CALDWELL COUNTY SCHOOLS



Caldwell County Schools

High School Principals’ Meeting

September 10, 2013

I. Superintendent’s Office – Dr. Steve Stone

• Graduation Rate – Dr. Stone shared the graduation rate in comparison to the state by subgroups. Caldwell County Schools was above the state percentage in all subgroups.

• Leadership Development Program –The AP/Teacher Leader Development Program will begin at the end of the month. Those interested should complete the application and return it to the Superintendent’s Office. Applicants will be notified of acceptance.

II. Curriculum – Katrina McEllen, Craig Bryson, and Administrators

• Technology

o Facebook – Administrators asked about Facebook access during school hours. Administrators should voice their opinions to either Libby Brown or Dr. Stone.

o Printers – Printers in the classrooms are quickly dying. Technology is looking into purchasing volume printers to be shared among departments. As printers are no longer usable, teachers will be sharing printers with their neighboring teachers.

• Testing

o Final Exams and Testing Schedule – The legislation has dictated the testing schedule for the state. All EOC’s and Common Exams must be completed within the last 5 days of the semester for traditional schools. All makeups for absences must be completed within these same 5 days. Teacher-made exams do not have to follow this guideline. Proctors can be “roaming” between two classrooms and go back and forth between the rooms. Re-tests are gone. English II results will not be back before grades are due if the testing is done in the later part of the five days as the tests still have to be sent off to be graded. There will be at least a 48 hour delay in scores.

▪ Start talking to your testing coordinator and begin looking at a testing schedule for your school.

o Read over the Business Rules for updates on the Accountability Model and how participation and performance indicators were measured.

▪ DPI will draft a letter to send home about the participation guidelines.

o Counselor Duties – AP Testing and PSAT – According to the interpretation of the new legislation for counselors, counselors cannot be the coordinator for any test which includes both Advanced Placement and PSAT. Counselors can still administer and/or proctor the exams.

▪ Please make sure that one of your administrators has logged into College Board and checked AP courses for your school. They need to make sure that all AP courses at your school have been approved to receive AP credit.

o FRC Codes and WorkKeys – Please make sure the correct code for concentrators and non-concentrators are used as this is how students are pulled for WorkKeys testing. Counselors and CDC’s must code them first and communicate with the Data Manager. Otherwise, data managers will not know how to properly code the students.

• ACT Scores – Principals should have received individual school reports with ACT results. Katrina shared the district results. As you meet with the teacher leaders in your school, please discuss ways that all teachers can assist students with ACT testing. This will be a topic of conversation at the High School Curriculum Council.

o GradPoint, our new credit recovery program, has free resources available for ACT Prep. All teachers have access to GradPoint. Teachers can also use this for their individual subject area (psychology, biology, US History, etc.) as well. Facilitators will need to upload staff lists in the program.

• School Improvement Plans – Update – Plans should be updated this school year. Don’t forget to post your plan, meeting dates, and team members on your website. Remember to not post your safe schools plan.

• Honors Portfolios – Teachers should be actively working on their Honors Portfolios. There are three parts to the portfolio: Curriculum Content, Instructional Materials and Methods, and Assessment. All honors courses must have the portfolio, including Honors Communications Skills. Teachers must provide a narrative, samples, examples, etc. for each honors courses that they teach.

o The AIG program is being audited this year so high school AP and honors courses will participate in this audit.

• Benchmark Development – Thank you for submitting names of teachers to assist with developing benchmarks for Math I, English II, and Biology. Teachers will come together on September 20 to develop these benchmarks. Half day substitutes will be paid for by Katrina.

• October 11 – Staff Development Day – Teachers will be meeting with their content area for the morning and will return back to their home schools in the afternoon for assessment training via Schoolnet. Administrators will lead this session. The teachers that develop benchmarks will be a good resource to help assist with training the other teachers. Katrina will develop training materials to assist administrators in leading this training.

• Early Release Days (High School Items for Director) – Please update the google doc with your plans for the Early Release Days. (Suggested topics: SchoolNet, PowerSchool, Honors Portfolios, ACT Prep, Technology, etc.)

