which shot up 60 points from the year before.

    Only 41 Fairfield County high school students took the SAT, while between 138 and 195 took various individual portions of the EOCEP, according to the S.C. Department of Education.

    How FCHS students performed

    The bright spot for FCHS students was in English 1 where the percentage of students scoring an A rose from -0- in 2017 to 3.6 in 2018. The percentage of students scoring an F – defined as 0 to 59 percent – in English 1, however, increased from 33.1 percent in 2017 to 42.8 percent in 2018.

    FCHS test takers struggled most on Algebra 1, figures show. Percentages of students scoring an A in Algebra 1 dropped from 1.2 percent in 2017 to -0- students scoring an A in 2018. More than half (54.3 percent) scored an F on Algebra 1 in 2018, a 14.2 percent increase over the 40.1 percent who scored an F on Algebra in 2017.

    Fewer students scored an A on Biology 1, dropping from 17.8 percent last year to 6.7 percent this year. Percentages of students scoring an F in Biology 1 increased from 38.8 percent in 2017 to 41 percent in 2018.

    The percentage of students scoring an A in U.S. History and the Constitution dropped from 2 percent last year to 1.1 percent this year. While more than half the students (52.5 percent) taking the test scored an F in 2018, that was an improvement over the 55 percent who scored an F in 2017, figures show.

    The mean scores of FCHS students were also down in all four subjects tested.

    • Algebra 1 – 63.3 (2017) to 58.6 (2018), down 4.7
    • Biology 1 – 67.6 (2017 ) to 65.2 (2018), down 2.4
    • English 1 – 64.1  (2017) to 63.7 (2018), down 0.4
    • U.S. History and Constitution – 60.5 (2017) to 60.3 (2018), down 0.2

    The mean scores of the District as a whole were similarly down from last year with the exception of English 1 which showed a 0.7 increase.

    On the new Ready to Work exam, Fairfield performed behind 2018 state averages.

    Ready to Work (R2W) is a career readiness assessment administered to all eleventh grade students to determine student achievement in three key subjects – Applied Mathematics, Reading for Information and Locating Information. Fairfield performed below the state average on each of the three subject areas:

    • Applied Mathematics—State average 241, Fairfield 235
    • Reading for Information—State average 247, Fairfield 242
    • Locating Information—State average 230, Fairfield 228

    The R2W test awards certificates, which are associated with career professions, beginning with bronze and peaking with platinum.

    Roughly one-fourth (24.6 percent) of the 179 students taking the test didn’t score well enough to earn a certificate.

    About one-third (34.1 percent) earned a Bronze Level certificate, meaning they’re ready for 35 percent of jobs in the workforce. Bronze level sample professions include construction laborer, electrician assistant, cement mason and dental hygienist.

    Another 38.5 percent earned Silver Level certificates, which means they’re ready for 65 percent of jobs, including insulation installer, roofer, chef, pipe layer, flight attendant or machinist.

    Gold Level certificates were earned by 2.8 percent of students. This level includes credit analysts, aircraft mechanics, medical transcriptionists, acute care nurses and social workers.

    No Fairfield students earned a Platinum Level certificate, which includes architects, chemists, geographers, anesthesiologists and agricultural engineers.

    Barbara Ball contributed to this article.

  • EOC scores: BHS up, WHS lags

    BLYTHEWOOD – Blythewood High School students outscored both the Richland Two district average and the state average in a key assessment that counts as 20 percent of a student’s final grade in core subjects in statewide results.

    Westwood High School, however, experienced a setback in the same assessment, mirroring a similar slide in statewide results.

    Those core subjects of testing consist of Algebra 1, Biology 1, English 1 and U.S. History and the Constitution. Students must pass each course at some point before they are awarded a high school diploma.

    Blythewood High’s Scores

    Blythewood exceeded state and district average mean scores in all four core subjects tested in the 2018 End-of-Course Examination Program (EOCEP). The school also exceeded the state and district in the percentage of A’s scored in three of the four subject areas – Biology 1, English 1 and U.S. History and Constitution.

    While the 2.6 percent of BHS students scoring an A in Algebra 1 fell short when compared to the district (10.6 percent) and to the state (9.1 percent), the school’s scores in Algebra 1 showed improvement from 1.9 percent in 2017 to 2.6 in 2018.

    Considerable improvement was seen in English 1, from 16.4 percent scoring an A in 2017 to 27.7 percent in 2018.

    Percentage of BHS students scoring an A in Biology 1 dropped from 34.6 percent (2017) to 26.5 percent (2018) and in U.S. History and Constitution from 20.7 (2017) to 18.3 (2018).

