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09 June 2008
Congratulations to our 2008 Retirees: These fine professionals will be sorely missed.
• Primary School: Bonnie Odom, Anne Philpott, Martha Welch, and Pansy Paxson
• Elementary School: Rita Schaefer
• Middle School: Maxine Simmons, Carol Anderson, Karen Fain, Carolyn Stewart, and Kittye Slaughter
ELOST: collections were up this month from March and April. The May check was $355,256.
Enrollment: The Primary and Elementary Schools are almost exactly where they were at the beginning of last August. The Middle School declined by 20 and the High School by 87. Crossroads, the alternative school, gained by 25. Overall, the system has 77 fewer students than we did at the beginning of the year and 50 students fewer than we had last May.
CRCT Test Results: This is the GA-wide test given to all
children from 1st to 8th grade. It does not include the High School. Overall, we continue to do very well on this test. In fact, we did better than the state in every category in every single test.
• Primary School pass-rates were over 90% in every category.
• Elementary School pass-rates rates were over 92% in every category except for 3rd and 4th grade math and science. The reason for the slight drop in these scores was the new GPS tests. The new GPS standard, which aligns the curriculum with the standards that are tested on the CRCT, is a welcome departure from the haphazard approach that GA Dept of Education has had for many years. Finally, we are testing what we are teaching. However, the new GPS tests are much harder, and the number of correct answers required to pass the test is also much higher. Thus, the rigor of the test has increased.
(Note: Mr. Belton believes we must expect slightly, temporarily lower scores with increased rigor.)
• The Middle School, while not as high as the Primary and Elementary School, enjoyed the greatest gains over the past three years. Their reading and language arts pass-rates were over 91%. However, math – while much higher than two years ago – was down in 6th and 8th grade, and science was down in 8th grade. These lower scores were also attributed to the new GPS standards.
Social Studies scores in middle schools throughout the state were invalidated (state-wide) by State Superintendent Kathy Cox. According to Ms. Cox, this invalidation was because “misalignment between curriculum and assessment resulted in scores that are not trustworthy measures of student achievement”. In other words, the state-wide scores were so poor that the state threw out the test.
(Note: Overall, Mr. Belton is very proud of our CRCT scores. As stated before, Morgan County continues to do better than the state in every single category. Failure rates just three years ago were as high as 40% in some categories. Now they are in the low single digits in nearly every category in every grade.)
A year-by-year assessment will be accessible at the Morgan County BOE website at
www.morgan.k12.ga.us.
Teacher and Parent Surveys: The Superintendent conducted a system-wide anonymous teacher and parent survey. The survey results will be posted at www.morgan.k12.ga.us. The results are too numerous to tabulate in this forum, but a few of the highlights include:
PS = Primary
ES = Elementary
MS = Middle
HS = High
(All numbers are represented as percentages)
TEACHER SURVEY
PS ES MS HS
I look forward to going to work:
85 74 56 53
I would recommend this school to parents:
85 76 78 67
School offers quality education:
97 85 86 72
Discipline procedures are administered firmly:
88 82 64 19
Discipline procedures are administered fairly: 91 77 68 21
Discipline administered consistently:
85 77 60 12
Teachers treated with respect:
88 91 66 48
Discipline policy clearly communicated:
100 88 88 48
Students take responsibility for learning:
79 50 26 28
Students believe achievement reflects hard work:
58 50 36 29
Principal manages school effectively:
85 91 68 63
Principal sets behavioral standards:
85 85 56 53
Principal examines impact of policies:
91 85 56 69
Principal provides feedback:
91 82 72 55
(Note: Mr. Belton is very concerned with the extremely low scores in the teacher’s perception of discipline and student responsibility. It is very difficult to teach in an environment where there is poor discipline and students don’t care.)
(Note: Teacher survey participation was approximately 50%.)
