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Feb. 4, 2011
Chief Operating Officer – Hugh Hattabaugh
Child Nutrition
The U.S. Department of Agriculture is preparing to issue some new guidelines for meals at schools. These changes, which call for additional fruit and vegetable servings, will require minimal adjustment by CMS because Child Nutrition has already made many of the changes. Highlights of the new recommendations include fruits and vegetables offered as two separate food components, an additional fruit at breakfast, a weekly requirement for vegetable subgroups such as leafy greens and legumes, increased use of whole grains, sodium reduction and serving only one‐percent and skim milk. CMS already meets the weekly goal for dark green, legumes and orange vegetables. We have been serving whole‐ grain rolls for years, as well as whole‐grain pasta and brown rice. We already serve only one‐percent and skim milk. We have removed salt shakers from student access and no longer use salt in our vegetable recipes. We are now working with manufacturers to look at reduced‐sodium products. Tthis year, ala carte offerings in elementary schools have fewer than 200 milligrams of sodium. We will phase this into the secondary schools over the next two years. School lunch prices have remained constant for a decade. But a new law passed by Congress in January, together with the new dietary guidelines, is likely to result in price increases for school meals. Congress did not want the money intended to help children in poverty used to subsidize students who do not need it. The law, which passed in January, requires that the price charged to paying students match the subsidy amount. CMS receives $2.74 in subsidy funds for each lunch that is free or reduced in price, compared to the $2 charged to students who do not qualify for the subsidy. We have not yet received guidance from the Department of Public Instruction about when the price changes will go into effect or how long we have to phase them in.Chief Strategy and Accountability Officer – Robert Avossa
Grants List
Attached to the Update is a list of competitive grants for which CMS teachers, schools, and central teams applied beginning July 1, 2010. District and school staff members have secured approximately $1 million in new 2010‐2011 supplemental funding to address resource needs. The attached list does not include grants submitted by our community partners in collaboration with CMS, current entitlement/formula grants applied for during 2009‐2010 for current year funding or currently active, multi‐year grants funded before July 1. The majority of proposals listed are still pending. Many grant competitions for 2010‐2011are still being launched. Many grant opportunities, both private and public, have not been released for competition yet (spring and summer application deadlines are common). CMS applied for and was awarded more than $4.1 million in competitive, non‐formula grants for the 2009‐2010 school year. The grants team also worked with teachers and schools on more than $1.74 million in grant requests for 2009‐2010. We are working with executive leadership, staff, schools and CMS partners to actively pursue, support and track grant opportunities and we will keep you informed of further developments.Managing for Performance Portals
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Usage of the Managing for Performance portals and the new online assessment system has increased steadily since August 2010. The new formative assessment system, which uses an online platform called Thinkgate, began at the start of the 2010‐2011 school year. Its purpose is to guide curriculum and instruction decisions and to identify remediation needs. Usage numbers indicate a consistent increase in use of the platform for both district and school‐level assessments. As of January, 148 district tests had been created, compared to 56 in September. Teachers had created 3,028 classroom and common assessments as of January, compared to 442 in September. The number of district assessments taken was 457,642 in January, compared to 36,784 in September, and classroom tests rose to 26,445 in January compared to 24 in September. There were 1.4 million transactions in Thinkgate by January, up from 152,679 in September, and 436,713 reports created in January, compared to 6,493 in September. Through January 2011, the Managing for Performance portals had been accessed by 5,205 distinct users, including 4,337 teachers, 153 principals and 159 assistant principals. The remainder of users were facilitators and district staff. In January, the portals were accessed 16,475 times, with an average of 633 hits per day, by 2,806 distinct users.Chief Academic Officer – Ann Clark
School Transitions
