Once a year, Anson County's two largest governing bodies— the Board of Commissioners and Board of Education— meet to go over the latest and greatest goings-on in the school system, and to take care of a little business at the same time.

This year's meeting was held on March 5, in the Charles Riddle Staff Development Center at the Anson County Schools district office on Camden Road.

Board chairs, Anna Baucom of the county commissioners and Lisa Davis of the school board, started off the meeting by offering welcoming words. Baucom praised the school board and administration. "We look forward to sharing information and learning from you," she said.

Davis added, on behalf on the Board of Education, "This is a wonderful opportunity to come together as two boards and ... have an open discussion and dialogue."

Baucom had told Davis that she'd like for the county commissioners to hear about what's going on in the school system so Superintendent Dr. Greg Firn had several department heads speak during the meeting about the many positive things going on in Anson County Schools.

Singing the school

system's praises

"Tonight, you'll just get just a snapshot of some of the great things that are taking place," Dr. Firn explained. "The reason why we wanted to take the opportunity to do this is that we are very mindful of the current situation, both in the county and as a state, so sometimes, we don't always get to celebrate."

Deputy Superintendent Frances Williamson took the floor first, talking about the school system's work in total instructional learning, a process that helps teachers come up with a consistent instructional plan. All teachers, K-8, looked at each area of instruction and "came up with a plan," Williamson explained.

By the end of the summer, she said, the school system will have instructional plans for all four core areas completed. "It is a wonderful resource for us to have for all of our teachers, especially our new teachers," Williamson added, stating that all of the plans will be online, which will be convenient for teachers to use on their own or share with others.

Three educators from Colorado will be visiting the county's schools later this month to observe what the school system has done with its social studies curriculum.

Michael McLeod, executive director for individual and organization accountability, talked to the two boards about the Make Your Day program. "One of the strong components of the Make Your Day system is consistency," he explained. "Students would like to know that wherever they go throughout the school system, they will be treated the same."

Through the program, all students face "the same consequences, not punishment," McLeod said. "It's an opportunity for students to reflect and think," he said. The program is built on three concepts— 1) no one has the ability to interfere with a student's learning, 2) dignity and 3) respect.

"With dignity and respect, you give students a chance, away from class, to ask 'Mr. McLeod, why am I in trouble?'" he explained.

The program has helped students stay in school, McLeod said, later adding that because of the program, the school system has been awarded a grant for dropout prevention.

K-12 Support Teacher Cynthia Springer explained her job duties, which include working with teachers to ensure that they get their licensure. She also works on the staff development calendar, and is responsible for reviewing literacy, math and writing assessments. In response to a question from one of the board members, Springer said that 99 percent of the county's teachers are highly qualified, which means they have the appropriate license for the course they are teaching or are working toward that license.

Glendora Hagins, director of the exceptional children's department, explained the services offered through her department, which includes children who are homebound due to medical conditions, as well as special education for students who are disabled.

As of Dec. 1, 2008, 699 students were taking part in the exceptional children's program.

Joslyn Allen, director of business and community partnerships, explained that she works with local agencies to ensure that needy children in the school system have Christmas gifts, school supplies and other services. She's also attended workshops on gangs and helps teachers on their modeling plans. Allen said she works with literacy programs and reading assessments, as well.

Director of AIG and Special Programs Georgia Maner explained to the boards the programs that she works with in the school system, including AVID, Scholars Academy, and honors and AP classes, among others.

AVID, which stands for Advancement Via Individual Determination, is "a program for children in the middle," Maner said, who usually have a grade point average of 2.0-2.8. "We try to give them support," she explained. "We put them in the highest-level classes for their grade level."

"It's supposed to take these children that have never been to college or have never taken advanced classes... [and help them] be able to be successful in college-level advanced classes," Maner said.

Maner also heads up the gifted program, AIG, and the Scholars Academy, which allows children as low as seventh grade to take high school-level courses, such as algebra and Spanish. The school system is offering online classes, as well.

School board member Michael Livingston asked about the difficulty of online courses, to which Maner responded that teachers and county staff are able to help out students who may have difficulty with those courses.

"Last semester, we had a 76-percent success rate with our online courses," Maner stated.

