Blythewood Online 691

Category: Schools

  • Hamm Takes Top R2 Job

    Dr. Debbie Hamm

    Dr. Debbie Hamm, who had been serving as Interim Superintendent since the abrupt June 13 departure of former Superintendent Katie Brochu, accepted an employment contract valid thru June 2015 for an annual salary of $199,000. The motion to approve the terms was accepted 6-1 at the Richland 2 School Board meeting Tuesday night at Polo Road Elementary School. Board member Monica Elkins-Johnson voted nay on the grounds that the Board was moving hastily and did not go through a formal interview or national search. Assenting Board members cited longevity, understanding of Richland 2 culture, willingness to expand collaboration and the renewal of joy in the District as considerations for offering the permanent role to Hamm. At the end of the contract, a national search will be conducted and Hamm has the opportunity to put her name in the hat for continued consideration. Hamm told the audience that she is “grateful and it will be a privilege to serve as your superintendent.” She was met with a standing ovation from the audience.

    Board adopts plan for Lake Carolina Elementary

    A student assignment plan was decided for Lake Carolina Elementary and its newly built partner school just two blocks away, Elementary #19. All students living in the Lake Carolina neighborhood and students in the Ashland neighborhood will attend the two schools with Lake Carolina housing kindergarten through second grade and Elementary #19 housing the upper grades third thru fifth. Elkins-Johnson didn’t support the plan because, she said, she wasn’t comfortable that Lake Carolina teachers could adequately prepare children for third grade under this system. She also voiced concerns that “this establishes a private school in a public school setting.” Board member Melinda Anderson made no comment but also voted against the approved plan. Board member James Manning sees this decision as a new, modern tool for the District in making attendance choices. Board member Chip Jackson told the public that the principals for the two schools located just two blocks apart are proven academic leaders and the opportunity for deep collaboration is exciting for the students.

    Melinda Anderson in the news

    Perhaps what garnered the most discussion was what was not discussed at the Board meeting – the recent allegations in the news that Board member Melinda Anderson verbally threatened Westwood High School’s head football coach Rodney Summers. Jackson, in closing comments, alluded to this when he gave praise for Chairman Bill Fleming’s excellent leadership for the past month during turbulence within the Board. Prior to the meeting and after the meeting, the audience was expectant that the situation with Anderson would be addressed, but no mention was made. In the recent weeks, Anderson is alleged in a report filed with a Richland County deputy to have threatened to kill her grandson’s football coach and stating that she had a gun. Top executives in the District were present during the reported incident and identified as witnesses to the alleged comments. Anderson denies the comments and says it is beneath her to address such “foolishness.” More recently there have been news reports that a friend was sent by Anderson to the football field to witness Summers’ football practice. A scene allegedly ensued and the School Resource Office, who is also a Richland County deputy, was called to file a complaint report. The District’s students who make threats of bodily harm, meanwhile, routinely face stiff disciplinary action and even expulsion.

    The next Board meeting is nearly a month away, Dec. 10, at Blythewood High School.

  • High Court to Hear Mitford Appeal

    WINNSBORO – The long and expensive battle between the Fairfield and Chester county school districts is finally nearing its conclusion, as the Fairfield County School District was notified last week that the S.C. Supreme Court will hear the appeal in the dispute over which district should pay to educate the approximately 200 students living in the Mitford community in Fairfield County but attending Chester County schools.

    Beth Reid (District 7), Chairwoman of the Fairfield County School Board, announced the high court’s decision to hear the appeal at Tuesday night’s Board meeting at Fairfield Middle School. The State Supreme Court will hear the case on Nov. 7 at 9:30 a.m. in Columbia. The hearing is open to the public, Reid said. Armand Derfner, a Constitutional lawyer from Charleston, has represented Fairfield County Schools since the District originally filed suit in 2010 in an effort to overturn local legislation introduced by State Sen. Creighton Coleman (D-17) mandating that the payment policy, which had stood since 1972, continue.

    In July 2012, Fifth Circuit Court Judge J. Ernest Kinard ruled in favor of Chester County and released nearly $2 million in back payments, which had been accruing with the Fairfield County Treasurer since the start of the 2009-2010 school year. A month later, the Fairfield School Board voted 5-2 to appeal the ruling. Board members Henry Miller (District 3), Andrea Harrison (District 1) and Annie McDaniel (District 4) voted for the appeal, as did then Board members Marchella Pauling and Danielle Miller. Reid and Board member Bobby Cunningham (District 5) voted against.

    Mitford students live within a 15-minute bus ride from the Chester schools in Great Falls, while a bus ride to Fairfield schools takes several hours each way. From 1972 to 2007, Fairfield paid Chester County $25,000 a year to cover the cost of educating the approximately 200 Mitford children in Chester schools. When those payments abruptly stopped under then Superintendent Samantha Ingram and then Chairwoman Catherine Kennedy, Coleman stepped in to negotiate a deal between the districts. In early 2010, an agreement had been struck to bring the payments up to date, but after sending $50,000 to Chester, Fairfield again ceased payments. Coleman then introduced local legislation to ensure the continuation of the payments. Coleman’s bill (S.1405) called for Fairfield to annually pay Chester 103 percent of Chester’s prior year per-pupil cost for each Mitford student enrolled in Chester schools.