• PRC 069 Plans – Don’t forget to provide an evaluation of your plan from the 2012-2013 school year by October 1. In your packet, you have a copy of this year’s form. A due date for this year’s plan (2013-2014) will be set once testing results are released.

• Artists in Schools – Etty – Sept. 25-26 – Show and Training – The schedule for this year’s traveling program is listed in your packet: September 25 at 9:30 at WCHS, September 25 at 1:30 at HHS and September 26 at SCHS – 8:15 SCHS students, 9:45 CCCMC and CECHS students. Please make sure that your theatres are full. This would be a good show for English II, World History, and US History courses. The teacher training will be on September 25 at 3:30. Teachers can sign up via a Google form that your school’s representative should forward to your staff.

• It Can Wait – No Texting While Driving – Sept. 19 – Please share this information with counselors. Website is

• Student Awards – Presidential Scholars Program and Prudential Spirit of Community - Please send nominations for the Presidential Scholars to Katrina by October 1 so that we can select the district’s representative by the DPI deadline. A committee will decide on the which student will represent the district.

• Discussion Items –

o Graduation 2014 – Honors, Recognitions, and Speeches – Administrators discussed their plans for selecting who will speak at graduation. This is the first year without valedictorian and salutatorian. Schools plan to incorporate honors into the capping ceremonies, scholarship night, etc. Some schools will meet with their senior class officers to determine speakers. One school plans to have the seniors select a faculty member to speak to the class.

III. Gateway School – Libby Carter and Katrina McEllen

• 2013-2014 School Year – Libby Carter explained the new schedule and the new school within a school concept for Gateway School this year. Gateway School has a four period day schedule this year allowing courses to have 71 minutes each. With the new accountability for teachers (i.e. Standard 6), it’s important that teachers and students have adequate time to teach the standards. There is an advisory time scheduled in the day to address student needs and improve students’ skills so that they are better able to transition back to their home schools. The school within a school concept allows those students who are at Gateway strictly for credit recovery to recover credits through GradPoint. The students are in the lab for 3 periods of the day and then have one class outside of the lab. Gateway has filled their slots for credit recovery at this point in time. If schools wish to send students for credit recovery only for second semester, schools will need to send one of their credit recovery slots.

o Robert Semple added that Gateway is not a public separate setting school. Robert discussed the distinction between change in student placement and student assignment.

• Scheduling Support – To assist Libby Carter during her absences, the high schools will take turns supporting and offering assistance as needed. If Libby will be absent, she will contact the appropriate school to ensure that Gateway School has administrative support during her absence. The schedule is as follows:

o September – Hibriten

o October – West Caldwell

o November – South Caldwell

IV. High School District Review Team – Claricea Mitchell

• Process and Role of Transition Specialist – Claricea Mitchell reviewed the live binder site with information about the referral process for the high school district review team. Claricea also reviewed her role as transition specialist serving both Horizons and Gateway. She currently has 23 students on her case load. These students include not only Gateway students but also students who have enrolled in our school district for other districts.

V. Professional Learning Community – Katrina McEllen and Administrators

Graduation Rate

• Last year, DPI interviewed district and school administrators serving schools with the highest graduation rates from across the state. The interviews and information was compiled and published in a report. Katrina shared responses from several schools and districts with the group.

VI. Questions, Concerns, and Celebrations

• Hibriten is doing a 9/11 remembrance ceremony tomorrow. Students will watch a video and then line the main hall. The firefighter academy and band students will play tribute to those who lost their lives on this day.

• Brian Suddreth shared information about the local company that is filing Ch. 11 and the impact that it will have on this community.

• Chris Ackerman suggested that the district honor those people who have provided training to all school employees on PowerSchool. These individuals have gone above and beyond the call of duty to ensure that all employees have the necessary training to use PowerSchool.

• The HHS PTA is hosting a session on Thursday for the school community to interact with local elected officials (Rep. Starnes and Soucek).

VII. Next Steps

• Next High School Principals’ meeting – October 9 – 9:00am-11:30am

• Evaluation

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