Dr. Firn pointed out that Maner had also headed up the laptop program. "Our Scholars students in the ninth and 10th grade all have laptops," he said. "We now have the most robust high school and middle school. If you live within a mile of either of the schools, you can actually run off our network."

Cynthia Hampton, director of career and technical education, spoke to the board about tech prep grants. "Anson County Schools is one of very few schools in North Carolina that has received the tech prep grant," she explained. "What it does is, it increases our secondary remediation rate. It transitions our children from Anson High School into South Piedmont Community College ... and it helps their academic and technical competencies."

This year, every student in grades 10-12 will take an "accu-placement test," which should accurately predict where that student should transition after high school, Hampton said.

The school system will also be producing a DVD that will be distributed to all students at the high school. "The opportunity for students is tremendous ... because they're going to have hands-on experience next to a professional," she said. "It's going to showcase all aspects of the career and technical education department."

Jeanne Price, director of testing, media and technology, shared with the two boards about a program called E-Rate, which brings in funding for telecommunications to public schools and libraries.

Executive Director for Teaching and Learning Michael Freeman told the commissioners and school board about several programs in place in Anson County Schools, including online job postings, which he said allows him to recruit from home, without having to travel. Freeman also touted the Fast ForWord program, a computer-based program that helps children learn to read better. Using the program, 52.5 percent of students with disabilities at Peachland-Polkton Elementary School performed at or above grade level on the end-of-grade tests in 2007-08 and the school met its adequate yearly progress (AYP) for the first time in four years. The school system is a National Reference Site for the program, meaning that it is a model for other school systems nationwide.

Beulah Pratt, who represents the Morven area on the school board, asked how Morven Elementary is doing on the program. Dr. Firn responded that many students there are spending at least an hour a day using Fast ForWord and results are already being seen.

Dr. Firn also talked about a program called Head Sprouts, which is helping pre-K and kindergarten students learn to read. "Imagine what Anson County will look like when every kindergartner can read," he said.

Down to business

Last but not least, Finance Officer Holly Berry came before the two boards to ask both to approve withdrawing from the school system's ADM (corporate tax) fund and lottery funds to help pay for needed projects.

"Each of these projects are community facilities," Dr. Firn said. "These are facilities that are used by the community of Anson County."

The projects include:

• $200,000 for bond repayment, including $150,000 in state funds and $50,000 in local funds.

• $60,000 to finish the school system's technology project.

• $173,000 to replace the Anson High School gymnasium's roof, skylight, windows and operable ventilating sash.

• $9,249 to install a fence to secure the Anson High School campus from the parking lot.

• $32,195 to replace the auxiliary gym floor at Anson High School.

• $60,000 to replace steam and condensate piping at Anson High School.

• $26,000 to correct walkway drainage at Anson High School.

• $30,150 to replace the locker room roof and exhaust fans at Anson Middle School.

• $22,500 to replace the drainage system for the A Building and gym at Anson Middle School.

• $55,000 to install an HVAC system in the Anson Middle School gym.

• $56,000 to replace the gymnasium roof at Wadesboro Elementary.

• $58,498 to replace the bleachers in the Wadesboro Elementary gym.

•$188,000 to replace the roof and HVAC system at the Anson Science Center.

County Commissioner Dr. Jim Sims did express concern over whether or not money would be left in the account if it were needed. Berry stated $93,000 would be left over in the lottery fund and about $168,000 in ADM.

"In my opinion, if we don't go ahead and do these projects... [the state] can tap into [this money]," Berry said.

"We don't need to leave the current balance so that the state can dip into that," Sims said. "We need to be careful we don't have a big emergency because next year will be tough for everybody."

Commissioner Ross Streater asked, "So, if other counties don't use their money, the state will take it back?"

Berry responded that the state had already taken the February allocation.

After a brief discussion, Berry pointed out that the state still had to approve these projects, as well.

When school board member Rob Rollins asked if these projects will address potential problems, Dr. Firn responded, "That's correct," going on to say that the needs have been assessed and these projects came back as "priority one."

After both the county commissioners and school board recessed and reconvened individually, all of the projects were approved unanimously by both boards.

The meeting adjourned at about 8:30 p.m.