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NHCS Turnaround Task Force reorganizes, sets new goals

WHQR | By Rachel Keith

Published September 3, 2024 at 1:59 PM EDT

NHCS Board member Stephanie Walker and Scott Whisnant lead discussion on new goals for turnaround task force.

Last month, the New Hanover County Schools Turnaround Task Force met with its newest members and set four main goals to work on this school year: ensuring every child enters kindergarten at grade level, achieving literacy at all levels, creating a positive culture in every classroom/school, and graduating high school seniors can access college or trade/certification programs.

*Editor's Note: This article has been updated to include information about the parent liaison team and enrollment numbers from the Watson College of Education.

Pre-k & literacy

One of the task force leaders, Scott Whisnant, former director of government affairs at NHRMC, said the goal surrounding getting kids ready for kindergarten, i.e., pre-K programs, might be “the first among equals.”

Another task force leader, New Hanover County school board member Stephanie Walker, said the consistently low wages for pre-K employees are unsustainable. Jane Morrow, a new member of the task force and the executive director of NHC Smart Start, said, “We pay people who flip our hamburgers more than we pay the people who care for our children.”

In addition to wages, the supply of new teachers is also an issue. Chris Furr, a retired NHCS principal and another new task force member, said that UNCW, on average, graduates five students in early childhood education each year. Furr, who also teaches an education course at UNCW, said that general enrollment in the Watson College of Education has dropped.

A spokesperson for UNCW said enrollment has declined by 208 students since 2019. This fall, Watson has 961 students enrolled — but said they are still finalizing these numbers.

Another emerging issue is the reality that NHCS can’t offer as many pre-K classes this school year because of the loss of the $3.5 million federal Head Start grant. It's a serious issue for families that rely on these services.

“What do they do if they can't find a place for their child to go [while at] work? That's going to affect the workforce. And if we want to stay number one or now two in the country for business, then we have to think about that,” Walker said.

Most education experts agree that pre-K sets the foundation for success in K-12 education. The district’s K-5 literacy curriculum specialist, Maureen Hill, said hitting NHCS’s strategic plan goal of 90% of third graders reading 'on level' takes years of build-up. She said she’d like to see an expansion of summer school services for K-1 students.

“There are ways for us to use our existing structure of second and third-grade summer camp to extend down to K-1 so that our neediest kids get that remediation early. But I also think we can capitalize on after-school opportunities. We don't need to come up with grand ideas; let's use the structures that already exist in our community and better use those resources,” she said.

Hill mentioned the need for financial incentives for these foundational teachers.

“Our K-2 teachers get no incentives; there is no bonus money that comes along with it. And if we say, and the research is clear, those are our most important years, instead of setting our students up for success, the state doesn't honor that in any way. And so, what can our community do to lift up highly qualified teachers to keep them in the classroom from pre-K to second?” she asked.

Interim superintendent Dr. Christopher Barnes attended the meeting and said that any money coming to the schools would be “best used to provide support and resources for the teachers that are already there.”

He added, “The state does not fund public schools to meet the needs of the students in those schools, even us. The state will send us the dollar amount, saying, ‘This is how many teacher assistants (TAs) you can afford. You should have 165 regular TAs for the entire district.’ Well, that only affords 140 TAs because we pay them more than the state, which is about $1 more on average. So I think while stipends are great, if you asked 100 teachers today, 75% or more of them would say, ‘I don't need more money. I need more support.’”

While the members agreed that financial staff support is part of the conversation, Morrow said smaller investments can be made to help children read on grade level.

“The research shows that even something like having books in the home, even if you don't have other things, [helps]. So, the Dolly Parton program we administer is funded for and reaches between 55% and 60% of the kids from birth through five in New Hanover County. It costs about $25 to $35 a year per kid. What would it be like if we were at 85%? What if we got that last little bit?” she said.

The task force members on August 14, 2024.

School culture

Whisnant proposed having the model CHAMPS training program so schools can become trauma-informed. Assistant Superintendent Julie Varnam supports the program, which addresses problematic student behavior and how to reach parents about issues with their students.

Whisnant added that another goal of the task force is to procure funding for more behavior specialists and family liaisons—staff who help support parents who don’t necessarily speak English. Several district principals have voiced concerns at prior meetings about the importance of having this staff.

According to Christina Beam, a district spokesperson, there are six of the positions, four full-time and two part-time. There is also one liaison at the Pre-K level. "NHCS did not reduce the number of [the liaison] positions, but we do currently have one vacancy. Some staff who were part-time liaisons chose to apply for full-time positions elsewhere in the district, creating these vacancies that we’ve worked to fill over the summer."

She added that school principals can decide to have their own liaison, paying them through their federal Title 1 budget.

Additionally, the district has only two behavior specialists for nearly 25,000 students — they used to have three, but they lost one in the last budget cycle.

Whisnant said he wanted the task force to know about the county's mental health services wait lists. New Hanover County provides clinical licensed mental health therapists for elementary and middle schools, and Coastal Horizons provides services for high school students.

According to a county spokesperson, “There is a 5-person list at the International School at Gregory. No other NHCS has a waiting list at this time.”