    The District filed suit in July of 2010, claiming that the legislation was unconstitutional in that it conflicted with general law as set forth by Article III, Section 34 of the S.C. State Constitution, where local legislation is prohibited when a general law may apply, or when lawmakers have a “logical basis” for the legislation.

    In his ruling, Judge Kinard noted that Article III “generally prohibits special legislation where a general law can be made to apply,” but also said that “the prohibition of special legislation is not absolute, and special legislation is not unconstitutional where the General Assembly has a logical basis and sound reason for resorting to special legislation.”

    Kinard’s ruling stated that the Fairfield County School District “presented no evidence” that the General Assembly had abused its discretion in enacting this special legislation. The ruling also stated that the General Assembly did, in fact, have “a logical basis and sound reason” for enacting this special law.

    Kinard also said that, based on Fairfield County’s local per student funding level of $8,875 versus Chester County’s local per student funding level of $3,452, Chester County Schools are “not unduly profiting” from the arrangement and Fairfield County Schools are not being “unreasonably burdened.”

    “(The Fairfield County School District) is actually spending over $5,000 less per student than its per student revenue,” the ruling states.

    At the time the Board voted to appeal the ruling, Cunningham estimated that the District had spent more than $300,000 fighting the case. Current estimates on that cost were not available at press time.

  • Parents Want More Info on New School

    Public participation was heavy at the Richland 2 School Board meeting at Longleaf Middle School Tuesday evening, with several Lake Carolina residents speaking of the need for more information before they could cast a vote for their choice of elementary schools. Elementary School #19, opening next fall, is a short walk from Lake Carolina Elementary School. The District is considering offering kindergarten through second grade at Lake Carolina and third through fifth grade at the new school. The second consideration would be to open both schools with kindergarten through fifth grade. Lake Carolina Development President David Tuttle has solicited input from Lake Carolina residents (even those without children in the schools), residents of the Ashland neighborhood who border Elementary #19 and other families currently in the Lake Carolina attendance area. Because some students currently attending Round Top Elementary will be affected, the District Planning Department will contact those parents for their feedback. At the next Board meeting, the attendance lines for each proposal, logistics for walking, bus routes, start times and the educational benefits of one school over the other will be presented.

    Last year, in an effort to streamline fees, the Board evaluated activity fees for middle and high school students to ensure that they were uniform across the district. Additional fees for the older students (lab fees, activity fees for career and technology classes, athletic participation fees, music/band fees, etc.) were also evaluated. A high school parent expressed concern that cheerleader participation fees were $700 and after a month of culinary classes and the payment of that regular activity fee, her daughter was asked to pay $56 for a uniform and the following week to purchase specific shoes. These unexpected fees, she said, make it difficult for a family on a budget.

    The proposal to equip security personnel with pepper spray was tabled after three meetings when it became apparent to Board members that there could be no guarantee that the spray would not be used on a student.

    The importance of third-graders reading at grade level is one of the greatest indicators of achievement in high school and beyond. Jeff Potts, Director of Accountability & Evaluation, told the Board that up until third grade, students are learning to read and that after third grade, they are reading to learn. A number of issues were discussed in this regard. While 86.2 percent of students in third grade read at grade level, 14 percent are not. Eighty percent of those not third-grade proficient receive free or reduced price lunch. Poverty has a great impact on student achievement and is a focus in the district goal of learning. While a larger number of students in the district are reading in recent years, reading at grade level has gone down for fourth- and fifth-graders. The factors for this decline are being assessed by Potts and his staff, and a report is expected at the next Board meeting, Oct. 22 at Pontiac Elementary School.

  • BHS Beats State, R2 Averages

    Westwood Lags Behind on EOC Exams

    RICHLAND – Blythewood High School scored above the district average on each of the four End of Course tests in 2013 and above the state average on three of four tests, while Westwood scored below the district and state averages on each of the four tests, according to data released by the S.C. Department of Education last week. The End-of-Course Examination Program (EOCEP) provides tests in high school core courses and for courses taken in middle school for high school credit. These four tests are Algebra 1/Math for the Technologies 2; Biology 1/ Applied Biology 2; English 1; and US History & Constitution.

    Algebra 1

    Blythewood High School students turned in an average score of 77.8 on their Algebra exams, with 21.9 percent earning As and Bs (scoring at 85 percent or higher). Blythewood High had an overall passing rate (scoring a D or better) of 82.3 percent. Westwood students, meanwhile, averaged a score of 73, with only 6.8 percent scoring A and B. Westwood had an overall passing rate of 66.2 percent. Both were below the Richland 2 average of 79.9, where 32.6 percent scored a B or higher and 84.6 percent scored D or higher. Statewide, average scores were 80.6, with a 41.1 percent overall passing rate and 37.1 scoring B or higher.