Principals and their staffs are working to ensure that students affected by school closures experience a smooth transition to their new schools next year. We want to be sure that effective teaching and learning continue for the remainder of this year. Principals are currently formulating transition plans which include components such as family/ community information sessions, movement of materials/equipment and student course registration. Members of the Central Secondary Zone staff are working with principals to ensure the new schools are familiar with the closing schools’ community partners and programs. We are also working with the receiving school principals on scheduling and staffing. The zone superintendent has addressed the faculty at all of the schools to ease anxieties and also to gather information on students’ transition. Human Resources staff facilitated sessions on the transfer fair. There will be a parent meeting at John Taylor Williams on Feb. 24 at 6:00 pm. As an example of the activities planned for each school’s transition, here is the schedule for Harding: Feb. 7‐11: Unity Week for Harding students Feb. 11:‐ Student Shadow Day (12‐15 Waddell student leaders will shadow 12‐15 Harding student leaders and have lunch together) Week of Feb. 14: Harding administration will meet with groups of Waddell students to gauge student concerns, questions, etc. March 1: Welcome meeting with Waddell juniors, 8:30‐10:30, Harding gym March 2: Welcome meeting with Waddell sophomores, 8:30‐10:30, Harding gym March 3: Welcome meeting with Waddell freshmen, 8:30‐10:30, Harding gym March 10: Incoming parent meeting, 6:00‐7:30, Harding media centerTextbook Costs
The current K‐five Social Studies materials were adopted in 2002‐2003 and put in use in 2003‐2004 when the North Carolina Standard Course of Study for Social Studies was revised. Many of the current materials, including student textbooks and teacher resources, are out of print and we are no longer able to provide replacements or books for new schools. In 2007‐2008, we completed a Social Studies textbook adoption and decided to only purchase materials for grades six‐12. As part of the Common Core Standards initiative, North Carolina began revising the Social Studies curriculum to align with national standards in 2009‐2010. In December 2010, the State Board of Education approved the new Essential Standards for K‐12 Social Studies. The new K‐5 standards for teaching Social Studies shifted from a topical approach to a more conceptual/thematic approach, with an emphasis on critical thinking skills, global awareness and performance‐based learning. CMS decided to develop local summative assessments for Social Studies in grades K‐8. The K‐two assessments will be performance‐based and grades three through five will follow a more traditional standardized‐test format. New Social Studies materials were selected to align with the new Essential Standards and local summative assessments.Grades K‐2: Materials will be hands‐on with an emphasis on performance‐based tasks (non‐textbook format) Grades three and four: Materials will be new textbook resources (note: curriculum standards did not change dramatically) Grade five: Social Studies Alive! kits will emphasize US history, which will be the primary content for the grade level. The math textbook adoptions are necessary because the Common Core State Standards and the NC Essential Standards require a drastic change in the instructional strategies employed in math classes. Our students will be held to higher standards that require more modeling and application of math to real‐world situations. The middle school math adoption is a continuation of research‐based inquiry math that we have in K‐5 math with Investigations. In order for students to construct their own math knowledge, teachers must change their practice. This requires innovative curriculum materials. This adoption also included consideration for Math Forward and materials selected have Math Forward instruction practices integrated into the units. Algebra 1 required new materials because this course is taught in middle and high school. These adopted materials needed to meet the needs of advanced middle school students as well as standard‐level high school students. With the Future Ready Core and different high school graduation requirements, many courses are changing. This brought a need for new textbooks in language arts, math and Social Studies. Here are the costs for textbook adoption in each subject area: Middle school math: $3,033,678 High school math: $4,353,645 Algebra: $1,300,000 Elementary Social Studies: $2,700,000 Middle school language arts: $3,237,563 High school English: $3,706,700
McKinney‐Vento
The McKinney‐Vento Homeless Assistance Act addresses the education of homeless children and youth and seeks to remove barriers facing these students. It was reauthorized in 2002 as part of the No Child Left Behind Act. Students eligible for McKinney‐Vento services are identified at the school level. Each school has a trained liaison responsible for identifying and enrolling students into the McKinney‐Vento program. Kay Carreira is the district McKinney‐Vento liaison and coordinates services to ensure that homeless students enroll in school and have the opportunity to succeed academically. For the 2010‐2011 year, 3,564 students have been identified as McKinney‐Vento (as of Jan. 20). They are automatically eligible for nutrition assistance and transportation. CMS also provides after‐school tutoring and After School Enrichment Program scholarships to McKinney‐Vento students who have documented academic need. Asof January 20, 65 McKinney‐Vento students were receiving ASEP scholarships and 26 were receiving tutoring services.
