Cover Girl - Denise Khaalid

Denise Khaalid, the National Asst. High School Principal of the Year (from South Pointe), is featured on the front cover of the Sept. 2012 edition of Principal Leadership, which is a magazine published by the National Assn. of Secondary School Principals. Denise looks absolutely fabulous and represents our district with distinction. 

Online Learning - The Future of Education?

Click here for a link to the video.

Will Technology Engage Students?

Will Technology help you to engage students? That is an interesting question. Bill Ferriter doesn't think so as he explains in his blog post on Smartblog on Education:

Social Media in Education

Are kids really motivated by technology?

By Bill Ferriter on August 17th, 2012 | Comment on this post

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As a guy who delivers two-day #edtech workshops during my breaks from full-time classroom teaching, I’m often asked the same questions again and again: How can teachers use technology to motivate students? What digital tools do kids like best?

My answer often catches participants by surprise: You can’t motivate students with technology because technology alone isn’t motivating. Worse yet, students are almostalways ambivalent toward digital tools. While you may be completely jazzed by the interactive whiteboard in your classroom or the wiki that you just whipped up, your kids could probably care less.

Need proof?

Early in my technology integration efforts, I set up a blog for my students, introduced it excitedly to every class, and proceeded to get exactly zero posts in the first two months of its existence despite my near-constant begging and pleading. If technology was inherently motivating, my students would have been completely consumed by our classroom blog, willingly writing and sharing their thoughts at all hours of the day, right?

But they weren’t, and my grand blogging experiment died before it ever really began.

The lesson I learned was a simple one: Technology, as Dina Strasser likes to say, is a motivational red herring. While kids may initially love technology-inspired lessons in schools simply because they are different from the paper-driven work that tends to define traditional classrooms, the novelty of new tools wears off a lot quicker than digital cheerleaders like to admit.

What students are really motivated by are opportunities to be social — to interact around challenging concepts in powerful conversations with their peers. They are motivated by issues connected to fairness and justice. They are motivated by the important people in their lives, by the opportunity to wrestle with the big ideas rolling around in their minds, and by the often-troubling changes they see happening in the world around them.

Technology’s role in today’s classroom, then, isn’t to motivate. It’s to give students opportunities to efficiently and effectively participate in motivating activities built around the individuals and ideas that matter to them.

Popular classroom tools such as VoiceThread don’t excite kids — but the kinds of content-driven, asynchronous conversations between peers that they enable, do. Websites such as Kiva aren’t motivating — but the real-world exposure to the impact of poverty on people in the developing world that they enable, is. Services such as Twitter are simple in-and-of themselves — but the opportunity to quickly sort and search for filtered resources connected to almost any topic matters to today’s learners.

Basically what I’m arguing is that finding ways to motivate students in our classrooms shouldn’t start with conversations about technology. Instead, it should start with conversations about our kids. What are they deeply moved by? What are they most interested in? What would surprise them? Challenge them? Leave them wondering? Once you have the answers to these questions — only after you have the answers to these questions — are you ready to make choices about the kinds of digital tools that are worth embracing.

Like many accomplished educators, Bill Ferriter (@plugusin) wears a ton of professional hats. He’s a Solution Tree author and presenter, an accomplished blogger and a senior fellow in the Teacher Leaders Network. He checks all of those titles at the door each morning, though, when he walks into his classroom.

Example of Using IPAD in the Classroom

Click here for a link to the video.

Home School Video Looks A Lot Like Project Based Schooling

Click here for a link to the video.

Notes From Rock Hill School Board Business Meeting

These are my notes from the Monday, August 27, 2012 Rock Hill School Board Business Meeting:
The board took action on these items:

• Approved the agenda and consent agenda with a 7-0 vote. The consent agenda included meeting minutes, personnel recommendations from the administration, and 6 facility rental requests.
• Approved Policy BE for second and final reading with a 7-0 vote.
• Approved Policy JICJ for second and final reading with a 7-0 vote.
• Approved hiring consultant Dr. Dempsey Worner for a November 29, 2012 work session at a cost not to exceed $3,000 and to hire the SC School Board Association for a 1st or 2nd quarter work session at a cost not to exceed $500. Vote was 6-0 with Norwood abstaining because he will not be on the board.

The board received a communication from Mr. Melvin Poole and Mr. Randy Hope about concerns some district employees were being treated unfairly. Click here to read the write-up in Tuesday's Rock Hill Herald.