    Math scores reported for the high schools are impacted by scores from middle school students taking the Algebra EOC exam. Algebra is historically taken in high school, but students in middle school can do advanced math work and take algebra in middle school and receive high school credit for the course. All of the average scores for every Richland 2 middle school were above the district average. Blythewood Middle School, which feeds into Blythewood High, earned an average score of 91.8, with 85.3 percent of their students scoring an A or B with a 100 percent overall passing rate. Muller Road Middle, which feeds into Westwood High, had an average score of 82.6, with 38.5 percent of their students earning an A or B and 95 percent scoring D or better.

    Biology

    In Biology, Blythewood High scored slightly above the district average with a score of 82.5 and 47.8 percent scoring a B or higher. Blythewood turned in an overall passing rate of 82.2 percent, also above the district average of 79.6 percent. Westwood showed an average score of 77, with an overall passing rate of 71.9 percent and 28 percent scoring B or better. The Richland 2 average score was 81.2, with a 79.6 percent passing rate and 42.8 percent scoring A or B. The statewide average score in Biology was 81.3, with a 78.3 percent passing rate and 44 percent scoring B or better.

    English

    Blythewood also bested the district and state averages in English, while Westwood was not far off the mark. Blythewood tallied an average score of 81.5 in English, with an overall passing rate of 86.7 percent and 36.9 percent scoring B or higher. Westwood averaged 77 on the exam, with an overall passing rate of 66.4 percent and 16.2 percent scoring A and B. Statewide, the average score was 77.9 in 2013, with an overall passing rate of 77.3 percent and 18.2 percent scoring B or higher. The Richland 2 average score was 77.7, with an overall passing rate of 76.5 percent and 27.8 percent scoring A and B.

    History

    In U.S. History and the Constitution, Blythewood earned an average score of 76, above the state average of 72.7 and the district average of 72.9. Blythewood students had an overall passing rate of 78.7 percent, with 17.4 percent earning As and Bs. Statewide, the overall passing rate was 60.6 percent, with 13.3 percent scoring B or higher, while in Richland 2, the overall passing rate was 63.9 percent with 11.5 percent scoring B or better. Westwood showed an average score of 69.7, with an overall passing rate of 50.9 percent and only 4.1 percent scoring B or higher.

    Contributing Factors

    Learning is one of the four focus squares recently identified by Richland 2 Superintendent Debbie Hamm. Last week while reporting on SAT and ACT scores, Hamm told The Voice that several factors that contribute to academic achievement within the district are transience (20 percent turnover every two years) and increasing poverty. Understanding the factors that play into achievement and not allowing them to become excuses for both the district and students have been important as the district laid out a proactive plan for the 2013-2014 school year.

    While published research supports the need for addressing the impact that poverty has on learning, Richland 2 is a study in itself. The Richland 2 School District has a poverty rate of 47.48 percent; Blythewood High School, 32 percent; Blythewood Middle, 31 percent; Westwood High, 53 percent; and Muller Road Middle, 44 percent.

    Poverty and transience are being tackled head-on with professional development from the Frances Marion University Center for Excellence. The Center focuses teaching district personnel the facets of poverty and how to teach students of poverty so that they can achieve academically. The addition of social workers in the district will work to erase learning obstacles like hunger, medical needs and deficient family dynamics.

    James Denton contributed to this story.

  • SAT Scores Down for Second Straight Year

    FAIRFIELD – After experiencing a 78-point jump in 2011, Fairfield County SAT scores dropped for the second straight year. The average composite score for Fairfield County students taking the standardized test fell 20 points in 2013, after falling 27 points in 2012. The number of students taking the SAT grew, from 62 test takers (30 percent) in 2012 to 70 (41 percent) in 2013. In 2011, the year scores soared 78 points, only 42 students (22 percent) took the test.

    Average scores were down across the board in the tested subject areas of Critical Reading, Math and Writing. In 2013, the average score in Critical Reading was 400, down from 409 in 2012. Math scores fell from 418 in 2012 to 409 in 2013, and Writing scores were down from 395 in 2012 to 393 in 2013. The average composite score for Fairfield students fell from 1222 in 2012 to 1202 in 2013.

    The average SAT composite score for all South Carolina graduating seniors was 1436, an increase of five points from 2012. The national average for all students held constant with a score of 1498. In South Carolina, the average Critical Reading score was 484, Math was 487 and Writing was 465; compared to the national average for all schools of 496, 514 and 488.

    “Like the other college admission test ACT, the SAT is not a measure of school effectiveness,” State Superintendent of Education Mick Zais said. “However, within the student population taking the SAT is another data point confirming a troubling trend: there is a wide reading gap between South Carolina and the nation.”