    The percentage of Blythewood High School students scoring an F remained well below both state and district percentages.  Only 9.2 percent of BHS test takers scored an F in English 1, down from 11 percent in 2017. Percentages also improved in U.S. History and Constitution from 22.1 scoring an F in 2017 down to 17.7 in 2018.

    More than one-quarter (28.5 percent) of BHS test takers scored an F in Algebra 1, up from 22.2 percent in 2017, and almost one-third (30.3) scored an F in Biology 1, almost doubling the percentage of 17.8 percent that scored an F in 2017.

    The mean scores of BHS students taking the EOCEP in 2018 exceeded the mean scores for both the district and the state in three out of the four subjects, falling behind only in Algebra 1.

    BHS students also saw gains over their 2017 mean test scores in English and U.S. History and Consitution, but declines in Algebra 1 and Biology 1.

    • Algebra 1 – 67.5 (2017) to 66.9 (2018), down 0.6
    • Biology 1 – 78.4 (2017) to 73.1 (2018), down 5.3
    • English 1 – 76.2 (2017) to 79.6. (2018), up 3.4
    • U.S. History and Constitution – 73.7 (2017) to 74.7 (2018), up 1

    Westwood High’s Scores

    Westwood High School test takers fell behind both the district and the state in all four of the tested subjects but improved their percentages for scoring an A over last year in both Algebra 1 and English 1.

    Students performed best on the English 1 exam, improving the percentage of A scores considerably from 3.2 percent (2017) to 12.6 percent in (2018). Improvement was also seen in those scoring an A in Algebra 1 from 0.4 percent (2017) to 1.1 percent (2018).

    WHS students struggled in Biology 1, going from 14.4 percent scoring an A in 2017 to only 2.2 percent scoring an A in 2018. Percentages scoring an A in U.S. History and Constitution stayed about the same, going from 3.6 percent (2017) to 3.5 percent (2018).

    Those WHS students scoring an F in Algebra 1 increased from 30.3 percent (2017) to 43.2 percent (2018) and in Biology 1 from 38.7 percent (2017) to 51.6 percent (2018).

    However, fewer WHS test takers scored an F in English 1, improving from 37.3 percent (2017) to 25.9 (2018) and in U. S. History and Constitution, improving from 49.1 percent (2017) to 38.6 (2018).

    While school’s mean scale score lagged behind both district and state scores, the greatest decline was in Biology 1 (down 7 points) and the most improvement in English 1 (up 6.3 points).

    • Algebra 1—63.3 (2017) to 62.9 (2018), down 0.4 points
    • Biology 1—66.8 (2017) to 59.8 (2018), down 7.0 points
    • English 1—65.2 (2017) to 71.5 (2018), up 6.3 points
    • U.S. History and Constitution—61.6 (2017) to 63.5 (2018), up 1.9 points

    Ready to Work

    Ready to Work (R2W) is a career readiness assessment administered to all eleventh grade students to determine student achievement in three key subjects – Applied Mathematics, Reading for Information and Locating Information.

    Blythewood High

    Blythewood High School R2W test takers outperformed the state averages in all three key subjects

    • Applied Mathematics—State average 241, BHS – 245
    • Reading for Information—State average 247, BHS – 251
    • Locating Information—State average 230, BHS – 231

    The test awards certificates, which are associated with career professions, beginning with bronze and peaking with platinum.

    Nearly 91 percent of 487 Blythewood students earned certificates, meaning 9.2 percent didn’t score high enough to earn certificates.

    Bronze Level certificates were earned by 19.1 percent of test takers, meaning they’re ready for 35 percent of jobs in the workforce. Bronze level sample professions include construction laborer, electrician assistant, cement mason and dental hygienist.

    Another 60.2 percent earned Silver Level certificates, which means they’re ready for 65 percent of jobs, including insulation installer, roofer, chef, pipe layer, flight attendant or machinist.

    Gold Level certificates were earned by 7.8 percent of students. This level includes credit analysts, aircraft mechanics, medical transcriptionists, acute care nurses and social workers.

    Platinum Level certificates were earned by 3.7 percent of BHS test takers, which includes architects, chemists, geographers, anesthesiologists and agricultural engineers.

