City school board planning session examines school safety, Title I funds
By FULLER ROYAL
Staff Writer
Editor’s note: A Jan. 18 article on the Whiteville City Schools’ planning retreat covered the Board of Education’s discussion of the SAT, multi-level classrooms and block scheduling at the high school. Today’s story covers several topics not included in the first story.
During the Whiteville City Schools Board of Education planning session, Chairman Carlton Prince asked how Title I funds are being used.
Title I funds are the largest chunk of federal dollars that school systems receive. No Child Left Behind is tied directly to these funds.
Accountability demands are made by the federal government on any school that receives these funds.
School systems are given flexibility in how they are used, as long as the end result is an improvement in reading and math scores.
Prince said that the million dollars in Title I funds received by the city schools need to be used for remediation at earlier grades.
“I feel we need to use the money to beef up the skills of children who haven’t mastered reading and math,” Prince said. Prince favors targeting the funds to pecific students who need the help.
Cindy Williamson, assistant superintendent in charge of curriculum and accountability, said that if the funds are targeted, then the school system would no longer be able to use Title I money for some of the teaching positions at Whiteville Primary, Edgewood Elementary and Central Middle schools.
Williamson said Title I funds also pay for tutors, Compass Lab software, supplies, remediation and set-asides for professional development.
A portion of Title I money must be used for professional staff development. Williamson said the pre-school program is also based on Title I funding.
Williamson said that targeted student programs are basically pullout programs where students are pulled from their regular classrooms for one-on-one or small group assistance.
Superintendent Danny McPherson said that teachers detest the pullout programs because of classroom interruptions.
“The teachers don’t find it very effective,” Williamson said.
Prince said he wants to make sure that every dollar is spent to maximum benefit.
“We can spend 10 cents but one time,” he said, adding that he would like to ask the teachers what they would like to do.
The session then turned to safety and discipline in the schools.
“Central Middle School is on top of our minds,” board member Jim DiMuzio said.
The neighborhood park behind Central has been an on-going problem for the city schools.
There have been shootings in the park during sporting events, plus a savage beating last year that left a Whiteville High School student hospitalized with critical injuries.
The school system adjusted the schedule of its campus police officer to cover after-school events.
Board members asked McPherson about the status of a potential meeting between the city school board and the city council.
McPherson said that the city wants the new city manager, Joshua Ray, to come on board first.
DiMuzio said that the city doesn’t need to “dump on us.” He said that safety around the school is one of the city’s pri-mary functions.
DiMuzio suggested clearing the brush from around the park, adding lights and increasing the police department’s budget.
“They don’t have enough officers,” he said. “The fact that they say they don’t have enough money is not going to fly.”
Board member Greg Merritt asked if the school system could contribute to an off-campus officer to patrol the neighborhood streets.
“I’m not going to ask the school board to beef up the security patrol around my house,” DiMuzio said. “I’ve seen Dr. McPherson plead for help from the council only to have it thrown back in his face.”
DiMuzio said that members of the council tried to blame the school for “failing” the people involved in the drugs, shootings and beatings.
He said public pressure should be brought to bear on the council if it’s not willing to do its job.
“We all sit here, tell them there’s a problem and then nothing happens,” he said.
Prince said that the area of concern goes far beyond the park.
McPherson said that the police department has been more vigilant and the number of complaints he has received has dropped.
DiMuzio brought up the traffic pattern at Whiteville Primary School during the pickup and drop-off of students.
“Barbcrest Road is a disas-ter,” DiMuzio said. “It really needs to be one way.”
“We deal with a traffic issue at every school,” McPherson said. “
“They do an incredible job,” DiMuzio said. “That volume with little time and little space.”
DiMuzio next asked that more female adults be associated with female sports teams.
He said that adult females needed to be with the female athletes during all events, practices and trips.
McPherson said it’s supposed to be that way now.
“We compensate a gender liaison with all female sports,” he said. “They are supposed to be at all practices and games. I need to know if a female adult is not there.”
Merritt brought up the school system’s dress code and remarked how well it’s working.
“I think it has gone well this year,” he said. “The attitude of the students has been better because of the dress code; teachers are giving credit for that to the dress code.”
Merritt said when people ask if a uniform policy is going to be instituted he tells them no, because the students have lived up to the requirements of the dress code.
“The feedback I have had has been very positive,” McPherson said.
Prince worries that the sys-tem might be letting its guard down. “I am afraid it’s being relaxed,” he said. “When the code is enforced, I think it is making a big difference. It was accepted better that I expected it to be.”
“Our children rose to the occasion,” McPherson said.
“They did what they were asked to do and I don’t see the need to put them in uniforms,” Merritt said.
DiMuzio asked about North Whiteville Academy.
“What’s the policy for going there?” he said.
“North Whiteville Academy is not your standard alternative school,” McPherson said. Alternative schools are often seen as dumping grounds for behavior problems. Ours is as inclusive as it can be.”
McPherson said the school is designed for students in grades six through 12 who need structured learning alternatives and for students needing to recover courses or grades.
“It’s also for children with behavioral issues who need another setting,” he said. “They have been disruptive to a classroom or school environment.”
McPherson said students are there for a semester or a year, depending on the infraction.
“It has made a lot of positive difference,” he said. “I have seen it succeed. It strengthens the learning at Central Middle School and at Whiteville High School.”
McPherson said that NWA serves a wide range of children in many ways. He said he feels better about having the most chronic offenders out of the middle and high schools.
McPherson said that the new ReDirect program has been a more effective program than last year’s out-of-school suspension.
“Teachers need civility in the classroom,” DiMuzio said. “”I don’t know what we need to do – something to help control some of these disruptive stu-dents.”
McPherson said that CMS Principal Beverly Boone reports that discipline at her school is the best it has ever been.
“I think we’re getting there,” McPherson said. “It’s better. The number of parents I have had to deal with on discipline matters is the lowest I have had in six years.”
“You’re not just punishing,” Prince said., “You’re trying to redirect the behavior of children.”
Prince said he thinks the ReDirect program has done well.”
On the agenda for discussion, but inadvertently omitted was the possible restoration of the minimum grade point average for extra curricular activities at WHS.