The board recognized the following:

• The individual school teachers of the year and the district-wide teacher of the year.
• Board member Dr. Jane Sharp for reaching another level of board member professional development.
• The 12 new energy star schools in the district bringing the total to 13, the most that any district in South Carolina has. Rock Hill had the first elementary school, middle school and high school to reach this designation. The Energy Star program was started by the EPA in 1992 to encourage energy efficiency and represents a 35% reduction in energy usage for a comparable school. The school district has 6 more schools which are in the process of getting certification.

The board received reports as follows:

• A video showing back to school activities
• A presentation on a new web site the district will be switching to in a couple of months
• A report on initiatives the new food service group has already started for this year.
• An IROCK update.
• A report on community involvement for school volunteering and the efforts to fund school supplies, shoes and clothes, and  IPAD's.
• A report on the summer reading program conducted at many of our schools.
• A report from the Superintendent on goals for this year.

Why Public Education?

From Diane Ravitch's blog:

What Is the Public Purpose of Public Education?

August 16, 2012 //

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In case you have forgotten how to answer that question;

In case you are befuddled by the nonstop attacks on public schools and those who teach in them;

In case you don’t remember the history of education in the past fifty years:

Please read this statement on “The Public Purpose of Public Education”by Jan Resseger.

It is one of the best, most concise summaries of the issues facing public education and our society today.

Please share it with your elected officials.

Please share it with those who are responsible for our schools today.

Rock Hill Teachers - Should You Ignor the IPADS

From the Learning in Burlington Blog:

Ignore The iPads! - Looking Back At Year One of 1:1 (with iPads) Part 7

The most common question we get regarding our 1:1 initiative (with (iPads) is - What apps do you recommend?

While I understand that it seems like  a logical question, I hate it. The reason for my disdain is that the focus of educators should be on outcomes first and not on devices or apps.  Before we can answer the app question, we need to have a bit more information about what the goals are for the class and how the teacher would like to facilitate the lesson (i.e. will students work independently or collaboratively).

So when it comes to the iPad, there are over 225,000 apps in the App Store. I am not going to even get into the discussion that we should stay away from becoming app-dependent and focus on digital resources that are free and will work on an platform. (I'll leave that for a future post).

Instead, we'll stay on the topic of not using technology for technology-sake.  We need to be careful with all of the excitement over bringing shiny new devices into our schools that we do not put gadgets before goals.

Here's a post from BHS English/Tech Integration teacher Tim Calvin (@nothingfuture on Twitter) that nails down this point clearly (from TimCalvin.com):

I ignore iPads. 

It’s true- I do.  Let’s sort this out, though. 

I like iPads a lot. They’re not the only decent device anymore, but they’re very good, and they’re not too expensive. Blah blah blah.  I love that my students have a device with them all the time. I can’t imagine teaching without it, at this point. I’d cry (and debate a change in location/profession) if they were taken away or banned. 

All that said, people keep asking me “how I use the iPads in the classroom.” And the answer- the honest truth in the answer- is that I mostly ignore them. The device isn’t the point. I’d never try to shoehorn a device (or tech of any sort) into a lesson. That’s all sorts of backwards. The tech lubricates the lesson. It allows things that weren’t possible before. It allows things to happen quickly. It smoothes the road. So when I design lessons, I just factor in the myriad things that students can now do. It’s like a bunch more colors got added to my pallet and the pictures I’m painting are that much more vivid. I simply factor into the plan that research/writing/notes/web work can all happen on the fly. That collaboration on an essay is not only possible, but is normal. That data isn’t lost. That the classroom can extend far beyond the 43 minutes I have. 

But I don’t know that I’ve ever told students to open a specific app. I know I’ve never demanded that they have an app. I know that I don’t really care about the apps that they have- just that they have apps that work for them to accomplish the tasks that I need them to do. 

I know what I’m talking about here is specific to High School. That’s what I do, and that’s likely to remain the focus here.

I think this point is relative to all levels and I think it's something we need to reiterate.

Thanks Tim!

History of Time

Click here for a link to the video.

Rock Hill School Board Business Meeting on Monday

Meeting of the Board of Trustees 
Monday, August 27, 2012
6:00 p.m. – District Office Board Room
A G E N D A
   I.   Call to Order
 Approval of Agenda (Under consent agenda, all action items will be voted on after one motion and second to approve them without  discussion.  If a board member wants any action item discussed or voted on separately, the board member, before the agenda is approved, must ask that the action item be moved to the discussion item section.)

