Brooke schools outline goals, plans to board
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WELLSBURG -- Brooke Intermediate South and Brooke Primary North both presented their Local School Council reports to the Brooke County Board of Education on Monday.
The reports listed both of the schools' goals and plans to implement policies and programs to encourage the involvement of parents in their child's educational process in the school, encourage businesses to provide release time for employees who are parents to meet with teachers concerning their child's education, encourage advice and suggestions from the business community, encourage school volunteer and teacher mentorship programs and foster the use of school facilities and grounds for public community activities.
Included in the reports were the results of students' benchmark tests, such as the Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening [PALS] and General Information Aptitude test.
Both the Brooke Intermediate South Principal Scott Donohew and Brooke Primary North Principal Jo-Ellen Connolly said benchmark scores do not represent the entire knowledge of a student.
"We just got our mid-year PALS back and what struck me is the first-grade scores went down considerably from the beginning of the year," said Connolly.
However, when Connolly looked into the reasoning behind the lower scores, she found the questions on the PALS covered curriculum that the students have not yet covered in class.
"We expect by the end of the year to have mastered the material," noted Connolly.
In other matters at Monday's meeting, the West Virginia Department of Education awarded Brooke Intermediate South for exceeding standards in attendance, Brooke Primary North for meeting standards in English and math and Brooke Intermediate North for also meeting standards in English and math.
Brooke Intermediate South is one of 51 schools to earn the distinguished award this year, and one of 11 to be an elementary school.
Following the awards, the board voted to appoint a Interim Deputy Superintendent.
Interim Superintendent Jeffrey Crook said the person best fit for the job will be offered the position, no matter their county.
In addition, the board voted that the payment for teachers giving up their planning periods and tutoring after school will be raised from $20 to $25.
At the end of the meeting, Board President Ted Pauls thanked the communty for passing the excess levy on Saturday.
"Very happy to see it," he said.
Board member Chris Byers also said a few words regarding the votes.
"It [the levy] gives us tools to work with, to make the changes we know need to happen to make our school system better," said Byers.
Brooke County voters overwhelmingly approved the county schools' excess levy with 70 percent casting ballots in favor.
The final vote was 2,410 in favor of the levy and 1,017 against it, according to unofficial results from the county clerk's office.