    Westwood High

    Westwood High School test takers lagged behind the state averages in all three R2W key subjects

    • Applied Mathematics—State average 241, BHS – 238
    • Reading for Information—State average 247, BHS – 245
    • Locating Information—State average 230, BHS – 229

    Nearly 81 percent of 298 Westwood students earned certificates, versus 19.1 percent who didn’t. One-quarter (24.8 percent) earned Bronze certificates and exactly half (50 percent) earned Silver certificates. Five percent earned Gold certificates, while 1 percent earned a Platinum certificate.

  • Teacher Village lacking site plan

    WINNSBORO – As Fairfield County school officials press forward with plans to build a subdivision catering to teachers on property it owns behind the district office, those plans appear to be stymied until the property is rezoned. But the district has not yet submitted the required site plan for that rezoning to be initiated, according to Town of Winnsboro officials.

    School district officials are seeking to rezone the property from C-2, which allows commercial uses, to a residential zoning classification to accommodate single family detached dwellings, Winnsboro Zoning Director Billy Castles said.

    But Castles said it is not possible to determine what zoning the school should apply for until it submits a site plan.

    “That site plan must comply with the zoning district. We can’t change zoning to comply with the site plan,” Castles said.

    Castles added that the very limited discussion about the Teacher’s Village has primarily been with the school district, not the Fairfield County Education Foundation which initiated and is coordinating the project.  Castles noted the district as of Tuesday had only submitted preliminary drawings, not a site plan, for the Village.

    “What the district submitted was not materially sufficient (for determining zoning),” Castles said.

    “The site plan must include details about the development, such as lot size, setback measurements, where the homes are to be located on the lots, water and sewer infrastructure, street paving, curbing and other technical details,” Castles said.

    The Winnsboro Planning Commission was scheduled to discuss the Teacher Village at a meeting Wednesday after The Voice went to press.

    “This workshop will hopefully explain exactly what they [district officials] need to do for their site plan to comply with the zoning,” Castle said.

    Once a site plan is submitted, the approval process after that could take between eight and 12 weeks, Castles estimated. That time frame, he said, does not include other prerequisite steps, such as providing stormwater solutions and subdividing lots for tax purposes, functions falling to other county and state agencies.

    “This is strictly a zoning issue for us,” Castles said. “It has nothing to do with approval or disapproval of the project.”

    Skeptism grows

    Winnsboro Mayor Roger Gaddy said he hasn’t formed an opinion about the proposed “Teacher Village,” but he does have concerns.

    “I don’t know how providing education for the children of Fairfield County morphed into a real estate development and home rentals,” Gaddy said.

    “My impression was the purpose of the school district is to educate our children and prepare them for higher education,” Gaddy added. “I have concerns that we’re diverting our focus from education to real estate.”

    Dr. J.R. Green, district superintendent, has said the teacher village has two primary purposes – to recruit and retain more teachers and also to encourage economic development.

    “If you live in Columbia, you drive by 15 schools every day. It’s harder to retain people if they are constantly traveling from Lexington, Columbia or Rock Hill,” Green told Fairfield County Council members on Oct. 22.

    “Imagine 70 people living here making $50,000 a year,” Green added. “That’s a $3 million impact to our community, people going to our restaurants, going to our grocery stores, going to our pharmacies.”

    At Monday night’s council meeting, Fairfield County residents speaking during public input held a different view.

    One of them was Lake Wateree resident Jeff Morris, who said even if the Teacher Village fills with teachers, only a small percentage of Fairfield teachers would actually be living there.

    Morris also questioned the motives of hedge fund owners, who in exchange for a seven-year tax abatement, would finance and maintain the development.

    “It would seem to me that if these properties do not house teachers or first responders, then the abatement shouldn’t be available,” he said. “Otherwise we’re giving a public benefit for a private enterprise for no return to the public. I would urge you to be very careful about how you agree to that.”

    Ridgeway resident Randy Bright agreed.

    “The first speaker on the teacher village was spot on. You should be very, very cautious,” Bright said, emphasizing the second ‘very.’

    As proposed, the Teacher Village would be built on 11 acres of land the district owns behind the district office off U.S. 321 Bypass in Winnsboro.

    The idea is to provide low cost housing for teachers, with rents ranging from $600 to $900 a month. However, only teachers would qualify for the discounted rents, made possible through taxpayer funded subsidies from the state.

    If the development isn’t fully populated with teachers, housing would become available to district office staff, followed by first responders. They would not qualify for the subsidy and would pay $900 to $1,200 a month in rent, district officials have said.

    The Teacher Village property is part of a larger parcel that also includes the district office. The district acquired the land from the S.C. Department of Transportation, which deeded the land to the district in 2013 for $5, according to Fairfield County property records.