II.    Special Business
   A. Recognition of Energy Star Schools
   B. Recognition of Teachers of the Year
   C. Recognition of Dr. Jane Sharp

III. Citizen Participation

IV.    Consent Action Agenda
    A. Approval of Minutes
      1.  June 11, 2012 work session
      2.  June 25, 2012 business meeting
      3.  July 16, 2012 called business meeting
      4.  July 23, 2012 special business meeting
      5.  August 13, 2012 work session
   B. Approval of Personnel Recommendations
   C.  Approval of Use of Facilities Requests (5)
   D.  Approval of New Use of Facilities Request – Summit Church

  V.    Communications – Mr. Melvin Poole
   
 VI.  Report of the Superintendent
   A.  Announcements
   B.  Opening of School
   C.   Cyberwoven Demo
   D.  Food Services Update
   E.  iRock Update
   F.   2011-12 Community Report
   G.   Summer Reading
   H.   Performance Goals

 VII. Review of Work Session

VIII.    Action Agenda  
    A.  Approval of Policy BE – 2nd Reading
    B.  Approval of Policy JICJ – 2nd Reading
    C.  Approval of Facilitator for Board Retreat
     
  IX.    Other Business
 
   X.    Adjournment  

More Tips For Technology Implementation

Some comments on innovating education are worth repeating with our initiative toward using IPADS in our schools. Particularly item 2 and 6.

From the Innovations in Education blog:

Six Big Ideas for Educational Technology Leaders

15082012

Response to the  Leadership Day 2012 Challenge

I have had the opportunity to participate in some pretty great professional development recently, and so I’ve decided to share the highlights here and how I believe they apply to effective leadership strategies.

1. Identify your vision – and share it with your stakeholders.  Keep checking your goals and initiatives to make sure they are on track to move towards your vision. Just like in good instructional design, design your initiatives to meet your learning goals.  Without vision, confusion results, and your ability to be an effective leader is diminished.
2. Continuously model lifelong learning through the technology tools available today.  A leader in educational technology should be participating in a personal learning network, learning the way that our students learn and benefiting from the ideas and resources shared in this environment. If you don’t understand as a learner the power of social media, then  how can you lead others in helping students to tap into this vast resource?
3. Change “yes, but” to “what if?”  In this era of high stakes testing, there are always reasons not to try something new or apply what you have learned to make positive changes in the realm of student learning. It is easy to fall back on the “old ways” of schooling – and then technology becomes just another delivery method.  Stay focused on your vision, trust in what you have learned, and help your stakeholders to think outside the box –or better yet, build a whole new box!
4. Be a designer of learning.   Think like a designer!  Architects follow building code just as teachers should follow standards – but think how far beyond code an archtict goes in designing living spaces that are functional. Really, they go way beyond functional to make them personalized and appealing. This is what technology has the potential to do in transforming learning – by following the code and applying the principles of good design. In designing learning, the focus must be on the learning goals. Then, align the assessments with those goals, and begin to envision how technology can transform that learning experience. (Special thanks to Grant Wigginsfor sharing this concept and “What if” concept above!)
5. Be willing to take a risk, fail, and learn from it. Margaret Elizabeth Taylorstates in her dissertation  Teaching Efficacy, Innovation, School Culture and Teacher Risk Taking that “support for risk taking enhances organizational ability to overcome obstacles through adaptation and experimentation, allowing for continued effort toward implementation despite failures and setbacks encountered along the way.”  Just as we are understanding the importance of allowing students to fail on their pursuit of understanding and mastery, we need to allow this for ourselves as we strive to re-invent schools to increase student motivation and learning.
6. Practice what you preach Connected educational technology leaders understand the potential of blended learning and personalized learning to transform teaching and learning for students.  But what about professional development?  We need to apply these same strategies when we offer professional development for teachers.  Teach teachers the way you want teachers to teach students.

Should We Benchmark These Schools?

From Education Week:

20 Schools Innovating With Digital Tools

By Tom Vander Ark on August 15, 2012 7:00 AM | No comments

Co-written by Tom Vander Ark and Sarah Cargill 

Hans Renman in Stockholm (@tankom_hans) asked on Twitter, "Do you know any US schools that are REALLY using digital tools in an INTERESTING way for communication, marketing, or learning?" That tweet kicked off a few days of snooping around. Here is the list of 20 we came up with. We look forward to your additions! 