PARENT SURVEY
PS ES MS HS
School offers a quality education:
98 98 96 78
I would recommend my school:
97 95 92 81
Discipline procedures are administered firmly:
50 50 44 29
Discipline procedures are administered fairly:
50 58 45 35
Discipline administered consistently:
45 50 36 24
School is safe:
86 92 76 54
Believe teachers are qualified:
84 85 59 56
Believe teachers care:
95 92 71 58
Parents respected by staff:
96 96 97 86
(Note: Parent participation was approximately 8-15% per school.)
2009 Budget Update: Even with the General Assembly mandating a 2.5% raise for all school employees (a move which the state did not pay for) and vastly increased fuel prices, our budget will only increase by 3.8%. This compares to 9.5% and 9.8% increases the two years before. Because we cut over half a million dollars from our 29.4 million dollar budget, the BOE will return the millage rate back to the rollback rate for the 3rd straight year.
(Note: The rollback rate means that - taken as an average - the BOE did not raise your taxes. Thus, Mr. Belton takes exception with the headline that read “School budget set to rise in 2009.” With a mandated 2.5% increase by the General Assembly - of course it did. A more fitting headline would have been “BOE keeps taxes at rollback rate”)
(Note: It is Mr. Belton’s opinion that Morgan County Board of Education is extremely frugal and fiscally responsible. He was a member of the budget committee, and was impressed by the effort the Superintendent made to cut the budget down to the rollback rate.)
Land Use-Fiscal Impact Report: The BOE heard a county-wide report that stated a household has to have a value of $765,000 in order for the taxes it generates to pay for a single child. Since the average house in Morgan County has 0.5 children, you can theoretically take that down to $378,000 per average household.
Action Items: All of these items were voted on unanimously:
• Price Increase for School Meals by 25 cents a meal. At a dollar and a quarter for lunch, this is easily the best deal in town. Reduced meal prices did not go up. Reduced meal prices are 30 cents for breakfast and 40 cents for lunch. Believe it or not, 43% of Morgan County kids are on the reduced meal program! Better yet, the school meal program PAYS FOR ITSELF in Morgan County. Phyllis Martin does a great job with this program.
• Out of County Tuition Options: The Board agreed to raise the academic standard from 75% to 85% GPA.
• Other minor administrative requests were discussed.
Executive Session: Personnel items were discussed.
From Mr. Belton,
I would like to make a point of comment. Someone recently indicated to me that the “Concerned Parent” movement had been a failure and that the leaders of that group had been “beaten up” as a result of their efforts. I politely disagree. As one of the leaders of the Concerned Parents, I can share with you that we had 4 main objectives:
• a comprehensive, system-wide teacher/parent survey
• better communication
• better discipline
• better curriculum
As discussed above, we now have a system-wide teacher/parent survey, and I would argue that communication and curriculum have greatly improved. I also maintain that discipline got better as a result of the Concerned Parent movement; (though recently it seems to have gotten worse.) I believe the recent survey numbers prove this point.
The administration has assured the BOE that they will make a deliberate and concerted effort to improve the apparent lack of discipline, and that plan will be ready and in-force by the beginning of August.
It is my belief that Americans get the government we insist upon. If no one has the courage to stand and be counted - then nothing will ever get changed. I believe the Concerned Parents made a positive difference to our schools.
I hope this is helpful. You may also review articles I have written about our schools at www.davebelton.com.
If you have any questions, I am always willing to take your call at 706-372-4114 or you can contact me at dave.belton@morgan.k12.ga.us. As I travel internationally, I will not always be able to immediately answer.
If you do not wish to receive these emails, please email me. I will not be offended. If others want to join this list, please have them email me.
Sincerely,
Dave Belton
Board of Education, 5th District, Morgan County
Disclaimer:
1. The above statements are not the opinions of the Morgan County Board of Education. They are solely the observations of Dave Belton who represents the 5th District of Morgan County. Dave Belton does not speak for the Board.
2. Once the Morgan County Board of Education has voted upon a policy, Dave Belton will support and defend that policy. It is Federal, State, and Local Policy that the Board should “Speak as One.” The best interests of the children we serve are best served when Board Members support each other and their Superintendent.
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