March 24 Board Meeting Results

At a meeting of the school board on the above date, the board . . .

u approved Richard W. Pickering, Sr., as the Accelerated Studies Coordinator at Sunset Park Elementary and Jason O. Mabry as an assistant principal at Saluda Trail Middle School. Both will start on July 1. The vote was 6-0 (Reid was absent);

u the board was recognized by Sherry East, a teacher at the Phoenix Academy, and Mary Keith, a teacher at Rawlinson Road Middle, on behalf of the York County Education Assn. Ms. East and Ms. Keith complimented the board on its connectedness with the Assn. and for its efforts to provide outstanding learning opportunities for students.

u recognized students Maggie Adkins, from Lesslie Elementary, and Austin Abel, from Saluda Trail Middle, on their selection as district winners of the 2008 Lt. Governor's writing contests.

u approved the consent agenda by a 6-0 vote...
4 minutes of the February 25 and March 10 meetings of the board;
4 personnel recommendations;
4 a request from the World Changers organization to use district facilities during their summer visit to Rock Hill.

u heard Supt. Moody make the following announcements:
4 The Renaissance Academy opened on Monday, March 17, at the Rock Hill Flexible Learning Center with 17 students and Jamie Quinn as director. The program offers excluded or expelled students with an opportunity to continue earning high school credit so they may return to school on a better track toward graduation.

4 The district's annual Teacher Recruitment Fair will be held on Saturday, March 29, at Saluda Trail Middle School, between the hours of 8:30 and 12:30.

4 The spring meeting of school improvement councils will be held from 7:00-8:30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 1, in the Cyber Cafe at the Rock Hill Flexible Learning Center.

4 Orientation for parents and fifth-grade students who will be in grade six next year will be held in all middle schools at 6:30 p.m. on April 1. Parents should look for a formal announcement from their child's school.

4 The last late start date this year will be held on Wednesday, April 2. All schools will open on a two-hour delay. Parents who need to drop off their children earlier than the regular start time need to notify their child's principal on or before March 31.

4 All schools and the district office will be closed for spring break, April 7-11.
4 The next work session of the school board will be held on Monday, April 14, at Old Pointe Elementary. The meeting will begin at 5:30 in the media center.

4 Members of the School Choice Committee will be holding their first meeting from 4:00-5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 22, in the Training Room in the District Office. The district will be asking for SIC volunteers to be on the committee at the April 1 meeting.

Their challenge is to review school choice policies and develop a policy for Rock Hill Schools. In addition, the committee will review school choice options on an annual basis.

The 15 members of the committee are:
¡ District Office administrators: Luanne Kokolis, Harriet Jaworowski, Sheila Huckabee, and Rich Melzer
¡ School Bus Transportation: Anthony White
¡ School Board: Jim Vining
¡ Principals: Stephen Ward, Linda Crute, Tammy White, Chris Beard, Brenda Campbell
¡ Business Community: Wayne Wingate and David Casey
¡ City of Rock Hill Planning Dept.: Frances Thomas
¡ York County Planning Dept.: Susan Britt
4 The district's Retirement Banquet will be held on Friday evening, May 30, beginning at
7:00. The location will be determined once we know the number of retirees. Board members are requested to put this date on their calendar.

u watched a presentation on the Ed Line software package (http://www.edline.com/) being piloted at Northwestern High School. This package provides parents with access to their child's schedules, assignments, attendance, and grades via the school's website. It will be implemented at South Pointe and at Rock Hill High in the fall. Cost to the District is $2 per student.

u watched a demonstration on the Waypoint Visitor Management System (http://products.isc365.com/avcat/CTL3516/index.cfm?mlc_id=3892&pin_id=3516&ProdID=429218) that is now operational in all schools. Collaboration Coordinator Serena Williams stated that the system has several benefits, other than monitoring visitors, which include the calculation of volunteer hours in each school. Cost to the District is $1200 per school with a small yearly maintenance fee.

u received the results of the safe and drug-free survey which was given to 7th, 9th, and 11th grade students. On a voluntary basis, students responded to questions related to school safety and the use of alcohol, tobacco and drugs. An interesting statistic from the data was class size. The ninth grade class was 29% larger than the 7th grade class and 50% larger than the 11th grade class. Overall, our district's numbers were on par with national numbers.

u previewed the new design of the district's website. The purpose of the redesign is to provide access to needed information while establishing a standardization throughout the district. The launch of the new design will begin in a couple of weeks. Cyberwoven (http://cyberwoven.com/) is the company doing the design work.

u heard an overview of opportunities for students during the summer for enrichment and remediation at the elementary, middle, and high school levels. Contact your school for more information;

u heard Board Chairman Bob Norwood review topics discussed at the board's work session on March 10. Items included a request from the World Changers Organization to use South Pointe facilities during their stay in the summer; a discussion on a school choice policy; and a discussion (and vote) on approving Sunset Park as the Center for Accelerated Studies and to change the calendar from year round to traditional.

u approved second reading of policies IJOB (Community Resource Persons/Speakers), IJOC (School Volunteers), and KGBA (Student Mentoring Program) - vote was 6-0.