1. Show & Tell. High Tech High does a great job using video to showcase its unique project-based learning model schoolwide. Ninth graders produce a film festival. 

2. Visual math. About 1,400 schools use the visual game-based ST Math featuring JiJi the penguin. For example, the Orange County math initiative tripled math proficiency. 

3. Student motivation. Innosight's Heather Staker says Acton Academy in Austin puts motivation first. Acton turned to programs like Dreambox,Khan Academy, Mangahigh, and ST Math for high engagement. 

4. Classroom assessment. As featured in a recent Getting Smart blog, the staff at Leadership Public Schools in Oakland built Exit Ticket, a classroom assessment and competency tracking system. LPS is the best example of a collaborative and distributed innovation agenda across a network of schools. 

5. Adaptive learning. Public Schools (PS) 49 in Bronx, NY used i-Ready to provide differentiated and personalized instruction in a blended rotation model to build reading skills. Within just 14 weeks, more than three times as many students using i-Ready were scoring on or above grade level in reading. 

6. Flipped school. Greg Green is principal of Clintondale High School in Michigan. They flipped much of their instruction using content on Gooru. Learn more about Clintondale on The Flip Institute blog. 

7. Game-based learning. Quest to Learn (Q2L) is a game-based NYC middle school where kids learn through design and complex problem solving in a learning by doing environment. According to Q2L, classes are challenging, immersive, and game-like learning experiences for students. 

8. Portable learning. Gold medal gymnast Aly Raisman is a Florida Virtual School student and took her learning on the road. 

9. Competency-based learning.Flex model schools, like Silicon Valley Flex, use a digital curriculum to support individual progress. Kunskapsskolan, a Swedish school network, which was recently described in a Getting Smart blog, uses technology to support individual goal setting. See CompetencyWorks for more on this topic. 

10. Project-based learning. The 100-school Edvisions high schools use Project Foundry and a variety of tools to support project-based learning and authentic assessment. 

11. Augmented reality. Chris Dede at Harvard University is piloting augmented reality (AR) science field trips with Chappaqua, New York public schools. Read more about Dr. Dede's work on Getting Smart. (And, by the way, we are very enthusiastic about the potential of AR to turn a walk around the block into a powerful social studies, economics, history, as well as science field trip experience.) 

12. Personal Learning Network (PLN). New Milford High School Principal Eric Sheninger (@NMHS_Principal) learned a lot from his PLN. His network taught him to transform the way he communicates and the way the school interacts with the community. Read Eric's greatHuffingtonPost summary. 

13. Parent engagement. Rocketship Education's Facebook page is almost completely run by parents. Each school has a social media leader who is responsible for posting information, events, photos, and video for their school. (For more, Alision Anderson described 10 family engagement strategies in this Getting Smart blog.) 

14. Rich Multimedia. Rocketship Education fifth graders create a multi-page report and 5-minute presentation about a global challenge on Google Docs word processor and presentation programs with Chromebooks for laude, cum laude or summa cum laude recognition. With Google Docs, students also collaborate with peers and advisors across the country in real time on documents and email. 

15. Travel. THINK Global School students use the latest equipment to "record, report, and share their global education online as they travel the world." 

16. Challenge. NYC iSchool blends computer adaptive learning with challenges that require students to work together to present real solutions to real problems. 

17. Art. Ypsilanti New Tech students create 3-D designs on tablets, then turn the works into 2-D photo images, which they can add brush strokes to make digital art. 

18. Citizenship. New Tech Odessa leverages tech in a deep way. The school uses Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other mediums to build trust and teach social media responsibility and digital citizenship. 

19. PoliSci. Eagle Tech Academy created a New Tech Network-wide project titled #myparty12. This project asks each kid to create their own political party. Each party will have to defend a policy, create a 30 second campaign video, the top five will debate and eventually the debate will take place online. They will be using Echo, the New Tech PBL LMS, email, Google email and Google Docs to work collaboratively. Social media will play a large part in this project. It will be exciting to watch the twitter stream, Facebook pages and YouTube videos. 

20. Heart. Mooresville, North Carolina superintendent says, " It's not about the machine, it's about heart," but his students sure make great use of their MacBooks. The innovation in Mooresville is the system--expectations, culture, curriculum, tools, and support. 