As for Coastal Horizons, a spokesperson said, “Wilmington Health Access for Teens of Coastal Horizons (WHAT) does not have a waitlist for NHCS students seeking mental health services at any of the schools with a WHAT Clinic. While additional staff would be beneficial, if a student cannot be seen at a school-based clinic, they will be accommodated at our main office at 1414 Medical Center Drive or via telehealth.”

Whisnant said the task force has found school culture is the biggest concern mentioned by parents, teachers, and other staff. One solution the task force proposes is to see the ‘Leader in Me’ program at a school like Snipes Elementary. Parent-teacher associations (PTAs) at Porters Neck and Holly Tree Elementary help to provide this program at their schools.

Whisnant said Combs Elementary, in Wake County, improved from its lower-performing status when it adopted the program.

“Now it's in the top quartile, and it voluntarily desegregated, which is to say, parents in Wake County seek that school out, and they get their kid there,” he said.

Walker added that NHCS magnet schools like Freeman and Snipes are not ‘truly’ magnets because they do not attract students and families outside that district. Whisnant said both principals at those schools “will tell you they don't have a single student there because of the magnet status. It’s zero. So, this [program] would be a reset at Snipes. It's like $40,000 for one year, over $102,000 over four years to do this.”

Barnes agreed that the ‘Leader in Me’ program is good but mentioned that it “focuses first on changing the adults before it talks about the kids, so it would take a little while, I think, to get the Snipes teachers bought into the concept of the reason for it. It is a lot of money, but it is unparalleled in helping kids learn to own their behavior, which will be game-changing for Snipes. But I think that it does take a little bit of work on the adult side first.”

Facilitating transition from high school

Another task force goal is getting more graduating seniors into trade schools and college. The members discussed how high school seniors are tracked after they leave the K-12 system.

Varnam said that the main focus for high school counselors is serving students while in the district. Communities In Schools of Cape Fear Executive Director Louise Hicks and Director of Operations Marrio Jeter, who are also members of the task force, said they do some work with case management with students during this transition.

Another new member, UNCW’s Angel Garcia, said he works with district high school students to prepare them for the future. He said ninth grade is an important year for determining success in terms of graduation and post-graduation plans. Because of this, he said he’s trying to focus on the transition from 8th to 9th grade, echoing the sentiments of Hill — the K-5 literacy curriculum specialist — who wants to focus on earlier years for success on 3rd-grade reading scores.

Future school bond and facility work

While the task force’s current focus has been on improving educational outcomes, returning member and New Hanover County commissioner Rob Zapple asked if the team could consider improving the district’s facilities.

“I don't see anything referring to facilities, bricks, and mortar, or however you want to define it. We know it's a dramatic need here in New Hanover County,” he said.

Whisnant agreed that the district has significant facility needs, but schools like Freeman and Snipes’ buildings are good. However, ones like Forest Hills and Wrightsboro could use work. He said the task force’s responsibility “has been more wired toward thinking programmatically.” He also added that some of the schools the task force focuses on have historically seen under-enrollment.

Zapple added that he’s “trying to look ahead," saying, "I know that some of the information from this task force will be included in the conversation coming at us for a school bond.”

He highlighted the need to rehabilitate Pine Valley Elementary, Mary C. Williams, and finally build River Lights Elementary.

“For Pine Valley, they've been promised a new campus for ten years, and they need it. They're part of that old-style unsafe design, and a lot has to happen. Mary C. Williams falls into that same category,” he said. “And then, of course, the ever-elusive land down there at River Lights. What the Sam Hill are we going to do with that? We should not ignore the needs that we have facility-wise here in New Hanover County.”

Earlier this year, WHQR asked for the estimated costs for River Lights, Mary C. Williams, and Pine Valley. Each project will be about $50 million, according to the district. They also estimate about $90 million for New Hanover High. Since the county approved the Master Plan process for NHHS, more robust estimates should be forthcoming in the next six months.

What’s next

Whisnant said the committees focusing on each of the task force's four goals need to consider grant proposals for the New Hanover Endowment, the $1.3-billion community foundation formed from the sale of the New Hanover Regional Medical Center to Novant several years ago.

“So I wonder if by December we [the committees] can have these fleshed out with dollars attached to it. What would it cost to do this? That may be ambitious, but that's the idea,” he said.

At the board’s agenda review in August, Walker told the board she had revamped the task force’s membership. They’re hoping to meet each month on the second Wednesday.

Board member Pat Bradford asked board attorney Norwood Blanchard if more than three members could attend the meeting without noticing the public. Blanchard said he would have to check. WHQR contacted the district and Blanchard for comment but has not heard back.

State law says that a meeting is considered open if a quorum of members is present and hearing information that affects decision-making (a quorum is almost always a simple majority, for the seven-member school board that would be four people). According to Attorney General Josh Stein’s 2019 Open Government Guide, an official meeting is defined as a majority of members gathering for “conducting hearings, participating in deliberations voting upon public business, otherwise transacting public business.”

In the past year, the task force has avoided a quorum, inviting up to three members simultaneously.

Disclosure notice: Commissioner Zapple is a member of the WHQR Board of Trustees, which has no role in editorial decisions.

Below: Committee assignments for the task force's new focus areas.

NHCS Turnaround Task Force - August notes by Ben Schachtman on Scribd

WHQR’s prior reporting on NHCS task force