FAIRMONT — A visit to the nationwide Model Schools Conference is already paying off for Marion County Schools.
Monday night time on the common faculty board assembly, two principals gave a presentation about new initiatives they’re bringing to their colleges after attending a nationwide convention.
Teams have been invited to attend the Model Schools Conference held in Orlando, Florida this previous June. Now School Superintendent Donna Hage is giving every principal an opportunity to flex their features from the latest journey since faculty has closed out its first six weeks.
Monday’s presenters have been White Hall Elementary Principal Nan Murray and Pleasant Valley Elementary Principal Kim Middlemas.
Middlemas was joined by considered one of her academics, Krista Blankenship, who started a undertaking to carry a component of agriculture to the scholars at Pleasant Valley. She hopes to develop a excessive tunnel, which is a pop-up greenhouse-like construction used for year-round planting and cultivation.
She obtained the thought to take the scholars on a visit to the botanical gardens in Morgantown and the scholars wished to return, so she thought, “Why not carry one to Pleasant Valley?”
Once the undertaking is full, each classroom may have its personal raised mattress the place the scholars decide what to develop. The long-term purpose is to develop meals that may then be bought to the cafeteria and used to make the college lunches.
Blankenship was joined by Chuck Cineawski with the Monongahela Conservation District, who talked in regards to the perks of such a undertaking. Cineawski ended his dialogue with a shock verify presentation to Pleasant Valley Elementary for $5,000 towards the undertaking.
Blankenship was shocked.
“This leaves us in a position to perform the undertaking. Our funds began out fairly small and initially our reply was a no, however now they’ve come again with this big sum of money,” she stated. “This is simply very humbling to know there are such a lot of those who need this undertaking to succeed.”
The whole value of the undertaking is estimated to be simply over $5,000. This donation places the college in vary of the purpose.
Murray targeted on “reaching the trials of quadrant C and D,” which is a subject that was outlined as educating college students greater ranges of pondering.
“Instead of doing worksheets and rote memorization, we attempt to take the following step and ensure the scholars are growing one thing,” Murray stated. “We need them to essentially take it to the following stage.”
One of the examples she gave was pupil management alternatives.
On prime of those greater pondering abilities, White Hall Elementary will concentrate on accommodating college students with autism higher with focused educating kinds. Murray cited an inflow of scholars with autism attending her faculty this yr.
Hage stated that these tasks present the worth {of professional} growth. One of her duties when employed by the district in June 2021 was to deal with worker morale, which had slumped even earlier than the pandemic.
This method of handing issues off to the individuals who intimately know the challenges that have to be addressed greatest has confirmed efficient and Monday’s displays are instance of that.
“Something I’m very captivated with is treating the academics just like the consultants they’re,” Hage stated. “I feel that what we get from an expertise like Model School is invaluable to us as a district.”
In different enterprise:
- The board accepted the continuation of the $500 bonus pay to workers who’ve 4 or fewer absences all through the college yr. The similar profit is supplied to academics by legislation.
- The board accepted the continuation of a $800 stipend to workers who work above and past their anticipated duties.
- The board accepted a number of coverage revisions, the ultimate few in a sequence of ongoing revisions to replace handbooks with state requirements.
The board’s subsequent assembly shall be Monday, Oct. 17 at 6 p.m.