Rock Hill School Board Member on Wednesday's Straight Talk

Straight Talk: 08/22/12 Ginny Moe

Posted August 22, 2012 1:08 pm, Modified: August 22, 2012 1:08 pm | Filed under Programming, Straight Talk
By Mike Crowder

Rock Hill School Board member Ginny Moe joins Manning Kimmel on WRHI's Straight Talk.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Comments on Our Race To The Top Grant Application

As a follow-up from our Rock Hill School Board Work session a week ago, I was the only Board member voicing enough concern about teacher evaluations (based on test scores) to suggest we shouldn't apply for Race To The Top grant money. Let me say, that I did not oppose 360 feedback and suggested we should begin that immediately for the board and administration. A fellow board member  pointed out the board gets evaluated every two years with an election, but that tends to be pass/fail and doesn't lend itself to continuous improvement. I should also say that I believe the evaluation process for teachers/principals/superintendents/board can be improved greatly - and we should be continuously working on that.

Bill Ferriter, on his blog site "The Tempered Radical" has some good comments about teacher evaluations which you can read by clicking here.

Michael Lucas, Superintendent of the Oconee County School District has an informative post on his blog, "Lucas' Blog", on the discussions going on in Columbia about teacher evaluations. Click here to read his post. There is also a discusion of the recent meeting in columbia on the SC Schools Report Blog. Click here to read.

The Answer Sheet has a good article on using teachers for teacher evaluations. Click here to read the article.

TLNT has an article on problems with 360 degree feedback. Click here to read the article.

The scary thing about using test data to evaluate teachers/principals/superintendents/schools, is that you need a good understanding of statistics to be able to make sound decisions. I have not met a politician, school board member, or administrator who has demonstrated anywhere near the level of statistical understanding to accomplish this - and these are the people who claim to be working on the new evaluation system. The wrong evaluation system can make things much worse. Is it worth potentially messing things up for a one time shot of money that will not be enough to make a significant difference in our schooling? 

Anyway, below is a better description of the process that is happening this fall for Race To The Top Grant money.

WASHINGTON -- Hoping to build on state-level reforms aimed at closing the education achievement gap, the Education Department opened its Race to the Top competition to school districts on Sunday, inviting the poorest districts across the country to vie for almost $400 million in grants.

Following four months of public comment on a draft proposal, the Education Department unveiled its final criteria for the district-level competition, which will award 15 to 25 grants to districts that have at least 2,000 students and 40 percent or more who qualify for free or reduced-cost lunches – a key poverty indicator.

Grants will range from $5 million to $40 million, depending on the size of the district.

"We want to help schools become engines of innovation through personalized learning so that every child in America can receive the world-class public education they deserve," Education Secretary Arne Duncan said in a statement.

The original Race to the Top competition, announced in 2009, set out to provide more than $4 billion in grants to states that undertook ambitious education reforms. Dozens of states changed laws, introduced new teacher evaluation programs and lifted caps on charter schools to qualify for a slice of the funds.

Congress approved about $550 million for Race to the Top this year, and the Education Department expects to use about $383 million of it for grants to districts that propose ambitious reforms to personalize learning, narrow the achievement gap and prepare students for college. The rest will go toward the department's early learning competition.

School districts in states that received money in previous years will still be eligible to apply. Districts can propose programs that affect all or just some of their schools, and can also band together to apply for grants. Proposals geared to specific grades or subject areas also will be considered.

To be eligible, districts must put in place evaluation systems to measure performance of teachers, principals and superintendents by the 2014-2015 school year. The Education Department also planned initially to require school board evaluations and personalized learning plans for students, but officials said they eliminated both requirements based on public objections.

It remains to be seen whether the district-level competition will be alluring enough to entice districts to enact sweeping reforms, said Michael Petrilli, executive vice president at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a Washington-based think tank.

"It seems that the response from the districts has been somewhat anemic, "Petrilli said. "Simply put, there's just much less money at stake than there was for the states."

School districts are expected to signal their intent to apply by the end of August, with applications due on Oct. 30. Districts will find out whether they've been selected for a grant by the end of the year.

Rock Hill School District News For Wednesday, August 22, 2012

From Elaine T. Baker, Director of Information Services, Rock Hill Schools

Congratulations to . . .

Julie Marshall, recipient of the California Casualty Award for Teaching Excellence. Dr. Marshall, a teacher interventionist and literacy coach at Rosewood Elementary, will be honored along with 37 other national awardees at the NEA Foundation's Salute to Excellence in Education Gala in Washington, DC, on February 8. At the conclusion of the gala, one finalist will be honored as the nation's top educator and receive $25,000. Good luck to Julie, who by the way, was the District Teacher of the Year in 2010-11 and a state teacher of the year finalist.

 

Saturn Educational Leadership Academy

Beginning in October, Winthrop University will offer the "Saturn" Educational Leadership Academy for teachers in York County to participate in a cohort of prospective education leaders. 

 

District Passes

• Club 65 - This is the new pass for seniors age 65 and older. It is now available in Information Services in the district office. However, old "Gold Club" cards can be exchanged for the new Club 65 card at high school football games.
• VIP - These passes are issued to retirees, Teachers of the Year, and to a few others who do something really special for the district and who are not paid for their services. These cards are to be accepted at all district-sponsored performances and athletic events. 

BBQ Fundraiser

Parent boosters for the Rock Hill High Band of Distinction will host a BBQ fundraiser on Friday, Aug. 24, and Saturday, Aug. 25, at Hopewell Presbyterian Church on S. Anderson Road.

 

American Presidential Experience

The American Presidential Experience, the largest traveling exhibit of presidential icons in the nation, will be in Charlotte August 31-Sept. 8.  The exhibit is made up of more than 35 non-partisan exhibits, including a replica of Air Force One, the Oval Office, the Presidential Limousine, and First Ladies' gowns. This exhibit is being promoted as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for educators to attend with their families or take their students on a field trip. For more information, go to www.presidentialexperience.com or call 202.841-2344.

 

Lecture Series

The district will, again this year, offer a Lecture Series. The first presentation will be held on Thursday, Sept. 27, at South Pointe High. The topic will be on Teaching in China, and the presenters will be many of the 40 teachers and 4 administrators who taught in China this summer.  

 

Staying Informed

District employees need to be informed about what's happening in the district, so please check out the district's website (www.rock-hill.k12.sc.us) and Facebook page often and notice the special tabs on our website. The iRock tab, for example, has information added as questions arise about this new initiative. In addition, employees are welcome to attend school board work sessions and meetings. The next business meeting of the board will be at 6 p.m. Monday, August 27, in the district office.

 

 

Lesslie, Old Pointe, and Sunset Park Elementary School Traffic Patterns To Change This Year!

From Anthony J. Cox, P.E., Associate Superintendent for Administrative Services, Rock Hill Schools

Everyone is excited about the first day of school, and Facilities and Custodial Services Departments have been 'climbing' a mountainous workload over the summer.  Most all of our projects have been completed.  Every effort has been made to accommodate our returning teachers, students and their parents.  There are three schools which have seen a shift in traffic pattern which will be very visible tomorrow (Wednesday) and which I'd like to call to your attention:

 

1. Lesslie Elementary School.  Although as challenging in scale as the Ebinport Elementary School project, and even more technically complex, we were hoping to be completely done with the traffic access portion by today (Tuesday).  Unfortunately, a very intense permitting process  and a near record frequency of daily rainfall have combined to leave us about 6-10 working days short.  We met this morning and have developed a plan for temporary traffic flow through the site.  We will have a Sheriff's Deputy on site tomorrow for traffic control and there will be no paving operations on site for the next few days.  At any rate we expect a much improved flow and traffic management than last year's "before" condition!
2. Sunset Park Center for Accelerated Studies.  Work on this site is 99% complete and the new traffic pattern will be completely in use.  We have switched the bus loop and car rider loops at the school and constructed a new entrance for car riders off of Barnes St. which wraps around the school, designed to "stack" traffic on our property rather than on Barnes and Friedham Streets. 
3. Old Pointe Elementary School.  A traffic snarl that has occurred for some years at Old Pointe Elementary School Road and Heckle Blvd. was addressed by the local Traffic Commission and SCDOT and we were provided a "solution" by them that splits the traffic flow leaving the site.  This has been fully coordinated with the City, SCDOT and the school administration.  Basically, all car rider traffic will enter the same way as last year, down Old Pointe School Road and up into the front driveway of the school.  At the top of the loop, traffic will split to two lanes.  After dropping off/picking up, the lane closest to the school will be directed out through the connecting road which goes past the Aquatics Center and exits to Rawlinson Road.  This road will be an exit only for car riders.  The other lane will return the way it came in and exit back onto Heckle Blvd from Old Pointe School Road. This should reduce the "snarl" greatly.  City Police will be on hand to direct traffic and help with this transition.

 

Thanks again for your help and support of our schools!

 

Tony Cox